How to Use VNC over SSH
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How to use VNC securely over SSH
This article details how to use Virtual Network Computing (VNC, a free, open source remote control application that can run on any operating system) securely with Secure Socket Handling (SSH). The instructions were originally intended for an OSX machine, but can be adapted for any OS. These instructions assume that you already have SSH already running on your machine:
"Setting up the tunnel is easy, you just need to know the IP address of the
remote host and the port number that VNC is running on (usually 5900). The
syntax of the command is:
ssh -L [local port]:127.0.0.1:[remote port] [user]@[remote.host]
So an example would be: ssh -L 59005:127.0.0.1:5900 james@194.11.2.81
PRODESK NOTE: The above command can be listed in a single line in the Terminal application
All you need do now is point your VNC client to 127.0.0.1:59005 and you can connect. If you wanted to allow other machines on your local network to access the remote host through your computer, use the -g switch:
ssh -L 59005:127.0.0.1:5900 -g james@194.11.2.81
Then other hosts on your network can connect to the remote host through [your.IP]:59005, just remember to open this port on your firewall.
I would suggest using OSXvnc as your VNC Server and Chicken of the VNC as your VNC client."
Original article: http://stocksy.is-a-geek.com/information/ssh/ssh.php
The "man" page built in to your machine has more information on the options that SSH has to offer. From the command line type:
man ssh
Windows users
There are several versions of VNC available for Windows as listed in the References section below.
In order to have one machine act as a "server" for SSH connections, you will need to install an SSH package such as sshwindows.
Terminal clients available from http://www.upenn.edu/computing/product such as Host Explorer or SecureCRT can be used to access SSH servers.
References
Macintosh
Windows
Related Articles
Configuring_Automatic_login_with_SSH
Engadget has a good tutorial on SSH tunnels for securely reading your email.
