Use cases

This page describes typical usage scenarios for the application.

General notes

We're assuming in the following examples, that an end user called Alice wants to make her screen available to a support staff called Bob. Alice only requires an installation of Remote Support Tool. Bob on the other side will have to make some preparations in order to make remote administration possible.

Direct VNC connection

In this scenario Alice sends her desktop through an unencrypted VNC connection to Bob.

Tasks for Bob

• In case that Bob sits behind a router / NAT, he has to open port 5500 in his router / NAT and has to forward incoming traffic from this port to his local machine.
• Bob has to start a VNC client in listening mode.
• Bob has to tell Alice his public IP address and the port number to access his VNC client.

Tasks for Alice

• Alice enters Bob's IP address and port number into her Remote Support Tool and clicks Connect.

Advantages

• best possible performance - because there is no overhead for encryption / decryption

Disadvantages

• VNC traffic is transferred unencrypted. This method should not be used when communicating over the internet.
• Bob has to open a port in the firewall of his router / NAT, what can be a security risk.

VNC connection through SSH tunnel

In this scenario Alice sends her screen through a secure connection (SSH tunnel) to Bob.

Tasks for Bob

• Bob has to install a SSH daemon on his machine.
• Bob should create a separate user account, that is used for authentication via SSH on his machine. Authentication may be realized with password or public/private key.
• In case that Bob sits behind a router / NAT, he has to open port 22 in his router / NAT and has to forward incoming traffic from this port to his local machine.
• Bob has to start a VNC client in listening mode.
• Bob has to tell Alice his public IP address, the port number of his SSH daemon and the port number to access his VNC client.

Tasks for Alice

• Alice enters Bob's IP address and both port numbers into her Remote Support Tool and clicks Connect.

Notice:

Remote Support Tool automatically opens the SSH tunnel. The corresponding ssh command looks like:

ssh -C -x -L 5500:localhost:5000 -p $SSH_PORT $SSH_USER@$ADDRESS

Advantages

• VNC traffic is transferred encrypted.

Disadvantages

• Bob has to open a port in the firewall of his router / NAT, what can be a security risk.

VNC connection through SSH gateway