Hi I am setting up two monitors to a new PC - No problem. I want to network the old PC to the new PC (And Internet)via a router i suspect but it wont have an independant monitor or key board etc. I want to switch from the new PC environment to the Old pc environment so I can practise commands etc (Use as test environment) without the need for a KVM switch as these can be expensive.

I,m useing Ubuntu 9.01 and have been told this is possible with software similar to PC Anywhere. PC anywhere is a windows based program so I would appreciate comments on how I can acheive the above.

You can use SSH, or plain XDMCP if your network is secure enough. The former is more secure, the latter is faster.

For the former, installing SSH server is enough; for the latter, SSH is not needed (but good to have around anyway) but a Display Manager has to run (eg: KDM or GDM).

Yves.

lolol thanks. I have no idea what KDM or GDM that means lolol

Can I assume SSH is Linux compatible?

[QUOTE=noelc;3563940]lolol thanks. I have no idea what KDM or GDM that means lolol

I,m new to networking so will need to do some research.

Thanks

You might also want to check out synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/). It allows you to share a single mouse/keyboard over a network with a number of other machines on the same network. This will only work if you set up your computers to have a monitor each, rather than one with twin monitors, and the other headless.

It essentially does the job of a KVM switch in software over a network.

My 2 PC's are side by side sharing a Linksys Router=
Can I connect the 2 together using SSH?

What do you want to achieve?

SSH allows you to log in to another machine (called, for example, Bob) over a network from a different computer (called Alice) such that it appears as though you've logged in locally (i.e. as if you were sat at Bob). This technically connects the two computers, but there's little transfer of resources beyone the output of a terminal. At least, that's the simplest explanation I can muster.

If you want to be able to use two computers simultaneously as though they were one single machine, then there's hardware solutions (KVM switches) or there's the software I mentioned above (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net). There's a whole host of alternative solutions (VNC servers, FreeNX servers, RDP servers etc.).

SSH seems to be an expensive peice of sotfware?

Yes, that's true.

However, what I've been discussing with reference to SSH is actually OpenSSH, a free and open source piece of software.

http://www.openssh.com/

This version of SSH is what comes with every Linux and BSD distribution I am aware of. The wikipedia's History section in the SSH article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ssh#History) explains the reason for the two separate entities. Chances are, SSH is already installed on your computer (open a terminal and type ssh -V to check).

Ok Thanks

Hi Thnaks again for your help,

Ive checked out your suggested options and synergy2-sourceforge seems to be the way to go for me.

I must admit I,m a newbie with this stuff and have download synergy 1.3.1.tar.gz but thats as far as I got. Can you advise how I can install this download from here.

Thx much appreciated

Synergy is available thru synaptic package manager
Goto System/Administration/synaptic package manager at the top panel
Click the "search" button and enter "synergy"
click box and choose "install"

Thanks have installed it

Thanks.

I,ve downloaded this software and installed it. I have two PC running via a router and each PC has its own monitor. The keyboard and mouse are connected to this PC. When I activate quicksynergy not much happens only the option to select left/right/top or bottom when i select and action nothing happens?

I,m obviously doing something wrong and would appreciate your help.

Thx

Actually dog, I've never used it?!
But, I guarantee you that someone here knows....