Can't see Linux box on home network

fiona333 · 05-14-2007, 07:01 PM

Hi there,
I have my windowsXP laptop goint through a wireless connection on my D-Link router, and I added a Linux box through ethernet to the router. I can see the windows computer from the Linux, but not vice versa. I would like to set them up to use VNC, but I can not find the correct hostname to use either. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

fukawi2 · 05-14-2007, 07:22 PM

Your Linux box will only "show up" (I assume you mean in "My Network Places") if you have the Samba package installed, configured and running... Have you done that?

Samba basically emulates Windows Networking, so without that, your Linux box doesn't exist as far as your Windows Network is concerned...

fiona333 · 05-14-2007, 07:28 PM

Thank you!!! I do not have the Samba package installed as far as I am aware. I will look into that now.

fukawi2 · 05-14-2007, 07:35 PM

Pleasure.. What distribution are you using?

fiona333 · 05-14-2007, 08:08 PM

I am using FC6. I am so new to Linux that I do not even know yet how to find things. It may take me hours to find out what I have on there for Samba

. My main goal is to get TightVNC running.

fukawi2 · 05-14-2007, 08:18 PM

You don't need Samba to do that - just access the machine via it's IP address, or if you have DNS working on your network, it's hostname...

Code:

/sbin/ifconfig eth0 | grep 'inet addr'

Will find your IP address...

fiona333 · 05-14-2007, 08:33 PM

Thanks! It's so nice to have such a great support forum out there! Anyway, I got the IP, but when I punch it in to the VNC viewer, I get a message saying "failed to connect to server"....and so it continues

kcorupe · 05-14-2007, 08:44 PM

have you setup a vnc server on the box you are connecting to?

setting up vnc + fedora core

http://www.g-loaded.eu/2005/11/10/co...ver-in-fedora/

google is your friend :-)

fiona333 · 05-14-2007, 09:03 PM

Yes, I have VNC server set up on remote machine, but I did no further configuration than how it came (using through Gnome).

fukawi2 · 05-15-2007, 12:52 AM

Firewall may be blocking it.

At a terminal, run the following command as root:

Code:

service iptables stop

For those not on Fedora / RedHat, it would be:

Code:

/etc/init.d/iptables stop

yogsothoth · 05-15-2007, 03:16 PM

Also, dont do what I almost ripped my hair out for.

I always tried from the windows machine to access the VNCserver with just pucnhing in the IP of the linuxmachine like for example: 192.168.0.9 which didnt work*, however when I tested 192.168.0.9:1 the VNCserver on my Mandriva responded happily

and allowed me to login.

(ps. if accessing [ipadress]:1 doesnt work test also [ipadress]:0 )

*= just entering the IP in the VNCviewer and [enter] works to access my old Windows VNCserver, but for my Linuxmachine running VNCserver I have to type in 192.168.0.9:1, which I suppose is because that Linux can have multiple instances of X running at the same time unlike Windows, and I need to specify which session I want to connect to.. (or something like that.. Im not all that good on linux/unix but I hope these might help anyway! (or atleast prevent you from repeating my mistakes :P ))

fiona333 · 05-15-2007, 06:29 PM

Thanks Fuwaki2....it was the firewall blocking it. Anyway, I'm in! Thank you all for your help!

fukawi2 · 05-15-2007, 06:42 PM

You can create a rule for the firewall to allow your connection... Something like this should do:

Code:

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --destination-port 5900 --source 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0 -j ACCEPT

Just change the IP address and net mask to suit your local network, then only PC's on your local network will be able to connect to it once you restart iptables:

Code:

service iptables start