Remote Desktop via VPN tunnel

**ale_login** · January 14th, 2011

Hi all,

I have an Ubuntu 10.04 server to which I would like to connect remotely via VPN network.
The VPN works fine (using PPTP), but I still have some problems configuring the Remote Desktop application:
simply using System->Preferences->Remote Desktop allows me to connect from a Windows XP machine with TightVNC but not the Windows Remote Desktop application which I would like to use.

But most importantly, I have now a situation where I could connect via Remote Desktop (so far with TightVNC only) either using the VPN or not. I would like the Remote Desktop server to allow incoming connections ONLY from the private LAN (i.e. VPN network) and NOT from the public internet.

How do I achieve that?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

**natravis** · January 14th, 2011

I love googling! First result from "how to windows remote desktop into ubuntu" yielded this:

http://xrdp.sourceforge.net/

**blind2314** · January 14th, 2011

xrdp is a nice, lightweight package that allows you to natively use the RDP program that comes with Windows.

Code:

sudo apt-get install xrdp

That should find it for you, or you can look in the software center.

**ale_login** · January 15th, 2011

Originally Posted by natravis

I love googling! First result from "how to windows remote desktop into ubuntu" yielded this:

http://xrdp.sourceforge.net/

I had realized that I need xrdp, but I was wondering why... (which I eventually understood).

The big question still remain unanswered though: how can I restrict xrdp (or the underlying vnc server - i'm using tightvncserver) to ONLY grant access from the VPN?