[Sussex] RDP on linux?

[Paul Tansom]

On Tue, 2005-05-24 at 16:01 +0100, Jon Fautley wrote:
<snip>
> > Is there any way of accessing my linux box from the lab I'm learning in?
> 
> Most probably :)
> 
> > I can't install any software on these computers, so I'm hoping there's a way of
> > installing software on my linux box that will let me access it via windows.
> > (Yes, I know there's telnet, but I'm really not happy to send my passwords over
> > that)
> 
> Java VNC client? Java SSH? Err... depends what the lab setup is like 
> really, if it's firewalled it proves a little more problematic...

VNC provides a web based server, although I've not actually checked that
for a while and the last time I used it was on an NT server about 5
years ago! This would be accessible via a browser, but with VNC on
Windows you may not need to use it as the VNC viewer is (or was) a stand
alone executable, so if you have diskette access to the machine or can
download a file from the web and run it, you could use that. The main
problem with VNC is that beyond the initial authentication it does not
encrypt any of the traffic, which is not so good when you are using the
desktop to input passwords or access data! VNC does tunnel nicely over
SSH though, in fact TightVNC has the -via parameter to do that within
the one command line (others may do to, that's just the one I use). On
Windows you can use PuTTY to create an SSH tunnel, but that won't help
much in your case. All in all I'd say and SSH access with a web client
as suggested (either Mindterm or JavaSSH - the site has been taken down
for a rebuild due to trademark issues, but the download is still there).

> > Is there a version of RDP that I can use the client's here in the lab to access?
> > if not, how about a cgi/php script that I can put on a server and access via
> > Internet Explorer?
> 
> I don't believe that anyone's implemented an open-source RDP server, 
> unfortunatly. Does the windows telnet client do krb-telnet? That's 
> encrypted, and uses Kerberos too, which is nice.. The other option is, 
> as you say, a PHP script on your machine - shouldn't be too hard to setup.
> 
> Can't you just download and run putty.exe and delete it when you're done?

I think you'll find that putty.exe makes changes to the registry to
store its connection info, and that may not be too popular. If you can
get away with it then PuTTY would be best, along with the VNC viewer
over an SSH tunnel if you want a GUI desktop. RDP is only client side on
Linux as you say.

I did come across a DOS based SSH client a few days back, I can't
remember where I was though, and I think I only bookmarked a page with
the link on rather than the page itself. I was reading about FreeDOS and
GEM at the time, having followed some links related to Amstrad CPC and
PCW machines. I can't seem to kick the retro bug, although I think its
more a case of anything that isn't Windows being interesting! Perhaps
Wintel would be more accurate, I'd love to find an affordable
motherboard that would run Linux and isn't x86 (or follow on). A nice
Power architecture one that doesn't cost the earth (like the few
available next generation Amiga boards do).

-- 
Paul Tansom | Aptanet Ltd. | http://www.aptanet.com/