macOS using VNC outside a LAN to access a computer in the LAN...huh?

[piranhaofeden]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post at all, but any help at all is appreciated! Let's assume I have a moderate grasp of networking vocabulary, I know how to forward ports, I know internal vs external IP's, etc.

I am dabbling in Linux, and set up a Ubuntu desktop to run a server for a video game. When I'm on the internal network I have no problem VNCing the desktop via my MacBook Pro. However, I'm at a loss as to how to do it outside the network. Do I need to put in the external followed by the ports I'm forwarding it through? Just a little confused. Thanks all!

 

[lee1210]

i'm not sure what the right forum would be, so this one should do...

Unless there's a more complicated setup at work here, you would just need to forward from your router/NAT thing/etc. on the port you are running the VNC server to the machine that is running it. Then you should just need to point a client from outside the network at your router/NAT thing's external IP address and the forwarded port.

-Lee

 

[26139]

Forward ports

Yes, you need to forward ports to an internal ip.

For instance, on my DSL router, I need to forward ports 3283, 5988 and 5900 to my router, which has an internal IP of 192.68.0.4 (yours may differ).

From the router, I forward those same ports to my server (192.168.15.99).

Keep in mind that all IPs should be static for this to work correctly, so you have to assign static IPs to the router and to the internal computers for this to work properly. It's possible you can do it with a dynamic external IP, but it's a pain. I'd recommend paying the five bucks a month to get a static external IP from your ISP.

There's also a free service that can effectively assign you a static IP, but I can't remember what that is.

 

[prostuff1]

http://www.dyndns.com/

This is a free service that will allow you to set up something like thisismycomputer.is-a-geek.com as an address to connect to from outside the local network.

I use it for all of my computers along with my parents so that i can help them when need be. Works perfect for me

 

[lee1210]

I really do hate to complicate things, but you really shouldn't do this.

VNC is unencrypted. Some could easily sniff your password and they now own your machine, via the internet no less.

I would instead turn on SSH and tunnel VNC through your SSH connection, which then buys you the encryption of SSH without much slowdown.

-Lee

 

[7031]

I really do hate to complicate things, but you really shouldn't do this.

VNC is unencrypted. Some could easily sniff your password and they now own your machine, via the internet no less.

I would instead turn on SSH and tunnel VNC through your SSH connection, which then buys you the encryption of SSH without much slowdown.

-Lee

Don't bother with VNC at all with SSH. If it's with Linux, just tunnel X11 through ssh.

For example, just type:
ssh joel@192.168.0.3 -X