Remote XWindows access
 

I'd like to be able to somehow remotely access my Thunderbird email client which runs on my Linux box at my shop.

I was wondering if there is a way to somehow use RealVNC and OpenSSH together so I could remotely access from a Windows XP machine at my home. I don't want all of my X applications accessible remotely however, otherwise I would not be posting this...

RealVNC should work fine. Why do you want to use OpenSSH also? Do you want encryption from OpenSSH that free version of RealVNC does not provide?

You can achieve the goal by using VNC server and putty windows client. Just use port forwarding of ssh.

1) Run vncserver on your remote linux machine (192.168.1.2). Make sure that port 5901 is open.
2) Run putty client from your windows machine.
In Session part:
add host name: 192.168.1.2
Port: 22
Protocol: SSH

In Connection->SSH->Tunnels
Source Port: 5901
Destination: localhost:5901
Then click "Add" and add the tunnel.

Then, click open button and run a SSH session. Log in with your username and password.

Check that port 5901 is open in your windows client

3) Run vncclient to connect to localhost:5901

4) It is done and you have a VNC session tunneled by SSH.

Thanks!

I'll try this evening

Scott

Check out this article.
Remote Xwindows apps

It only works if you had x-window system installed on both linux and windows system.

That article is wrong. You don't do xhost and set the DISPLAY; that defeats the whole purpose of X forwarding. It makes the programs connect directlyl to the X server, rather than being forwarded over an SSH tunnel.

No, you only need an X server on the system that you are sitting in front of (in this case the Windows machine). Xming is a very nice, updated, standalone, free-software port of the X.org server for Windows.