[CentOS] [OT] Remote control of a WinXP machine from a Linux host

[Tim Nelson]

OpenVPN.

Tim Nelson
Systems/Network Support
Rockbochs Inc.
(218)727-4332 x105

----- "Marko Vojinovic" <vvmarko at panet.co.yu> wrote:

> Sorry for an off topic post, but a lot of you folks are sysadmins here
> or 
> there, and just might have a suggestion... ;-)
> 
> I have a WinXP machine that is to be unattended for a period of 3
> years (yes, 
> I know, it sounds ridiculous, but still...). What I need is remote
> access to 
> it to perform regular system maintenance, virus cleanups, occasional
> software 
> installations, reboots, config changes, etc.
> 
> Of course, rdesktop would do it, or vnc server or something else. The
> problem 
> is that this machine is behind a NAT, and I cannot access it remotely
> from 
> outside (and I need access from whereever on the planet I may happen
> to be).
> 
> Basically, I need to setup some type of ssh tunnelling from XP
> (machine A) to 
> my static-IP-24/7-high-bandwidth-CentOS server (machine B) and then
> further 
> to my laptop (machine C, Fedora 10) located elsewhere (possibly behind
> 
> another NAT, I can't know in advance). I have root access for all
> three 
> machines (A, B and C). Of course, all three are on different LANs.
> 
> However, I have never done anything like this before, so I wonder what
> is the 
> best method of creating such a setup?
> 
> One of my ideas was to make some script on A which would connect to B
> once 
> every 15 minutes or so, look for a flagfile, and if present, initiate
> 
> connection with C directly or through B if necessary. That means, if I
> want 
> access from C to A, I ssh from C to B and create a flagfile, wait 15
> minutes 
> or so, and a rdesktop (or vnc or other) appears on my laptop. In
> theory.
> 
> Or is there some other XP-tool that might do what I want out of the
> box? 
> However, it need be absolutely automatic, there will be nobody around
> to do 
> anything locally on A once I leave it.
> 
> Another idea I had was to have machine A running as a virtual machine
> on a 
> CentOS host (vmware or such would suffice). Then I could easily
> configure the 
> above A-to-B-to-C scenario, shutdown the virtual A, pull its hard disk
> file 
> to C, start it locally, perform maintenance, push it back to host A
> and run 
> it again as a vm. But this is highly complicated, takes too much time
> and 
> bandwidth, so I hope something simpler is available.
> 
> Yet another idea is to ask A's ISP to provide a static IP for that
> machine, or 
> to forward some available port to A, which could be used by rdesktop
> in some 
> customized fashion. But the ISP may refuse such requests, and I need a
> robust 
> solution.
> 
> Yet even another idea is to put another CentOS machine (D) between A
> and A's 
> ISP (create a local LAN). Then initiate ssh -X connection from C to D
> 
> (somehow, via flagfile scenario or such), and then rdesktop from D to
> A over 
> a local LAN.
> 
> The main problem is NAT, if machine A had a world-accessible IP, I
> would just 
> rdesktop from C to A, but alas, it doesn't... :-(
> 
> Any suggestions about the best way of doing this?
> 
> Thanks, :-)
> Marko
> 
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