Need access to a local Linux computer via LAN

[Thanasis Kinias]

scripsit George Gambill:
> One brave sole (besides myself) is now using Linux (non-LTSP) desktop
> (RH8).  He seems to be doing fairly well but we do hit some bumps from
> time to time requiring my attention.  I could install VNC server on
> his desktop so I could effect fixes from my machine.  Is there a
> better way???  We are behind a firewall so simplicity is more
> important than security.

I frequently just use SSH for this.  I've got a buddy whose home Debian
box I frequently help him troubleshoot, and there's little I can't do
through SSH, especially with tunneled X.

I'm typing this e-mail in an xterm running on one of my boxes at home,
displaying on an X server at work.  (I've got X apps from four different
boxes on my desktop right now...)  So long as the remote box's sshd is
set to tunnel X and you remember the '-X' when you invoke the SSH
client, it's trivial to use.  It's also pretty secure, FWIW.

IIRC VNC lets you actually take control of his desktop, so he can watch
you move the mouse around and see what you're doing.  That you can't do
with vanilla SSH and X, but otherwise VNC seems like overkill.

HTH,
-- 
Pax vobiscum; pax cum omnibus.

Thanasis Kinias
tkinias at asu.edu
Doctoral Student, Department of History
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A.