user ports

[RandyRiegel]

Are there a group of ports set commonly set asside for whatever you want to use them for? Like how certain IP addresses are the common ones for LAN (ex. 192.168.x.x)? I'm wanting to be able to use a block of ports but don't want to interfere with anything.

Randy

 

[nokernel]

Mostly take a port above 1024, and you can also see the file /etc/services for common ports.

 

[RandyRiegel]

I am running TightVNC on my Windows XP machine at work. The LAN address of that machine is 192.100.100.6. I can access my computer from any browser on the LAN using

http://192.100.100.6:5800/

What I want to do is use port forwarding on my Linux machine to when I type in the Linux servers address from home it will forward me to my work computer.

Example: if from home I type in my servers IP address:

http://123.123.123.1:1050

I want to be forwarded to 192.100.100.6:5800. I am using firestarter as my firewall and I opened port 1050 and also said to point port 1050 to 192.100.100.6:5800 if I try to connect to the server from home using port 1050 after it, it just times out. Any ideas?

BTW The servers LAN address is 192.100.100.3.

Randy

 

[nokernel]

Well you need to forward at your job since your job's windows box is on a local lan. You dont only need to open the port 1050 on your firewall you must do a redirection to the port 5800 witch is another stuff.

 

[RandyRiegel]

I am also doing the redirection. Under "Forwarded Ports" in firestarter I have "From port 1050 to 192.100.100.6, port 5800". So my server address with :1050 after it should forward me correct?

Even I sit on the Linux machine right now and type:

http://localhost:1050

it tells me "cannot connect to local host (port 1050)". I have ports 1050, and the two VNC ports 5800 & 5900 open.

Randy

 

[RandyRiegel]

Ok, now from home I can use "

http://68.255.xxx.xxx:1050"

and it connects to my computer at work and asks me for authentication, but then after I type my password and hit enter I get the following error.

"Network error: could not connect to 68.255.xxx.xxx:5900"

Any ideas? I know that 5800 & 5900 are VNC ports. I opened those ports on my linux firewall at work and at home and it still does this.

 

[RandyRiegel]

Now I got it working from home when I type "

http://68.255.xxx.xxx:1050"

it gives me the java applet and gives me the screen to enter my password like it is connected to my computer at work, then it tells me "Network error: could not connect to server: 68.255.xxx.xxx:5900".

I have port 5900 open on my linux firewall at work as well as home, so why I am getting this error? Any ideas?

Randy

 

[lgarner]

This may be a VNC issue. The only information I could find on port forwarding for VNC involves SSH, which is the preferred way to go since VNC traffic is not encrypted.

Try forwarding ports 5800/5900 on the router to the same ports on the desktop. From the http result that you got, it appears that the applet is simply grabbing the address from your url. If you use the actual VNC ports instead of 1050, it might work.

 

[RandyRiegel]

Sorry about the double reply, I kept getting an error while posting last night and my reply wasn't showing, now there are two.

Anyway, the reason I'm using 1050 and not the actual VNC ports is because I want to have other people accessing their computers too and wanting to setup sort of like:

1050 = user1
1051 = user2
1052 = user3
......

Basically I'm giving each VNC user a port number to access their work machine.

 

[lgarner]

I had a hunch that it would come to that. Multiple users would cause a problem.

I'd suggest forwarding through SSH instead. I've done it and it works great. Much easier setup and no port forwarding required on the firewall. Users need a shell account on the firewall, or on an SSH server behind it (SSH port-forwards nicely).

 

[RandyRiegel]

Thanks, I'll have to try that. I have no experience forwarding through SSH I'm going to go search for some info on it now. Do you know of any good tutorials about SSH forwarding right off?

Randy

 

[lgarner]

On Windows I use Putty (

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/)

which is good. It has a simple interface where you enter a local port and the remote addressort. After you connect via SSH you enter your local computer's addressort and the SSH client redirects you to the remote addressort.

For example:
Local port: 5907
Remote: 192.168.1.95:5901

After connecting, run "vncviewer localhost:4"

 

[RandyRiegel]

I use putty now for SSH'ing to my servers, just never used tunneling.

If I'm going to have to use the extra step of connecting via SSH I will just use my VPN server (poptop) that I already have up and running. I just thought that rather than connecting to VPN first it would save the user a couple clicks of the mouse.

Most of the people that are going to be using it just know stuff like Excel, Word, etc... nothing technical so using tunneling in Putty would probably confuse the heck out of them.

Randy