How to access Remote System

Hii every one I need a little help regarding to access the PC of my friend.I am sitting behind PIX and he is too behind some stupid F/W who troubles him on daily basis.He then calls me and do the load shifting :D , well my question is.... is that a secure way with which I can access his system and troubleshoot his basic computer problems is(like vnc) so that he can learn a bit,he is not a computer guy and I dont have access to my PIX so no question of VPNs like that. I heard about www.gotomeeting.com but its costly I think... :( is there any other way around...
regrds
bat21

That would depend a lot on the configuration of the two firewalls... But since you don't administer either it'll all be a little difficult won't it... Maybe you should do it from somewhere where you can at least admin your local firewall, like home....

Excatly Tigershark U understood my problem !!!!!!!!!!! well I have to do this from my present location no other place.Well have u heard something like gotomeeting.com they work on some cirtix platform ( dont knw much about that :( ) .Any other easy solution for this ??

bat21

well Tigershark nice signature :D lol

I don't actually see how gotomeeting would work. If it would work wouldn't you be able to use the standard default program in windows. I can't think of the name of it right now, but it lets you remote connect to another box and pretty much control it for administrative tasks.


edit:

The only way I can think of this working is if your friend connects to a comp outside the network. And then you connect to that same computer and then from there you connect back.

http://www.adremsoft.com/freecon/index.php

might work for hat but honestly I am not sure.


edit:
T.S. that is what I was saying before the edit

That would require a firewall to allow ingress of port 3389, (RDP). Since he can't control either firewall he's SOL where that is concerned so he needs to use a public server based system or have control of one of the firewalls.

You can use GoToMyPC behind a firewall. It is accessed through a web browser and there is no need to configure any firewalls. You can find a trial of this program. Im not sure if there are any other free programs just like gotomypc.

If you get access to the pix firewall use these commands to forward Remote Desktop access:

access-list <access list name or #> permit tcp any host <outside address of pix> eq 3389

static (inside,outside) tcp <outside address of pix> 3389 <address of host> 3389 netmask 255.255.255.255 0 0

Be carefull and check to see if port 3389 is forwarded to any other addresses. Also, you might be able to use a different public IP if you have a subnet to work with.

Once you have confirmed that there isnt any problems and you are able to connect remotly, you can save your new config by typing "write mem"

I was about to say MSN messenger, but ports are probably blocked.

Give Hamachi a try. You can use it in conjunction w/ VNC and a number of other remote admin's.

http://forums.hamachi.cc/viewtopic.php?t=2469