Hi,
So, I searched threads for the answer I need but to no avail, although I am sure it is probably out there. I am trying to connect to my linux mandrake 10.0 machine from a remote location using the internet.
I have VNC on my machine. I just don't know what to do. Can someone please give me exact directions on how to do this. I think my address may be 216.12.23.231 but I'm not sure. How do I find out? Thanks. Alrighty. -Greg

ifconfig -a

will show the ip address of your machine, this won't do you much good if you have a router inbetween your machine and the internet though, as the router will assign your machine a local network address. In this case you will need to setup port forwarding on the router so as to make things work.

also, you are going to need a vnc server on your remote machine, and a vnc client on the local machine. Which VNC implementation are you using ?

Hi,
Thanks for reply. I will use the virtual network controller that comes with mandrake. Oh, so I need to have another vnc? On the other machine? I thought I could access it through the internet. Is that only with apache? or such...-Greg

you need a client to connect to the remote vnc server.. how else do you expect to see the screen?

actually, some vnc servers also export a java connection on port 5900, which means you can access it from a web browser.

If you're running a computer that has ssh capabilities away from home, this is easy:

1. ssh -l <yourusername> -L 5801:127.0.0.1:5801 -L 5901:127.0.0.1:5901 <yourserveraddress>
2. Make sure the home machine is running a vncserver
3. Start a vnc server locally.
4. Run a vnc viewer program that connects to your LOCAL machine (127.0.0.1) and use the password specified on the server at your home.

You can find all the programs you'd need in various OSes at http://www.realvnc.com

This works for me from work in Mac OS X 10.3. Not sure about using Windows, but I'd bet you could do it with puTTY too. Anyone?

Edit: The reason I use ssh here is that it tunnels your connection through ssh, making it a secure connection. No eavesdropping. If you didn't want to do it this way, you could probably just get a viewer for the away-from-home computer and connect directly to home. This isn't secure, and passwords etc. will be sent in the open if I'm not mistaken.