remote desktop access

[Michael Hipp]

Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
  > I have a user who wants to access a linux desktop at work from a windows
> pc at home. There is a computer (firewall - rather conservative, but not
> inflexible) between. I have been looking at things like tightvnc to
> enable access. I am a bit unclear how to set this up. The tightvnc
> windows client oddly does not support tunneling via ssh, even though the
> linux client does.

This is not correct. I use TightVNC on a Win box via ssh to various 
things all the time. Use cygwin or PuTTY to establish the ssh tunnel, 
then use TightVNC as normal. It's not really any different than doing it 
on Linux.

> I looked at nx (www.nocomputer.com). Looks good. But I am unsure if the
> client (which it seems does ssh) will let me access a tightvnc/freenx
> server via an intermediate machine.

This will work fine also. One of the advantages is that ssh is built in. 
As long as that intermediate machine is a *nix box and can run NX and X 
this will work great. It's what NX was designed to do.

Only problem I found was the drawing/rendering occasionally just didn't 
look right. But that was an older version a while back and I'm told the 
newer one is better.

My opinion is that NX is probably the best option for your case.

Michael