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How To: Remote Control Your Home Computer From Anywhere With VNC
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something_unique_and_descriptive
04/04/09

In reply to How To: Remote Control Your Home Computer From Anywhere With VNC
Aaaand congratulations, you've just opened up a massive security hole.

VNC communications are sent in plaintext, so anyone sniffing is going to be able to read your log ins just like they were sitting over your shoulder... actually a bit easier.

If you're going to use VNC you're also going to need a secure VPN, SSH tunnel, or, if you're too lazy to do either of those, at the very least a Hamachi connection.

You'll also want to make sure that your home system requires a log in, might be a bit annoying but it's an extra level of security.
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bjarnia
04/04/09

In reply to How To: Remote Control Your Home Computer From Anywhere With VNC
Knowing how you guys love Windows 7, do you know if any VNC servers/clients that work well with it? I have heard not-so-good reports.
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something_unique_and_descriptive
04/04/09

@bjarnia: Tight VNC works fine on 7 as a client, haven't tried serving from it.
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ScottRose
04/04/09

In reply to How To: Remote Control Your Home Computer From Anywhere With VNC
I use three words: Vee Pee Enn.

Followed by RDP or SSH, or file shares.

I have a persistent firewalled VPN between work & home in addition to client-based VPN server daemons. VPN is done at the routers using OpenVPN on Ubuntu 8.04 with iptables for firewall and ip route/rule for traffic balancing between cable and DSL.

I find that this is the easiest and bestest way, and highly recommend it.
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Technoluster
04/04/09

In reply to How To: Remote Control Your Home Computer From Anywhere With VNC
I use a dynamic IP service that periodically updates a user name with my external IP address. [www.dyndns.com] is a great solution.
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IN THE FACE!
04/06/09

@cheeser83: Bumpity bumper bumpin, yeah, discussed several times above, but this is the best way to do it from anywhere and do it for free.

"Network Admins do it remotely."
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bosskev
04/04/09

In reply to How To: Remote Control Your Home Computer From Anywhere With VNC

"How To: Remote Control Your Home Computer From Anywhere"

Yeah, right. Totally worthless effort folks. I mean, I've already done this and it is a total sham.

I did all the steps exactly as John describes, that part went well, no glitches. Then I went on vacation. While away, I remotely accessed my Mac thinking "wow, this is SO cool!" and entered several commands. But two weeks later I got home to discover:

• bed still not made

• kitchen trash not emptied

• laundry unsorted and unironed

Can't believe I fell for it. I'd have better luck trying to remote control my cat.
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GitEmSteveDave_ My Brute Dojo Code CDIAFIFE
04/04/09

@bosskev: Yeah, I know what you mean. I have VNC on all my computers b/c of issues with the cams, and I always get IM's saying my bed isn't made, there's a cat on my couch, etc... that VNC never seems to be able to do anything about.
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IN THE FACE!
04/05/09

@WindySaturday_GitEmSteveDave: I can trigger my roomba, but I'm still working on getting him to do my laundry or make my bed...

So far he's only good for cleaning the floors and annoying my cats. (They're not scared of him anymore.)
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aec007
04/04/09

In reply to How To: Remote Control Your Home Computer From Anywhere With VNC
"And finally, figure out your home's external IP"

Ahh...the mother-of-all to make it work.

You NEED a static IP.
You know how much is broadband with permanent static IP????
I have cable. The IP changes... rarely. But it does. And the moment it does, you are screwed.

So I use GotoMyPC.com service at $100/yr. it's always on if the PC is on it's always connected and the Video is SUPER, SUPER fast. Faster than Windows own VPN!.

As a backup, I use a FREE service from Logmein.com. It's video is not as fast as GotoMyPC but it gets the job done.
I have everyone I know that needs PC help from time to time on it, so I can log in their PC's to help them.

I've used both services for over 4 yrs now. Locally pretty much every week and from overseas several times with zero glitches.

GotomyPC $100/yr beats hands down the cost of a Broadband Static IP and it's waaaaay faster than VPN (even over ethernet)! IMHO.

My 2 cents....

:)
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soggy_cheerio
04/04/09

@aec007: You don't need a static IP. Dynamic DNS to the rescue. [www.dyndns.com]
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Dillinger23
04/04/09

@aec007: I use logmein exclusively, also they just release hamachi which allows you to create a zero config vpn without all that nasty hardware issues, then you can juse use Win Remote Desktop or Mac Screen Sharing and its all free
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pdditty
04/04/09

@dillinger23: word, logmein rocks
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IN THE FACE!
04/05/09

@pdditty:I used to use it, but being able to setup DDNS pretty much negates the necessity of paying for some other ghetto-rigged web-app service, and you don't have to dick with a web based interface to get started...

Tomato and DD-WRT both work flawlessly with a free DynDNS account. And bonus, you get a domain name O_o (sort of).

And if you don't want to deal with a 3rd party router firmware, there are software based IP updaters as well.
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IN THE FACE!
04/06/09

@aec007: Gawd, GoToMyPC is such a chunk of s#!t. I'm surprised people still pay for that crap when there are so many ways to do the same thing for free.

I can see people using the pay version of LogMeIn if they are in and out of a LOT of machines under vastly differing network environments (and/or supporting not-so-tech-savvy friends/relatives). But beyond that, I really see no need to be paying for these services anymore...
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Syndication
04/04/09

In reply to How To: Remote Control Your Home Computer From Anywhere With VNC
MS RDP > VNC

The free version of VNC doesn't lock the screen of the remote computer so if anyone is at home, they'll be able to see your desktop and be able to take control if they wanted to. It's a good cross platform solution, but you'll need to spend some money if you want "screen blanking" like MS RDP.
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worsethannormal
04/04/09

@Syndication: You should also mention that VNC is very secure. I've used it at work and been able to logon to the VNC session by typing the wrong password. Granted, the wrong password contained the right password, but this would still make brute-force attacks easier.
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GitEmSteveDave_ My Brute Dojo Code CDIAFIFE
04/04/09

@worsethannormal: So is it secure, or isn't it? I think I know what you mean though. From my experience, VNC is limited to 8 character passwords, so as long as the first 8 are correct, it will let you in.
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zombie_batch
04/04/09

@Syndication:

RDP is better than VNC if you don't need screen sharing. VNC has more lag time than RDP.
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IN THE FACE!
04/05/09

@zombie_batch: agreed, I use RDP to get into about a dozen different computers at two jobs and at home, I've never experienced any lag except on the SQL server that is hosting data for in excess of 200 sites (I'm not actually the SQL admin but I need access to that machine for other things...), so there's pretty much no avoiding that bottleneck when it is experiencing heavy traffic.

We tried using VNC on that SQL server and it was utterly useless.

Also, I have discovered that the DDNS features in DD-WRT are outstanding, just setup a free DynDNS redirect and you are golden for getting to any VPN setup...
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IN THE FACE!
04/05/09

@bpapa9013 - Is now an ego maniac thanks to his new star ->: I only wish that the Windows Mobile 6.1 RDP client would store full profiles, as far as I can tell it will only store the hostname/ip you still have to manually input the user/pass/domain whenever you change servers...

I know there are third party RDP clients for WM that will do it, but I really don't want to pay ~$50 to save 20 key-strokes...
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