Remote access to your parents’ computer

You can’t always be there for your parents when they need your help desperately for their computer problems. I resolved this issue with some basic software that I’d like to share. I’d like to give the basics first and I will provide more details when I have more time.

What is the problem?

• Remote computer (Possibly Windows PC) do not have a public address.
• You have a Linux server with a public IP address.
• You want to be able to securely access the remote computer.

What software?

• Putty
• TightVNC

How?

1. Install TightVNC and launch TightVNC server
   1. Set a password
   2. Optional: Only allow connections from localhost for security
2. Install Putty
   1. Create a session to connect to your Linux server
   2. In the SSH options click on the tunnel and create a remote port forwarding. (Source: 5900, Destination: localhost:5911, Remote option selected)
   3. Save and connect to your server
   4. Optional: You can create keys to login to your server without a password. One less password to remember for them.
3. At the Linux server, launch vncviewer to port 5911, i.e. vncviewer localhost:11

Some security tips

• We are using putty because tunneling VNC over SSH makes it secure. You can also setup VNC over SSL and access their computer from any browser. Check out this post.
• Allowing only local access makes it more secure against external attacks. TightVNC server only responds if the Putty is running.