Connection tunneling or Internet PC connections? Any recommendations?

[Akucaen]

Basically I'd like to either use my Desktop's internet connection or simply connect to it via an internet client. I'm honestly indifferent to which, but the end result is that I want to use the connection I have setup with my desktop.

I would kind of prefer to use remote desktop software in case I wanted to download something and have it ready on my PC, I'd also be able to log into irc and be able to brose via already setup noscript operations, etc. That would be the easiest solution by far, but everything I've found so far is $100 a year subscriptions to the site in question (Looked at gotomyPC), but I can't find anything that's either free are... well... pirate-able. I won't lie, heh.

On the other hand, 99% of the time I'll be connecting from my campus wireless to my PC, so I can do regular HTTP tunneling over an open port so I can connect to restricted services (like irc). Really this whole thing is simple to connect to IRC so I'm not INSANELY bored during class. God knows that I sit here most of the time doing nothing because people ask stupid questions.

Either way, can I get some recommendations on either remote access software or tunneling software? I can't use Windows' RDC because my Laptop runs XP & my desktop runs Vista, so I can't piggyback that. (Well, Vista home premium, from what I can tell Vista business can connect back to XP, but I don't want to buy a new license just for something I use only part of the time anyway.

So, any recommendations?

[Shuemue]

TightVNC: VNC-Based Free Remote Control Solution might be worth a look, it's been a while since I used vnc though

[Obiron]

VNC is a great (and free) option. I personally use UltraVNC, mainly because that's what we use at work.

Speaking of tunneling, I actually tunnel my VNC just for a little added security. I have Cygwin (google it, basically Linux emulation that allows Linux tools on a Windows PC) on my home PC that runs an SSH service. At work I use PuTTY to create an SSH connection with my home PC, then I tunnel my VNC through the SSH connection. So in total I'm using UltraVNC, Cygwin, and PuTTY, all free tools. But if you don't want to get that deep into it, VNC is great by itself. :D

[Norellicus]

VNC doesn't provide secure encryption for authentication, requires opening ports on firewall fulltime, and is easily piggybacked; I never recommend it for any circumstance outside an internal LAN (and these days, RDP6 works just fine anyway, at least as far as windows boxes are concerned). Check out logmein.com, it's free, uses SSL 128-bit 2-step authentication, and thanks to how the client handles remote requests, requires no special setup in your firewalls.

[Shuemue]

TightVNC has encrypted passwords, it's just the general datastream that's unencrypted, and all Aku wants to do is chat on irc

[Gatsby]

Just to piggy back onto this thread, is there a simple guide to setup a SSH server (Vista) and a tunnel (XP). I want to try to piggy back ffxi onto a tunnel (China blah blah work how the hell do rmts get ffxi to work) blah blah.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Obiron]

Just to piggy back onto this thread, is there a simple guide to setup a SSH server (Vista) and a tunnel (XP). I want to try to piggy back ffxi onto a tunnel (China blah blah work how the hell do rmts get ffxi to work) blah blah.

Any help would be appreciated.

Sorry for the delayed response. Too much Gears of War this weekend. :D

I was going to try to put together some instructions, but then I stumbled onto some instructions on the internet. Good thing too, I set up my SSH on XP, this gives some pointers for Vista.


How to install OpenSSH sshd server and sftp server on a Windows 2000 or Windows XP or Windows Vista

Note that the standard SSH port is 22. It is possible to change the port you're running it on so you can open a nonstandard port instead. That's actually my plan this week, so I can't give my own experience, but here are some pointers that could help:

Securing Cygwin SSHD (secure shell server) - dslreports.com

PuTTY makes tunneling easy. Here are some instructions for that:

Real Programmers: How To: Set Up An Ssh Tunnel With Putty -- by hackers, for hackers

Hope this is helpful. I'm not exactly sure how you would run FFXI through a tunnel, but good luck with it.