Remote your Debian from Windows XP

[OMFG]

Was wondering if anyone knows how to remote debian via WinXP?

[c123]

There are a number of ways you can control your debian machine from XP. I gather you're interested in seeing/using a desktop (as opposed to just having a shell)?

If so, VNC is the way to go.

If you;re using KDE, especially 3.2 then things are pretty simple (in theory). K => System => Desktop Sharing (at least under 3.2, should be the same for 3.1). Click "Configure" in the bottom left corner. In "Uninvited Connections", make sure "Allow uninvited connections" and "Allow uninvited connections to control the desktop" are selected and the other two options clear. Enter a password in the "Password" field. Click "Apply". That's the debian side taken care of.
[[n.b. as far as I know in 3.1 you cannot set up "Allow uninvited connections" - you have to create an invitation]]

For XP, you now need a VNC viewer such as tightvnc-1.2.9_x86_viewer.zip on http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html. Downlaod, extract and run the viewer. Enter the IP address of your debian machine ('ifconfig' on your debian machine will tell you if you do not know). Enter the password when asked. Voila, you *should* see your kde desktop.

I can't get it to work at the moment, but my Windows machine currently has Win ME and not XP. Previously with XP it worked like a charm... Should still do unless KDE have broken something between versions 3.1 and 3.2 (should be able to test tomorrow).

Note that anyone with the password can now access the debian machine. A better (more secure) way is to tunnel through SSH, but then things get a bit more complex (but not much more).

Above is just one way of using one variant of VNC. HTH

[c123]

What I wrote above may not work due to a bug - http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=76221

I'll try hopefully with XP tomorrow...

[c123]

OK this definately works... THis will allow you to see a desktop on your debian mahcine, but not share it (!?!). In other words you will see a new debian desktop.

Debian machine: from a shell, as a normal user, type "vncserver :1".
Enter & confirm the password (IIRC must be at least 6 characters).

Windows machine: open a viewer, as explained above.
Connect to: "debian_ip_address:1" (the ":1" is important). Password is what you entered earlier.

You should see a new desktop, but probably not the one you're used to (here I get Window Maker). To change to something a littler more MSWindows-like: Right-click the desktop => WndowManagers => IceWM.

HTH