hi. i've started playing around with ssh and i fowarded X to my laptop from my desktop and played a video from my desktop on my laptop. Is it possible to tell the file to use the laptop's soundcard so i can hear the video or is x forwarding just to use GUI programs? thanks for any replies in advance.

X doesn't have any built-in methods for sending sound remotely, however there are a few ways I know of to do it if both computers are running Linux. One is the "esound" package, and another is "NAS" (network audio system). I don't know which is better, and I've only personally used esound, and that was years ago. But you'd need to forward a second port through ssh along with the X session port, and have the client software on the laptop.

There may be other software around that does the same thing besides the two I have heard of, and any of them might have a client for Windows if your laptop is not Linux-based. Or you could try using VLC and its network streaming features, or just mount the filesystem (where the videos are) from the desktop on the laptop and play the files directly.

thanks i'll check them out. Both computers are linux.