brettp@users.sourceforge.net wrote:
On Mon, Feb 11, 2002 at 02:10:13PM +0000, Laurie Brown wrote:
Run a VNC-type "server": a remote client connects to it, and I can then, from my "server" control the client machine.
For dial-up/DHCP/NAT situations where I can't reach a client directly, I need the client to be able to initiate the connection, but thereafter it to behave as if I'd done a normal VNC connect
into it.
Hrm... why not make the client machine use something like dyndns
or myip
so that you can connect to it... there are clients for both of
these for
both doze and nux... that way you can just vnc to something like whatthefsckis.myip.org. Does that make any sense, what so ever?
The specific problem that has caused this is good old NTL's business service. One of my clients, based in Farnborough, got a 1meg NTL line in on my recommendation. A good deal at 120squid a month, and AFAIKnew working the same as my home 512K line: that is, cable modem acting as a pass-through device, direct to Linux firewall, which is given an IP address by remote NTL server, then NAT in/out through said firewall. Firewall visible to 'Net: cushty.
Sadly, no...
NTL supplied a Cisco UBR9xxx router, which is given a NAT address of 172.16.blah, and which in turn gives the LAN-facing ports a 192.168.1.x IP address. My Linux firewall then NATs that again internally. Result: I can't see a single internal box, including the firewall from outside. This make remote management (the whole fscking point!) a shade difficult.
I found a net-based service for $9.95 a month by which an internal machine "pings" their web site with some bespoke software, which responds when I "log in" to said web site, giving me a route to the internal machine and a VNC-like terminal. For millions of reasons, this isn't ideal (not least because I'm accessing an NT4 PDC), hence the requirement for a reverse VNC type thingy.
Allegedly, this will go away when NTL release their fixed-ip service Real Soon Now... Customer can't wait, and this egg on my face is getting a mite smelly...
Cheers, Laurie.