If you want to skip the long intro/rant and get to the actual part where I ask for help, skip down to the send set of dashes.
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Ok, so for a little background, take a look at this thread.
I had their system beautifully setup. It was wonderful! They were using Windows XP, had MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials), I also installed steady state and had it configured wonderfully where they were protected from anything negative happening. The mother had requested that I limit her daughter's access to certain websites, which I did. She also requested that I limit the amount of time and the time of day that the internet/computer is accessible, which I did.
I had also set up a VPN connection from my computer to her network. This allowed me to access her computer via the VPN and use either RDP or VNC to manage/administer the computer. I would use either RDP or VNC from either my win7 or Ubuntu system, didn't matter which as both worked fine.
The current issue is that after a few months of everything working smoothly, the mother fell to the daughter's constant whining and complaining. So the mother asked me to remove the steady state and internet monitoring/managing software. So I did but I warned her that her system was going to start to have issues eventually.
A little later, due to the continual whining of the daughter, I was asked to remove MSE because it "blocked access to some cool sites". In the "epic" words of the daughter: "It keeps saying that the site is known to infect computers but my friends visit it all the time and their computers are fine...." So I firmly warned the mother about the effects of removing MSE, but in the end it is her computer and so I removed it.
At that time, I disabled the VPN between our networks so that nothing could even remotely try to travel between hers and mine.
Then the mother asked me to change her daughter's account from a user to an admin account, but the catch was that I change the mother's from an admin account to a user account!!! My jaw dropped! I spoke with the mother for like 45 mins explaining what that means and the consequences of everything else up to that point and then also changing user rights. She didn't care. So I did it. I did it not because she asked me too but because I think that it will teach them a lesson in computer management and it will help them see. I washed my hands and walked away, knowing that soon events would take place that would cause them to ask me to fix it again.
Well it did to some degree. After like 6 months, they called me over to their house and started complaining that their computer was running slow, was not working like before, and that I had done something to it to make it not work properly.
I reminded the mother that I explained to her that this would eventually happen because she allowed her daughter to make it happen.
I scanned the machine for malware and found ........ no joke......... more than 6,000 pieces of malware!!!!!! Virii, trojans, fake virus scanners, worms, etc etc. You name it, they had it!!
So the mom finally accepted the fact that they had led to their computer's own destruction and failure.
I told her the only thing that I would do is install ubuntu on the machine and that neither of them would have admin rights to it. That I would admin it remotely and would block certain websites. She didn't like the idea of ubuntu but I told her tough, learn to use it, or go buy your own copy of XP/Vista/7 and install it yourself and manage it yourself.
So we agreed on ubuntu.
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Here is where I need some help. First off, sorry about the long intro/rant. It is very frustrating when people just don't get it!!!
Ok, so previously I was administering their computer remotely via two different ways but they each basically did the same thing:
1.) Because it was a windows based system, I installed no-ip.com's client software on their system. It allowed me to assign a domain to their dynamic IP. Via that domain, I could then use VNC or RDP directly and gain access to their computer.
2.) Or I would use a VPN to connect, via the domain, and then tunnel through the VPN using VNC or RDP to gain access to their machine.
Pretty simple setup actually. A little slow and laggy but it was ok for what was needed.
But that was a windows based system. Due to what I explained above in my rant, they are going to switch to an Ubuntu based system.
no-ip.com has a linux client available but I really don't want to mess with it. I would rather use their router's dyndomain feature instead.
I also would like to use SSH instead of VNC or RDP.
Is it advisable to continue to use a VPN to connect our two networks and then SSH, or could I just use the ssh command with whatever their domain is, to connect?
Example:
I really haven't ever used ssh and don't know too much about it. I am looking for some basic tips/pointers about it. I know that with the '-X' parameter it will give me a visual session of the server computer (the mom's computer) but other than that, I don't really know too much more about it. I have read some of the online docs and info and they were helpful but a more, human response sometimes is the best.Code:ssh -X user@domain.com
Also, in the off chance that I am connected to the admin account on the mother's machine via ssh and if the connection severs/fails, will my session on her computer end at the same time? I am concerned that if it is not, and it is still open, then the daughter/mother might have access to admin rights. But I guess that it all depends on if ssh opens the account on the desktop the same way that RDP does, right?
So as you can see, I am a little confused and need some clarification. Thanks!!!!
-Spydey
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