Virtual Networking

[lpc300]

Hi all,

I think I can do this, but I'm not sure how. Here's the setup: at home, 3 PC's connected to cable internet via a router; at work 4 PC's connected to DSL internet via a router. What I'd like to do is remote control a work computer from a home computer throught the internet via virtual networking. If it helps, the computers I want to use are wired to the routers (other PC's are wireless). I downloaded realvnc and it works great within each intranet...but I can't figure out how to get it work from home to work. I have all the IP addresses, subnets and DNS's. Any help would be appreciated. BTW, both routers are Netgear m814b's.

Thanks in advance.

[mbossman2]

first and most important step: get permission from your employer (either the IT department or the owner) for you to connect remotely. By allowing unsolicited external access to a network, you open up a security can of worms.

[lpc300]

I have permission. We have a second site and since I handle all the IT stuff, this is how I'm testing whether we can link both sites.

[glc]

You don't need a VPN to do this - all you need to do is to forward the correct ports in the routers to the correct private IP's. Note that open ports is a security issue so I'd configure your VNC to ports other than the defaults.

[lpc300]

I'd hoped you'd answer, glc...you''ve helped me with other networking issues in the past. How do I foward the correct ports and how do I find out what they are? Thanks in advance.

[glc]

You need to read the router's and VNC's documentation. Not trying to avoid a direct question, but all routers differ, even identical models with different firmware revisions (I don't do Netgear) and so do different flavors of VNC. You can set up VNC to control multiple machines - and each machine will have a different port - and it also depends whether you will be using the VNC Viewer or just using a browser and the Java applet viewer. ANY machine that you wish to control with VNC behind a router should be assigned a static local IP.

[lpc300]

Thanks for your response, glc. Both routers are Netgear m814 with identical upgraded firmware. All computers have an assigned local IP. I was planning on using realvnc with a vnc viewer, but if there is an easier way just using a browser, I would prefer it. I know the basics of router port forwarding, but this seems a little beyond that. Any advice would be appreciated or if you know of a good 'how to site', that would be great.

[lpc300]

Figured it out. Ended up using realvnc. Needed to set up port forwarding, sending my local machine to vnc's identifed port. Then needed to log in using router's ip address and vnc's port. Worked great.

[glc]

The attachment should fire off the light bulb. In this case, forward 5901 to that particular server if you use the VNC viewer client, and if you want to use the Java viewer (no client need be installed) forward 5801. You may need to forward both ports if you use the Java viewer, I honestly don't remember. To log into that server with the Java viewer, you http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5801 to the real IP of the network with any Java-enabled browser. Each server behind the router needs a different port if you want to access more than one machine behind it. You can and should change the default ports for security reasons. Please review your documentation.

[lpc300]

Thanks a million, glc. I had everything working EXCEPT utilizing the browser, before your post. Thanks to your reminder of needing to set up another port forwarding, that's working now, too. Just another reason why I love coming to PCMech.