Linux to WinXP Remote Desktop over the internet

Here's how to connect to your Windows XP Professional desktop over the internet from a Linux box through SSH tunneling and a cool little program called rdesktop.

Requirements:
1. Windows XP Professional running an SSH server. (I use Cygwin with OpenSSH)
2. Linux running a desktop manager. (KDE or GNOME work fine)
3. rdesktop

Steps:
1. Setup the Windows box as an SSH server
2. Compile rdesktop on the Linux box
3. Create an SSH tunnel from the Linux box to the Windows box
4. Run rdesktop

Procedure:
1. Setup the Windows box as an SSH server

For instructions on how to install an SSH server on your Windows box using Cygwin, refer to the first four steps on my previous post here.

2. Compile rdesktop on the Linux box

Download rdesktop here and compile the source on your Linux box. The process is the same as any other program. If you don't know how to compile a binary from source, read the included README and/or Google it. It's not that hard.

3. Create an SSH tunnel from the Linux box to the Windows box

Open up a terminal in Linux and type in "ssh -L 3390:localhost:3389 username@servername" replacing username with your own username and servername with the name of your server. Once connected, leave the window open. Closing it will collapse the tunnel.

4. Run rdesktop

Open another terminal and launch rdesktop by typing "rdesktop localhost:3390". If everything is setup correctly, you should now be looking at your Windows XP desktop login screen in 8-bit color and VGA resolution. Of course now you can read the documentation included with rdesktop to tweak the various settings.