Remote control linux box from xp

[Agathron]

Is there any way i can set up a linux box so it's hidden away in my closet without a keyboard mouse and monitor and yet still have it as storage and to compile stuff from my windows laptop? I have a home network so it's really the software or packages i would need that i'm interested in. the linux box is running redhat 8.0 and the windows laptop is xp-pro.

cheers.

[Pinky]

Of course. I prefer to use SSH (instead of something like telnet). I use the client called PuTTY from Windows to access my Linux box. Works great.

[SkyDog]

VNC is also available for both Windows and Linux, as well as a bunch of other operating systems.

[rock]

You don't need anything as heavy weight as VNC. What you're looking for is an X Server running on Windows. Although they cost $$, Exceed and XWin32 are tops in this field. These will allow you to log into the machine using rexec or rsh and then you can run xterm on the Linux box (this is where PuTTY differs some - it uses ssh and an xterm emulator).

As for the hardware itself, set it up with keyboard, mouse and monitor present, making it load X on startup. Make sure the bios doesn't "halt on keyboard error". If it's new (uses PS/2 connections), just unplug everything and you're fine. If it's old (ATX keyboard connection), you'll need to shutdown, unplug, and reboot.

Make sure you've got enough ventilation in that closet! My headless Linux box just sits next to my Win2K box in the corner.

You'll want to run Samba on the Linux box to have your WinXP machine use it as storage. This will let you map network drives. RH 8 comes with Samba, so it's just a matter of installing and configuring it. Most general RedHat books cover it some detail.

[Agathron]

excellent, thanks for the tips. I wasn't seriously going to keep it in the closet, just in the corner somewhere Also, i wasn't looking to spend money to do this, i have an old p-200 lying around with some hdd space so thought i might be interesting to try.

i've heard talk about setting up a linux box as a router....how does that work?

[Tekime]

Originally posted by Agathron
i've heard talk about setting up a linux box as a router....how does that work?

Magnificently

You can use IPTABLES and IPMASQ/NAT to make a router out of a 486 if you want. Even better, check out www.linuxrouter.org and marvel over the power of a single floppy disk

For commercial router alternatives try www.freesco.org.

[rock]

Linux box as a router and firewall works great. However, I found it was overkill and annoying, so ended up using a LinkSys w/4 port switch anyway. My Linux box is now pretty much just a development & testing environment with no extra workload.

[Tekime]

Originally posted by rock
Linux box as a router and firewall works great. However, I found it was overkill and annoying, so ended up using a LinkSys w/4 port switch anyway. My Linux box is now pretty much just a development & testing environment with no extra workload.

Yes, if you have the money to pick up a cheap router it's of course a lot easier. Unless you use a router on a floppy, it's about as basic as a normal router (from what I've seen, mines a little more of a custom job). Of course you still have the 25 pounds of metal and fans to cope with