[XFCE]Need help with Desktop Sharing/ remote maintenance

[Clad in Sky]

Hello,

as I've not done anything like that before, I'd appreciate some advice regarding doing maintenance on a machine over the internet.
I need to set up something on my mother's computer that allows me to do things like updates and stuff (I figure ssh is enough for that) as well as controlling her desktop so I can help her when she has a problem with software or anything.

Her laptop is running Gentoo with XFCE. It connects to the internet via a DSL-modem with integrated wlan router, so my questions are:

1) Which packages do I need to install on her laptop
2) How do I go on connecting to another computer over the internet

Thanks for your help.
_________________
Kali Ma
Now it's autumn of the aeons
Dance with your sword
Now it's time for the harvest

[deefster]

Have a look at x11-misc/x11vnc to share her actual display. Most X servers will just give you a new session, but you may actually want to see what she's looking at.

naturally you can use tightvnc client or the like to connect to it

If a new session is ok, however, have a look at freenx, as the performance is much better than vnc imo.

[Clad in Sky]

OK, will have a look at that.
I read of a software called teamviewer. Any experience with that?
_________________
Kali Ma
Now it's autumn of the aeons
Dance with your sword
Now it's time for the harvest

[baaann]

I believe that freenx is no longer maintained, though it is still useable. An alternative is x2go

http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php

which is based on the nx code and actively developed

Another option is xpra which receives regular point releases

http://xpra.org/

Both x2go and xpra are capeable of shadowing her actual display.

[Tractor Girl]

ssh should be more than enough for this (especially with X forwarding). For whole desktop experience try tightvnc:
http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/TightVNC
http://news.metaparadigma.de/linux-setting-up-a-debian-vnc-server-237/

[Moriah]

If you need to remote an exosting X session, instead of X11vnc, which is pretty slow over a slow link, try gemsvnc. There used to be a gentoo ebiold for it, but the sources are still available. It is based on X11vnc, but used the tightvnc protocol library, so it is fast over a slow link.

I am the author of gemsvnc, but I haven't maintained it for 10 years now.

If there is any demand, I will try to bring it up to date.
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