VNC, SSH and a LinkSys Router

[krumholz]

After reading the many post covering SSH, VNC and rounters I got my connection to work. But, I don’t understand one step.

Step 1: On my LinkSys router at home I forward port 22 and 5901 to my Linux PC
Step 2: On the Linux PC I run vncserver, and sshd
Step 3: From my work PC I run SSH with the following switch:
ssh workerbee@12.248.17.45 -L5901:12.248.17.45:5901

Step 4: run the viewer on my work pc using localhost:5901


An X windows session starts and every thing is ok. I am a newbie and what I don’t under stand is why I need to forward port 5901 from my router to the Linux PC. I tried the above setup without 5901 forwarded and I was unable to make a connection. If I am tunneling, shouldn’t fowrding port 22 be enough ? And is my setup forwarding 5901 still using SSH(port 22) and secure ?

Router: LinkSys Router BEFSR41
Linux OS RedHat 9
Work PC: Windows XP

Thanks in advance

[Kendan]

Originally posted by krumholz
After reading the many post covering SSH, VNC and rounters I got my connection to work. But, I don’t understand one step.

Step 1: On my LinkSys router at home I forward port 22 and 5901 to my Linux PC
Step 2: On the Linux PC I run vncserver, and sshd
Step 3: From my work PC I run SSH with the following switch:
ssh workerbee@12.248.17.45 -L5901:12.248.17.45:5901

Step 4: run the viewer on my work pc using localhost:5901


An X windows session starts and every thing is ok. I am a newbie and what I don’t under stand is why I need to forward port 5901 from my router to the Linux PC. I tried the above setup without 5901 forwarded and I was unable to make a connection. If I am tunneling, shouldn’t fowrding port 22 be enough ? And is my setup forwarding 5901 still using SSH(port 22) and secure ?

Router: LinkSys Router BEFSR41
Linux OS RedHat 9
Work PC: Windows XP

Thanks in advance


You should not have to forward 5901 from your router to the Linux PC.