To GeraldClark and PjWelsh, I have centos 6 and used your guide to get it going with vnc. First of all thanks for putting that up, so many techs told me I did not have to install a desktop to make it work and they were so wrong.
http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/VNC-Server
Using centos 6 I found some differences and wanted to post them here to see if anything helps clear it all up.
I acutally installed x windows system and 'desktop' groups since that is what worked with my ipmi card. I installed tigervnc-server as root, ran vncpasswd as root, got a password. started/stopped just like it said to, so far so good.
opened port 5902 -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 5902 -j ACCEPT
in /etc/sysconfig/vncservers I added root and had to take out "-localhost" or I could never connect via vncviewer, completely blocked unless both were taken out. I imagine there is some setting somehow in vncviewer but I cannot find it. I am assuming I am still unencrypted in my connection due to this.
now it gets weird, perhaps due to me installing x windows system...here is my startx file, completely different than the one you posted...and I changed nothing and it worked.
#!/bin/sh
[ -r /etc/sysconfig/i18n ] && . /etc/sysconfig/i18n export LANG export SYSFONT vncconfig -iconic & unset SESSION_MANAGER unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS OS=`uname -s` if [ $OS = 'Linux' ]; then case "$WINDOWMANAGER" in *gnome*) if [ -e /etc/SuSE-release ]; then PATH=$PATH:/opt/gnome/bin export PATH fi ;; esac fi if [ -x /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ]; then exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc fi if [ -f /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ]; then exec sh /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc fi [ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources xsetroot -solid grey xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" & twm &
My issue still revolves around the actual encryption. There seems to be nothing in vncviewer allowing it. There is something in your post about the ssh, but it references only another vnc server.
so, is the only way to get an ssh connection is to download a windows vncserver, and connect with that to the vncserver on my linux box? (box is on the internet, not local)
anyway, this helpful how to really saves a lot of time, really debunked a lot of myths about not needing a desktop installed (which was really furstrating trying to make it work without one).
Centos 6 is a bit different in that one file...and it would be great to know how to connect though ssh with a viewer.
still, it freaking works!!