For all you guys with folding farms...

[daywalker03]

While looking over the link about setting up a Windows 98 diskless folding farm I ran across an interesting way to control the headless systems...

http://www.nelliott.demon.co.uk/distributed/vnc.html

I'm runnin it as a service on "folding", my third system. I'm planning to set it up on "mom" as well, for more reasons than just one.

[FunkZ]

VNC has been around for quite a few years. A couple of things to keep in mind if you use it. It's free yes, but it's also easy to hack. I wouldn't recommend using it unless you're behind a firewall and have NT/2K/XP. I would never use it in a corporate environment. Always lock the desktop when not in use.

Installing it opens up port(s) 5500, 5800, 5900. You don't even need the VNC viewer installed to get into the machine. You can use IE by simply browsing to the machine's IP followed by the port. (ie. http://192.168.0.1:5800)

[Overthehill]

FunkZ what if you're using a router, are you still vulnerable?

[Hardman]

If router has build-in firewall with NAT, not

[Prototype]

Even behind a router, you may want to use a software firewall as well like zonealarm or whatever you are comfortable with, ie TPF, etc. Those routers using NAT are not bullet proof and the last thing you want is somebody to get through the first line of defense and then be able to roam freely.

Let us know how it goes!

[FunkZ]

If you're using a NAT'ing router at home and either lock the desktop or use a password protected screensaver you're pretty safe.

If you've set your router up to pass those ports (so that you can access your PC remotely) I would recommend using NT/2K/XP and create a non-default login. Don't use the Administrator account but instead create a hard-to-guess user name with administrative rights and give it a good password... at least 8 characters, no words, and use a combination of letters, numbers and characters.

[Sound-Mind]

Instead of vnc I'd reccomend Back Orifice by Cult of the Dead Cow. Very powerful program. I'm pretty sure it has encryption capabilities built in as well. This still doesn't solve the security issues... Also, alot of virus scanners pick up B.O., VNC, sub seven, etc as possible threats even though they might serve a legitimate purpose.