VNC over the internet
 

I wish to help a friend with her computer troubles, by watching her work on her desktop. I am using Mandrake 9.1 and have only been able to do this through the Java interface in a webbrowser.

When I try using the VNC Viewer, I get no responce. this makes me think I am having trouble getting out of my home network, and onto the Internet, if that makes any sense. I am using TightVNC.

Any suggestions are welcome!

at a guess she has a firewall blocking incoming connections on the vnc port, but if you can use the java viewer than whats the problem?

The only firewall she might have, is the one built in to XP. But considering that I could connect using the Java version, I would have thougth the problem lay at my end.

The only problem is that I want to use the TightVNC viewer, rather than Java... Partbly because I want to understand what is going wrong :D

ive just compiled the tightvnc viewer and can use it on my lan fine, it uses port 5900, and the java viewer uses port 5800, thats why im saying her firewall might effect whats hapenning, what errors do you get when tightvnc fails? add an iptables log target and see whats happening to all packets destined to her address, whats the difference between the java ones and the tightvnc ones?

if she is using the xp built in firewall, that is exactly why you can't get through. The xp firewall will successfully block all unauthorized ports, including 5900 (vnc). Java is working because it is using port 80, or web. Have her disable the xp firewall and it should work. I assume of coarse you have the vnc server on her side set up correctly.

However, I would be vary carefull leaving an open VNC server on the internet. VNC is only password protected, and can be comprimised in mear seconds, at which time full access to your system is available.

I agree that taking down firewalls, especially on Windows systems, and with worms as MSBlast on the loose, is not a good idea. BUT, I have several friends who "rely" on me for help, and I do want to be see their desktops. Does anyone have a suggestion for how to solve this?

winxp->network connections: select connection used for internet->right click->properties->advanced tab->settings->services tab-> Add: description of service (vnc); ip address...use ip address of this computer (from broadband or network) ..select TCP button
External port: 5800
Intertnal port: 5800
(I did a vnc2 also:
External port: 5900
Internal port:5900
you now have access from a browser or tightvnc client

Now if it were that easy to get tightvnc server set up on my MDK9.1 box so that I could view it from a winxp machine....