Dear LinuxQuestions.org,

We have a RedHat Enterprise v4 Server on the network.
On the LAN we have Windows XP Clients and they connect to the server.
The server has CounterPoint(Point of Sale software) installed on it and
clients run the client version of CounterPoint.
The network is connected via a VPN Router to the Internet.

We want to be able to do remote support to this server via a VNC solution. We want to be able to access the server remotely via Internet
so we can do remote trouble shooting.

Is there a solution for this?


Let me know.

Lothar Irausquin
email: IrausquinL@arubadigital.com

well yes, vnc. any linux based vnc service should be fine. were there some specific issues you're having issues with?

Webmin is really good for this kind of stuff.

The Linux VNC solution did not work at all. That's why I am posting this issue.

There is no such thing as "The Linux solution". There are many implementations available and you need to give us suitable detail to get the help you are after.

I looked at the Webmin Website. Is Webmin also good for a REMOTE ACCESS SOLUTION? We need the remote access solution via Internet , to connect to the RedHat Linux Enterprise Server from Windows PC's at another location over the Internet. In that way we can provide REMOTE support.

The way I look at it on the Webmin Website, it looks like Webmin is a software that you can use to manage the Unix/Linux Server via a Webbrowser on a LAN, but we need a remote access solution over a WAN link.

Webmin can be accessed remotely over an ssl connection. You can set allowed IP addresses or block failed login IPs for a given amount of time. Through it you can manage individual files in a Java driven GUI, get a shell, add remove users and on and on. As another alternative you could use ssh with x-11 forwarding. Just another way of avoiding working at a prompt over a secure connection. I don't really have a good reason not to like VNC. I just like Webmin and SSH.

Well we tried to follow the REDHAT Linux EnterPrise Guidelines to install VNC. The problem I think occured that we had to install something like Linux-No-Ip. That is the map the Server to a no-ip address. I do not know exactly how this works but we could not connect to the server via the Ultra VNC > Linux no-ip address.
We use Ultra VNC on our Winodws PC.

So this box is remote and has a dynamic IP address? Is it behind a router?
Not trying to be smart but you are not giving us much to work with here. I'm not up on the "No-IP" but often the box is NATd the device providing the NAT has dyndns or zonedit or what ever dynamic dns provider. Or make sure that the client software is actually updating your IP. I'm guessing that the NO-ip client just schedules an update because if you are behind a router it would not be able to see the change in IP assignment. Make sense?

Yes, the server is behind a router, because our ISP is changing the public IP address twice a day we have to use no-ip so that the hostname of the server stays mapped to a no-ip address. But regarding the the no-ip part , I do not know exactly how it works.

So the problem is that the DNS records are not getting updated. Or is the problem that VNC is not working?

If the problem is the IP address I can't be much help on the No-ip thing. Unless it is to suggest checking your router for a built in dynamic dns. Most Linksys routers support at least DYNDNS. That would also keep it more up todate since it detects the change and then updates. The other method will just have to run on a schedule.