Linux: Setup SSH To Tunnel VNC Traffic Though Internet

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Setting up an SSH tunnel to tunnel VNC traffic through the internet involves creating an encrypted connection between your local machine and a remote server. This can be accomplished using the following steps:

  1. Install an SSH client on your local machine. If you’re using a Linux or macOS machine, the SSH client is already installed.
  2. Log into your remote server using the SSH client. The following command can be used to log into a remote server:
    $ ssh user@remote_server_ip

    Replace user with your username on the remote server, and remote_server_ip with the IP address of the remote server.

  3. Start a VNC server on your local machine. For example, if you’re using the TightVNC server, you can start it by running the following command:
    $ vncserver :1

    This will start a VNC server on display number 1.

  4. Establish the SSH tunnel. The following command can be used to establish an encrypted tunnel between your local machine and the remote server:
    $ ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 user@remote_server_ip

    Replace user with your username on the remote server, and remote_server_ip with the IP address of the remote server.

    The -L option is used to specify a local port forward. The first 5901 is the local port number that will be used to access the remote VNC server. The second 5901 is the remote port number of the VNC server. The localhost specifies that the remote VNC server is running on the same machine as the remote SSH server.

  5. Connect to the remote VNC server. On your local machine, start a VNC client and connect to localhost:1. This will establish a VNC connection to the remote VNC server, encrypted over the SSH tunnel.

The above steps will allow you to access a VNC server running on a remote machine, over an encrypted SSH connection. The VNC traffic will be transmitted securely through the internet, protected from eavesdropping and tampering by the encryption provided by the SSH tunnel.

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