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Citrix Replacement Using Remote VNC
Remote VNC Via SSH Tunnels
My project describes a method of creating ad-hoc VPNs using ssh to tunnel VNC sessions and associated file- and print-sharing services, in an attempt to offer remote computing services using open source tools, without resorting to proprietary programs such as Citrix.
There are some situations where the methods described here will not work. Once obvious scenario is where the main office is running some proprietary application which only runs on Windows boxen, or relies on a per-seat arrangement, etc.. However, in offices where no such proprietary limitations exist, remote VNC sessions are a secure, reliable and cost-effective computing solution.
I have set up users with VNC, accessing a Linux KDE desktop from their Windows workstations. Each user had his own shell login and started their own vncserver instance, and used OpenOffice to edit files that other users were creating with Word on Windows workstations; plus he read his mail using Evolution.
This project is an attempt to enable users to participate in such a network from remote locations, using VNC tunneled through ssh. The remote connection can be set up using IPsec, for example, to create a VPN, but there are instances where IPsec isn't practical. The ease of setting up ad-hoc VPNs via ssh is highly attractive to me as a sysadmin (in fact, I use ssh tunnels daily), so I have chosen to implement a solution based on this protocol.
Two Main Problems To Solve
Notes From The Web
I did some initial research on this project, which I've listed on the VNCWebNotes page.