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From: "Karl J. Runge" <runge@karlrunge.com>
Date: Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:06:05 -0500
Cc: runge@karlrunge.com
Subject: Remote assistance for X
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> remotehost="lightning"
> cmd="x11vnc -display :0 -localhost -connect localhost -ncache"
> ssh -t -c blowfish -R 5500:$remotehost:5500 localhost "$cmd"

I think you mean:

  ssh -t -c blowfish -R 5500:localhost:5500 $remotehost "$cmd"

right?  You want to ssh to $remotehost and have the 5500 traffic go
through ssh to localhost:5500, no?  The use of '-R 5500:$remotehost:5500'
implies a unencrypted leg going over the network (which may or may not
be acceptable to you, i.e. inside your LAN, but I'm not sure.)

BTW, to help flush out problems testing in your LAN, there is an
easter-egg in ssvncviewer to only listen on localhost.  E.g.:

  ssvncviewer -env VNCVIEWER_LISTEN_LOCALHOST=1 -listen 0

> Ultravnc (http://www.uvnc.com/) has a slick setup where you give the 
> Windows user a binary to run, and it calls back to the support site. 
> No setup needed the client's part.  I don't know how much of that is 
> encrypted.

I don't think any of it is encrypted unless you setup the UltraVNC
DSM plugin.

There are some ways to emulate UltraVNC single click with x11vnc:

	http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/faq.html#faq-singleclick

and SSL encrypted connections are described at the end of that FAQ.
The ssvnc GUI wrapper (but not the bare ssvncviewer) can establish the
SSL tunnel for you.

However, since you have ssh access to the supportee machine, I
suggest using that.