SSH tunnel for VNC not functioning

Question

I am playing with my sexy new Ubuntu 10.04 server

I am trying to tunnel x11vnc through SSH to putty.

Steps I took (all from my Windows 7 client)

• open putty (0.60)
• Enter the server address under host name. The server is the DMZ computer on my home network. The client is behind NAT. The server has a dynamic DNS so I entered "xyz.dyndns.org" under host name. (yes, the real server is something other than "xyz" please don't go hack )
• Under SSH--> Tunnels--> I enter 5900 under "source port" and "127.0.0.1:5900" under destination.
• Click Add
• Click Open
• enter username and password
• type "x11vnc -usepw" it confirms that the server is running and serving at 5900. I have also confirmed that there are no firewall rules blocking access to 5900 and one allowing access to everyody (no, I won't leave it like that for long).
• open TightVNC viewer
• type in 127.0.0.1:5900

and it responds:

sorry loopback connections are not enabled

The error log at D:\Users\dreber\AppData\Roaming\TightVNC is blank.

Any thoughts?

Solution 1

If your installation of TightVNC was anything like mine, then the program TightVNC Service was also installed and is currently running in the background. TightVNC Service is a VNC server, which means your Windows 7 computer is running as a server when you want it to shut up and be a client!

All you need to do is look at your task bar for a little V icon and exit it. TightVNC Viewer can tell the difference between a real loopback and a SSH tunnel, so go ahead and try again after you've exited out of TightVNC Service. If it works, I would make sure TightVNC Service no longer runs on start-up.

Solution 2

I was having the same problem and fortunately able to get it resolved. If you have installed the TightVNC Viewer with TightVNC Server then TightVNC service is running in background; and it is not allowing TightVNC Viewer to loop-back.

Here are steps you need to perform to get resolved:

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc simultaneously
   • Hopefully Windows Task Manager will appear
2. Click on Services Tab in Task Manager Window
3. Click on Services... (button at right bottom corner of task manager window)
   • Look for TightVNC Server
4. Double Click OR right click on it and choose properties
5. Click on Stop button to make this service stop

You can also make it disabled by clicking Startup type drop down and choose Disabled. Finally click Apply button to save your settings...

Comments

[Justin Buser]

try localhost:0 instead of 127.0.0.1:5900