From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Dec 14 09:09:13 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EDE5710669B2 for ; Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:09:13 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from igloo.linux.gr (igloo.linux.gr [62.1.205.36]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 68EC98FC17 for ; Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:09:13 +0000 (UTC) X-Spam-Status: No X-Hellug-MailScanner-From: keramida@ceid.upatras.gr X-Hellug-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (not cached, score=-1.001, required 5, autolearn=not spam, ALL_TRUSTED -1.00, BAYES_40 -0.00) X-Hellug-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-Hellug-MailScanner-ID: oBE98sD5000496 Received: from gkeramidas-glaptop.linux.gr ([74.125.57.36]) (authenticated bits=0) by igloo.linux.gr (8.14.3/8.14.3/Debian-9.4) with ESMTP id oBE98sD5000496 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:09:02 +0200 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Jorge Biquez References: <3375127378-437632400@intranet.com.mx> Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:08:54 +0100 In-Reply-To: <3375127378-437632400@intranet.com.mx> (Jorge Biquez's message of "Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:21:06 -0600") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.0.50 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Kind of off topic. X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:09:14 -0000 On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:21:06 -0600, Jorge Biquez wrote: > Hello all. > > A friend is asking me to help him to solve some problem he has in his > servers. To some I would be able to connect using ssh, with other just > it i snot possible. I remember that on the windows world there was a > commercial software PCANywhere. He can have it but I am not sure if I > would be able to connect to that from my Freebsd machine (of course > not by ssh). > > What are you using for connecting to graphical interfaces of different > OS's from FreeBSD? > > I tested some years ago a VNC software but did not work fine with MAC > OSX (recently released by then). > > I know big security factors are involved for sure. > Any suggestion on what to use, not to expensive or free? If the remote hosts are running FreeBSD, you can do almost *everything* through SSH. For example most of my FreeBSD-related testing work happens through SSH connections to virtual machines these days. If you really need to run a GUI application though there are a few options: - The most basic is to connect to the remote machine in *some* way, set the DISPLAY environment variable to point to a local X server that may accept incoming connections and fire up your GUI program. - You can SSH into the remote machine and use the -X or -Y options to set up 'X forwarding' back to the machine where the SSH connection has originated from. - You can use programs like the NX tools to set up a 'remotely accessible X desktop' on the target machine and then use nxclient to connect to it from anywhere. The fastest and simplest method is still a plain good old SSH connection though. It requires minimal setup (an sshd daemon on the remote side), it is accessible from anywhere in the world, it's secure against random eavesdroppers, it's fast to connect to, it's pretty light-weight on both the client and server systems, and you can do _everything_ on the remote host [even full system upgrades from source].