That's a fine solution for running individual programs on a remote machine (except for some software, like Mathematica, that has issues with X forwarding, fonts, window redrawing, etc.), but it's a bit of a pain if you basically want to run all software remotely. That why I was looking for a solution that's almost a thin client.
Someone else suggested I might try FreeNX. Apparently it's VNC-type software that works via SSH by default, so that sounds like maybe it's what I want. Nick On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 12:48 PM, Justin Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > Using X-forwarding, all of the actual computation occurs on the remote > side, it just displays to the local machine rather than to the remote > machine's monitor. I suspect that's your best bet. Plus, it uses an SSH > tunnel, so it's relatively secure. Depending on how display-heavy the > computations you're doing are, you may bandwidth saturate, though. > > - Justin > > Nick Cummings wrote: > >> Like I said, they're both on the same 100 Mbps LAN (actually 1 Gbps LAN, >> but the old machine only has a 10/100 NIC). I would be willing to try both, >> but I guess I was curious if a) there were other suggestions, or b) there >> was any sage advice about doing things securely (e.g., using SSH port >> forwarding). >> >> On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 11:58 AM, Rob Sherwood >> <[email protected]<mailto: >> [email protected]>> wrote: >> >> How remote is the remote machine? LAN? WAN? It's not too hard just >> to try both and see what works best. X should work out of the box for >> you but I suspect your will like VNC better. What I would be >> interested in hearing is if there are any other alternatives? >> >> - Rob >> . >> >> >> >> On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 8:27 AM, Nick Cummings<[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> > I have a slow old machine (Celeron 400 MHz) that I'd like to use >> as a client >> > to do work on a faster remote machine. What I want is almost a >> thin client, >> > meaning that most of the time I'd like as much as possible >> running on the >> > faster server, but the client will have a hard drive, and >> ideally I'd like >> > to retain the ability to login to the local system occasionally. >> Also, I >> > don't have a special NIC I can boot from in the client. >> > >> > What are my best options? >> > >> > Currently, the server is running Ubuntu Hardy (8.04 LTS) and the >> client is >> > running Xubuntu Jaunty (9.04). The two machines are on the same >> 100 Mbps >> > LAN. Both have public (i.e., routable) IP addresses and are not >> behind a >> > firewall, so I don't want to open anything terribly insecure. >> > >> > I'm familiar with X Forwarding, which would allow me to connect >> via SSH and >> > have individual applications on the remote machine forwarded to >> the local >> > machine's X server. But since I'd be working essentially >> entirely on the >> > remote machine, it would be preferable to be using an entirely >> remote >> > desktop. Also, the more computational work that can be >> off-loaded onto the >> > remote machine the better. >> > >> > Should I look into some sort of VNC software or XDMCP? Which of >> these is >> > relatively secure (or can be easily made secure with the use of SSH >> > tunnels)? I would also like something that doesn't require me to >> already be >> > logged in on the remote machine. >> > >> > Thanks, >> > >> > Nick >> > >> >> >>
