[wplug] howto remotely administer M$ machines from Debian GNU/Linux

[Alexandros Papadopoulos]

On Friday 04 February 2005 17:51, Jonathan S Billings wrote:
> Alexandros Papadopoulos wrote:
> > Generally VNC seems quite simple and is *very* easy to install and
> > use. If you think the mentioned process is not that simple, you
> > should try setting up M$ Terminal Services and then get back to me.
>
> I think that setting up Terminal Services is quite a bit easier than
> setting up VNC, particularly if you want to ensure that your traffic
> is secure. After the VNC server is set up, you'll also need to 
> configure some sort of secure tunnel to connect to the windows
> server, such as SSH or an SSL tunnel.

Right - I left out the "Win 9x" from the subject. On Win9x terminal 
services don't even exist as a possibility (for the server side). On 
WinNT machines, I'd still (admittedly without *knowing* what I'm 
talking about) wager that the security of RDP is vastly inferior to 
that provided by SSH or SSL tunneling (I read scary stuff about RC4 and 
56-bit keys with no preauthentication).

So:
+ On a local network, VNC is king.
+ For cross-platform compatibility, VNC is king.
+ For ease-of-use, VNC is still king (Terminal Services licensing looks 
very confusing, plus it requires an additional machine to act as the 
License Server?!)
+ For security, RDP beats VNC (3.x, not sure about the enhanced security 
features of 4.x) out of the box, but still results in questionable 
half-security. In any event, it's not up to each and every application 
to provide security over the network - that's what tunnels are for! See 
http://www.uk.research.att.com/archive/vnc/sshvnc.html, or use OpenVPN 
(which is a magnificent tool btw).

> Also, the 'rdesktop' client on unix/linux supports exporting local
> filesystems to the windows host, redirection of sound, serial ports
> and parallel ports, and automatic execution of processes on the
> windows host.

These are truly impressive features. I wonder how easy they are to use. 
Is there a HOWTO/article/FAQ about this somewhere?

> While I am not a huge fan of windows, I think that with the
> 'rdesktop' client, it is quite usable.

Remotely using a M$ machine means lack of access to the most necessary 
part of the PC: the "reset" button.

Cheers

-A