Which application to use in Linux when the remote PC is Windows-based and behind a firewall and I need access?

Question

I have a situation where I am in Europe and the remote PC is in USA. So my duty falls back always when my time is 1am and I need remote access to a new PC in USA for configuration and setup. They are brand new PCs, where normally you have Windows installed and general PC users just install Logmein.com and VNC.

The painful part is midnight to 1 am, when I cannot have access but I have to do the job, where also nobody is physically present to accept when I need to connect (TeamViewer is same, VNC has no "behind firewall" feature).

I seem to be alone on needing this feature with Linux, and seems like it's like rocket science to do it, because less information is available about this. Google has made lot of applications but they seem to have missed this one.

Any idea how can I setup something which can work if the PC is behind firewall? I am a Linux user trying to login remotely and setup my developed software on that brand new PC. (something exactly like Logmein.com but without anyone else involved, as I explained above, I have to connect myself)

Answer 1

I would look into Logmein Hamachi. It is a secure VPN connection that has a few different options; Gateway, Mesh and Hub/Spoke.

https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/#Gateway

You can have an initial server configured there as a Gateway. From there, you will join your PC from Europe to this gateway. Since Hamachi is cross platform, there is no issue with Linux/Windows. When joined to the Gateway, it will be as if you are right there on the same network and have access to all network resources.

If these computers are part of a domain controller then you can use Group Policies to push RDP access to the machines. From here you can use the IP addresses like you normally would as if you were on the network. If you happen to be on a network ip pool that is the same as the gateway network ip pool then you will notice that the gateway is given a different kind of address.

For example, if your network is 192.168.1.0 and the remote network is 192.168.1.0 as well then you will notice that your gateway will be something silly like 10.42.1.0. From here you can use 10.42.1.x where x is the last set of the computer's IP. So if you had two computers that you needed access to and their IPs are 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.101 then you would use 10.42.1.100 and 10.42.1.101.

[RE your comment]

Since they do a bit of initial setup, you can have them email you the IP address of the computer. Using the above suggestion, you don't even need Logmein's remote sessions as the Hamachi gateway will give you immediate access to their network.