I recently started working from home with a Linux box. I want to telnet to a machine at work and export it's display back to my box. Here's what I do:
1) Connect to the office network VPN and jot down the internal IP addres it gives me
2) xhost <machine name> where <machine name> is the name of the machice I want to get the display from
2) Telnet to <machine name>
3) export DISPLAY=<ip adress I jotted down>:0
4) test by running something like xeyes

No luck... :-(

I then went into my router and added port forwarding of 6000 to my linux box as a friend suggested. Still no luck. Any ideas? Am I going about this wrong?

-Adam

What error do you get when running the x application?

Is X listening on port 6000?
netstat -nlp

Check your hosts allow list looks ok?
xhost

You tell me man... this dump looks intimidating. :-)

Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:2049 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:32770 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1172/rpc.statd
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:32771 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:13000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 8337/mozilla-bin
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:29000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 4625/attvpnctl
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:813 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1482/rpc.mountd
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:111 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1150/portmap
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:6000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 4065/X
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:113 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1416/xinetd
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:631 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1340/cupsd
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:796 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1464/rpc.rquotad
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:32768 0.0.0.0:* 1172/rpc.statd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:2049 0.0.0.0:* -
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:32770 0.0.0.0:* -
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:793 0.0.0.0:* 1464/rpc.rquotad
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:924 0.0.0.0:* 1172/rpc.statd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:810 0.0.0.0:* 1482/rpc.mountd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:68 0.0.0.0:* 1080/dhclient
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:68 0.0.0.0:* 878/dhclient
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:7001 0.0.0.0:* -
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:111 0.0.0.0:* 1150/portmap
udp 0 0 192.168.0.4:500 0.0.0.0:* 4625/attvpnctl
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:631 0.0.0.0:* 1340/cupsd
Active UNIX domain sockets (only servers)
Proto RefCnt Flags Type State I-Node PID/Program name Path
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 125701 4185/gconfd-2 /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-1059-0-21e3a52aa5b74
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 125709 4105/gnome-session /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-1009-0-573840d8c393d
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 126847 4198/bonobo-activat /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-1066-0-3e91bef03546c
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 126871 4200/gnome-settings /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-1068-0-6e5e9cbc629d0
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 126936 4216/metacity /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-1078-0-5dc72a25e6a8c
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 127005 4220/gnome-panel /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-107c-0-5f910e4885aa4
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 127649 4222/nautilus /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-107e-0-5f910e48ac584
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 127675 4224/magicdev /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-1080-0-5f910e48dd4a9
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 127713 4229/eggcups /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-1085-0-4adff3c0638ec
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 127803 4248/notification-a /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-1098-0-78f135c24e9e7
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 128486 4253/mixer_applet2 /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-109d-0-78f135c2db40c
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 128512 4234/python /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-108a-0-78f135c3ac55
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 385572 7210/gnome-terminal /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-1c2a-0-2e8befa2c385d
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 495221 8337/mozilla-bin /tmp/orbit-adamc/linc-2091-0-57fe5e4014d6b
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 3392 1781/gdm-binary /tmp/.gdm_socket
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 2860 1661/gpm /dev/gpmctl
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 2911 1700/xfs /tmp/.font-unix/fs7100
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 120408 4065/X /tmp/.X11-unix/X0
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 125690 4181/ssh-agent /tmp/ssh-AMEa4105/agent.4105
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 126834 4105/gnome-session /tmp/.ICE-unix/4105

Thanx for any help... this stuff is new 2 me.

It's listening:
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:6000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 4065/X

But you may want to check your firewall rules too:
iptables -nL

What about errors when you run the X application?

Can you also check that the correct IP is being allowed access to your X server by running:
xhost

iptables -nL shows the following:

Chain INPUT (policy DROP)
target prot opt source destination
ACCEPT all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0
ACCEPT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT udp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT esp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0
ACCEPT 254 -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0
ACCEPT udp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:500
ACCEPT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:22
ACCEPT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:5900
ACCEPT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:12080
REJECT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:113 reject-with icmp-port-unreachable
ACCEPT icmp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 icmp type 3
ACCEPT icmp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 icmp type 4
ACCEPT icmp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 icmp type 11
ACCEPT icmp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 icmp type 12
ACCEPT icmp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 icmp type 5
ACCEPT icmp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 icmp type 9
ACCEPT icmp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 icmp type 8
ACCEPT icmp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 icmp type 0
DROP all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0

Chain FORWARD (policy DROP)
target prot opt source destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
==================================================================================

If I do an xhost I get:access control enabled, only authorized clients can connect
INET:isengard.btv.ibm.com
INET:adam.btv.ibm.com

And the remote machine machine I'm on is adam.btv.ibm.com.

When I export the display and try xeyes... after about a minute I get:
Error: Can't open display: <IP address>

where <IP Address> is the IP address given to my box by the VPN software. I can ping this address from adam.btv.ibm.com so I know the connection's good.
I tried telnetting back using this address as well but just get 'Trying...'

You will need to add a rule to your firewall to allow incomming connections to port 6000, how you do it will probably depend on how your firewall is set up.

That did the tick...
Thanks!