[Techtalk] Setting up an ADSL router for remote access

[David Sumbler]

TeamViewer sounded like an excellent suggestion, so this afternoon I
installed it on my desktop computer.  I then did a remote connection to
my laptop, which is connected to my LAN by wifi.  (Both computers are
running Ubuntu 12.04.)

Unfortunately I find that whilst I can control the 2nd computer from the
1st, changes to the laptop's display are not replicated in the window on
my main computer.  In other words, I can move windows around, type
characters, start applications etc., but the window on the desktop
computer stubbornly shows the layout as it was at the start and never
changes.  This is odd, because ticking "show remote cursor" does work: I
can see the remote cursor on my screen, and it correctly changes shape
e.g. when it is at the edge of a window on the remote machine, even
though the window is shown in the wrong place on the controlling
machine.

I have had similar problems in the past using Remmina and Vinagre when
connecting to my friend's computer (through her old router): then, I
found that although the connection worked OK for a short while, after a
minute or so my display would grind to a halt and refuse to update, so
it was impossible to do anything useful.

What could be causing this?

David


On Mon, 2015-12-28 at 11:26 -0800, Deborah Bennett wrote:
> I would install a remote control application like Teamviewer. I use version 10 to remotely use a PC running Windows 7, I run Linux. There is a one-time authentication step, then you can remotely log in whenever you want. It takes care of all the tunnel mechanics for you. 
> 
> -deborah 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> > On Dec 28, 2015, at 9:26 AM, David Sumbler <david at aeolia.co.uk> wrote:
> > 
> > I have an elderly (i.e. even more elderly that me) friend who lives a
> > long way off; we keep in touch mostly by using Pidgin for IM.  For many
> > years I have managed to keep her computer more or less functional,
> > mainly by my logging in remotely.
> > 
> > Very often the sort of things I need to sort out are merely uncollapsing
> > folders in Evolution when she finds she can't see her emails.  She
> > sometimes accidentally changes things like this because her eyesight is
> > not very good; she has also been diagnosed with Alzheimers, and although
> > that is at a fairly early stage she is easily confused if I try to
> > explain how to correct things.
> > 
> > Some months ago she had to get a new router.  She was supplied with a
> > new one by her ISP (BT).  Unfortunately this means that I can no longer
> > log in to her computer because the router has not been set up to permit
> > that.
> > 
> > She is now having computer problems which need to be sorted out.  They
> > sound like simple things such as the collapsed folders I mentioned, and
> > also she clearly has not applied any software updates for many months:
> > she has probably forgotten how to.  So we have decided that she will
> > send her computer to me to fix, which will probably only take a matter
> > of minutes.
> > 
> > It occurred to me that if she were to send her router as well I ought to
> > be able to set that up so that when she reconnects everything I can then
> > get an SSH connection to her computer.  When her router is here with me
> > I doubt that I shall be able to get an internet connection with it: it
> > is set up with her account details and BT is quite likely to refuse a
> > connection because it is not coming through a BT phone line.  But so far
> > as I can see I don't need an internet connection: I just need to be able
> > to log into the router from her (or my) computer and set it up to allow
> > incoming connections from me to be routed to her computer.
> > 
> > Can anyone see a problem with this?  Is there anything I have overlooked
> > which might prevent me from setting up the router the way we need
> > without having an active internet connection?
> > 
> > David
> > 
> > 
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