How do I set up remote desktop?

Question

I have some user accounts in my Ubuntu 10.04 and I want them to login from all over the world and access their data using Internet and of course I want any of my users to be able to access only their own user and to be able to change data.

What should I do? Are there any remote desktop apps?

Solution 1

The feature is already installed on your Ubuntu. The "server" can be configured in System/Preferences/Remote Desktop, whereas the "client" is in Applications/Internet/Terminal Server Client.

A blog entry explain this better than I can: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ubuntu-remote-desktop-builtin-vnc-compatible-dead-easy/

Solution 2

As far as I can see, none of the answers posted so far actually implement user-based security, they simply allow access to a running X session. This page talks about how to launch the X windows manager (or login handler) over the internet. This way, the only application user gets access to is the login screen, just as they would if they were sitting at the local terminal.

Comments

[JanC]

Do they only need to access their data, or do they need an actual desktop?

[Jeremy]

How does this implement user-based security? With the settings shown above, this doesn't even allow users to log in if there isn't someone to click the "allow" button.

[Jeremy]

FYI, if that page doesn't explain it well enough for you, the Google search you want is "remote X session"

[Jeremy]

The reason this method allows you to implement user-based security is that you're pretty much just launching the session over SSH or some other (non-GUI) transport, you're not relying on X-based applications to give you access to your desktop. I think VNC-server can be set up to handle this situation as well, but it is generally considered to be insecure if it's not running over SSH (more correctly, TLS).