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

[Marko Vojinovic]

On Monday 12 January 2009 03:36, Scott Silva wrote:
> on 1-9-2009 12:41 PM Marko Vojinovic spake the following:
> > 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.
>
> There is an application based on VNC called teamviewer that can be set to
> start automatically and points to a central server so that you can always
> find the system. It crosses NAT easily and can be set with a fixed
> password.

Ok, thanks, I'll look at teamviewer as well.

For the record, yesterday I investigated all options so far mentioned in the 
thread (except for teamviewer, of course), and found that openvpn is actually 
the best way to go, for me at least. Other tools are also not bad, but some 
are not cost-free (or have a trial-only period), some fail over NAT, and some 
just don't feel robust enough (this is just a personal feeling, of course).

Openvpn is completely cost-free (and also open-source), very well documented 
and gives a very large amount of control in how to setup the virtual network. 
And it doesn't depend on third-party servers, just me and myself 
involved. ;-) In fact, it seems that most of other tools use openvpn in the 
background, and just automate the configuration and installation, and 
dumb-down the vpn flexibility in the process.

Not to say they don't work or are not good at what they do, it's just my 
gut-feeling that they are not "serious" enough. I feel they may have too many 
points of failure, where openvpn has less.

So, it will eventually be openvpn or teamviewer (if it is good enough for my 
taste).

Big thanks to all of you! :-)

Best, :-)
Marko