Hi,
I want to command my red hat 9 machine which is on my LAN. What I wish is I can access the console as root and possibly GNOME. Basicly something like VNC but with console access also. At the moment security is not an issue as there is not an outside connection yet until I have this fool-proof and configured correctly.
If this helps, then the IP addresses are static (Win XP=192.168.1.1) (Red Hat 9=192.168.1.3). Yes, there are two other Windows 2k machines on the network but I feel this is irrelevent to what I need.

If you need anymore detials then feel free to ask.

Thanks,

Ben,
Pentium 4 1.7GHz, 256 Cache
512 DDR RAM PC2700
ATI Radeon 9200SE 128 DDR RAM
Western Digital 80GB 7200 RPM

You could carry on using VNC and just use consoles like xterm. Telnet these days has been overtaken by SSH if you want shell access. You can use something like WinCRT or putty (which is free!=o) to access it from a windoze client. Running X apps on a windoze client is a little harder. You could always just carry around a knoppix CD, reboot the PC and use SSH with X forwarding which would almost be like sitting at the remote PC.

I donwloaded putty but I am confused. how do I login using it and use console commands?

Ben,
Pentium 4 1.7GHz, 256 Cache
512 DDR RAM PC2700
ATI Radeon 9200SE 128 DDR RAM
Western Digital 80GB 7200 RPM

You should be able to just select the protocol SSH (as opposed to telnet etc) which changes the port to number 22. Put in the IP 192.168.1.3 and try to connect. You should receive what looks like a command box for DOS with a "login:" prompt. You can now just log to your redhat box as though you were sat in front of it.

If you were connecting from another GNU/Linux desktop running something like KDE you can even forward X and run graphical applications over the network.

I'm confused. Here's a screenshot of what I see and when I type something into the box the program exits. :-/

http://mosherben.dyndns.org:8080/putty.jpg

Ben,
Pentium 4 1.7GHz, 256 Cache
512 DDR RAM PC2700
ATI Radeon 9200SE 128 DDR RAM
Western Digital 80GB 7200 RPM

Hmmm....never seen that before, you should be presented with a login prompt. Are you able to connect to the SSH server locally? ie on the redhat machine:
$ ssh 127.0.0.1

well I'm not sure about SSH for commands but I do use SSH for transfering files to the server (web pages). Still beats me why it doesnt work. I'm using WinSCP for that and it doesnt look like it has stuff for commands.

Abit more into the problem is that i type something and then whenever I press the enter key putty exits.

Ben,
Pentium 4 1.7GHz, 256 Cache
512 DDR RAM PC2700
ATI Radeon 9200SE 128 DDR RAM
Western Digital 80GB 7200 RPM

Are you definitely selecting SSH as opposed to telnet, rlogin or raw?

yea it is SSH and it is port 22. I have that open on my router plus it's on the LAN. What's rlogin because maybe that's how I login to the machine.

Ben,
Pentium 4 1.7GHz, 256 Cache
512 DDR RAM PC2700
ATI Radeon 9200SE 128 DDR RAM
Western Digital 80GB 7200 RPM

If you can use scp OK then ssh should work too. Are you trying to log in as root or a regular user? Sometimes if you need root access you have to log in as a user and then use su to switch user.

rlogin is just another way of connecting like ssh or telnet.

Perhaps a different client might work, SecureCRT is one I can think of off the top of my head....

Dave, great stuff SecureCRT works. I kinda want another client though that is free since i am only a cash strapped university student who doesn't fancy a 100$ registration fee. :-/

What should I look for if i want to find one on google- like a search term?

Ben,
Pentium 4 1.7GHz, 256 Cache
512 DDR RAM PC2700
ATI Radeon 9200SE 128 DDR RAM
Western Digital 80GB 7200 RPM

just did a search for "free ssh client" and came back with http://freessh.org/

Free windows clients:
http://www.zip.com.au/~roca/ttssh.html
http://www.[...].org.uk/~sgtatham/putty.html
http://www.massconfusion.com/ssh/
http://support.jgaa.com/?cmd=ShowArticle&ID=11
http://akson.sgh.waw.pl/~chopin/ssh/index_en.html
http://cs.mscd.edu/MSSH/index.html
http://lexa.dyndns.org/sshwindows/

I don't use windoze any more so can't comment on any of the programs....I'm sure there is one in there which will do. Failing that...er...astalavista.box.sk?