Windows server with Linux control possibility?

Hey everyone,

I am curious if anyone knows of a non-expensive way to use a nix box to manage a win 2k server.

The company I work for is expanding, its not at a point where it has the resources to get a dedicated VPN system. But it would have if there was some basic way to communicate back and forth. I have set some simple things up and am curious if anyone has any ideas to go further. Keep in mind that I am trying to create something secure, otherwise I would just share the terminal services in windows.


Presently I am using SSH and SFTP to be able to file share remotely. To do this I setup a nix box with the proper ports shared. They are the only live ports behind the router. Then I set the nix box with file shares for the information on the server. I can log into SSH mount the network drives and use SFTP to transfer files. I have been running this for 6 months or so with no problems.

I would like to be able to either run a session on the win 2k server tunneled through SSH. But I don’t know if this is possible. I have been poking around on Google. And have a way to share X but not what I am looking for. The other way I was looking at the problem is if I couldn’t get a GUI is there a way to get cmd line control.

Let me know if you need more info.

Well if you read this thanks for your time and any ideas you can yield.

As far as GUIs going.. VNC is the most likely option for accessing a Windows machine. Since security is important to you (as it should be to everyone) you will probably want to VNC over SSH. You can find a guide to setting this up @ http://www.windowswebsolutions.com/A...rticleID=24839 (uses commercial software, but you'll get the idea.. there's many free solutions out there)

Another option if you want to go with just command line is to download and install cygwin from http://www.cygwin.com - and set-up the included SSH server. This way you have access to most standard unix apps on the windows file system, as well you can always play around with other exe's on your system.

Thanks for the info. I will look deeper into it.

You could also use IPsec in Win2k to encrypt your terminal server session. This way you don't have to use a 3rd party app that does not even begin to compare with what terminal server can do.

UltraVNC supports file transfer: http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/
I don't know if you can use it through ssh though. I'm sure if you look around their site they will have a way to use a secure connection, if it doesn't already.
Hope this helps.

UltraVNC can support SSH , maybe u can use it
as far as gui is concerned, VNC is the best, although there is cygwin, VNC fees more comfortable and essentially stable for professionals