Remote Management (VNC-style) without Port Forwarding

Question

Is there a way of setting up a VNC-style server (RDP would do as well) on machines behind NATs, and have access to them? Should be technically possible by having outgoing connections from the NATed terminals to a server, waiting for a remote user to access it.

We basically have a bunch of embedded devices at different clients, and we'd like to manage them remotely, without having to ask clients to set-up port forward for each terminal we install.

Have you considered something like LogMeIn? - https://secure.logmein.com/ — joeqwerty, Sep 03 '13 at 20:15
Does it work through NATs? Will have a look, not free unfortunately but may be able to afford it. — Jamona Mican, Sep 03 '13 at 22:32
Using it now. Awesome! If you want the points, post this again as an answer and I'll accept it. — Jamona Mican, Sep 03 '13 at 22:59

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 03 '13 at 20:46

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How would you propose to distinguish these servers behind the firewall? Only one VNC service can listen on a given port, there is no 'VNC Gateway' software available as far as I can find.

The only way to make this work without port forwarding would be to assign every machine with VNC a public IP address.

answered Sep 03 '13 at 20:46

Sammitch

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The NATed servers could just declare their identity (some ID/hash/key) to a central routing server, which they would connect to using OUTGOING connections. It's possible. – Jamona Mican Sep 03 '13 at 22:30
@HarryMexican sure, it's *possible*. That doesn't mean it exists. – Sammitch Sep 03 '13 at 22:34
turns out it does (see above). you've been SUPER helpful! – Jamona Mican Sep 03 '13 at 22:59
I guess if you like handing over infrastructure access to an unknown third party. Go for it. – Sammitch Sep 03 '13 at 23:02

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 03 '13 at 23:12

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Have you considered something like LogMeIn? I use it for many of my clients.

answered Sep 03 '13 at 23:12

joeqwerty

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Remote Management (VNC-style) without Port Forwarding

2 Answers2