troubles with remote desktop XP into Ubuntu

[ijason]

i'm trying to remote desktop into by ubuntu desktop from an XP laptop, and i'm getting stuck on what i presume are some really basic things that i can't quite find answers to. any help would be appreciated.

on my ubuntu box i would prefer to use the included Desktop Sharing application from the System>Preferences>Remote Desktop menu. i've already enabled it in-so-far as i've checked the boxes and created a required password. now the icon is in the little tray. it tells me users need to connect to jason-desktop:0

i've installed tightVNC on my laptop, but can't figure out how in the heck to get it to connect! i've tried typing in "jason-desktop" and "jason-desktop:0" to the server field and get "failed to get server address" for the error message. when i put in the IP address for the desktop i get a different error message "failed to CONNECT to server".

i can ping the ubuntu box from my laptop... i'm assuming the IP is the first address returned when i do 'tracert local', right? 192.168.1.1 for the ubuntu box and my laptop is 192.168.1.2, so it seems right. but when i try to ping my laptop from the ubuntu i get 100% packet loss. so i'm stumped.

both machines are served from a netgear wireless router

[Titan8990]

This address: 192.168.1.1 is most likely your router.

To find you ip address:


ifconfig

[razy60]

never sure which way round it is, but isn't the server the pc your on and the desktop the pc you wish to connect to. Assuming you have vnc on both that is.

[Titan8990]

Actually, it is the other way around. The computer you are connecting to is the VNC server and the client is the computer that is connecting to the server.

[ijason]

ah. thanks titan. ifconfig returns 192.168.1.7

however, when i put that address into tightvnc i get the same error message "failed to connect to server"

i think the problem is revealed by my not being able to ping my laptop from the ubuntu desktop. while i can ping the desktop from the laptop. also, i can ping the local router from the ubuntu desktop.

[Titan8990]

Do you have a firewall on the laptop that could be blocking the ping?

[ijason]

working on that now... it's apparently something with the laptop. i can't ping it from any of the computers on my network, while the ubuntu box can ping others just not my laptop.

weird thing is, when i went to check the settings for windows firewall it informed me that the associated service isn't running. so not only do i not have the firewall turned on, it's not even running.

[Titan8990]

Could be that a second firewall was installed and the Windows firewall was not disabled properly.

[halitech]

lets confirm some things as well;

you can ping the router (192.168.1.1) from the desktop but you cannot ping the laptop

you can ping the router from the laptop

have you confirmed the ID of the router you are connecting to on the laptop?

[ijason]

@hali :
from the laptop, i can ping the router and all machines
from the ubuntu desktop, i can ping the router and all machines EXCEPT the laptop
from a third machine, i can ping the router and all machines EXCEPT the laptop

clearly, the problem is somewhere in my laptop.

@titan :
i know i didn't install any firewall program on the laptop, and that windows firewall is completely disabled. what i have no clue about is why my laptop refuses to be pinged. i can see other devices in the 'network neighborhood', so it's not completely blind to things on the LAN. and the internet works, so it sees WAN. i'm stumped, and sadly the ubuntu forum isn't going to be the best place for windows help