Ok, here goes. What I want to do is to connect to my home pc which runs both windows vista and linux. To save on power I would want to use WOL to wake it up before I connect to it then switch it off again once I have finished. I am aware of how I can do this but to remotely connect to my home computer (remote connection for Windows and freeNX for linux) I presume I would have to set up a VPN to connect tomy home network 1st, but the only way I have found I can do this is to run a program on the host computer however that means that the host computer would have to be on contantly which I wouldn't want. Is there any other way I can set up a VPN or connect to my computer without using VPN. Thanks for all your help!!
Well remotely accessing your pc is rather risky. There are two ways you can do it : Remote assistance or NetBios. Now netbios basically makes an internet Drive icon under MyComputer which you can use to access all parts of the remote system. Remote Assistance does the same thing under a windows User Interface, ofcourse these are all massively abused by hackers everywhere... Personally I've never needed to do that, but its a reasonably straight forward procedure although you will need to know your way around Command Prompt and some of the advanced options under your network settings. Hope it helps.
remote desktop is pretty good stuff.. found these on google might be interesting http://winhlp.com/node/57 http://www.wakeonlan.me/
If you've got an iPhone, there's an app call iWOL which you can use to wake your PC up using 'magic packets', and then control it with Live mesh or similar.
things to remember: your router needs to have a port open and directed at your PC's IP address. Once you have this, then effectively as long as you know the IP address and port which you have opened, then you can use RealVNC, Remotedesktop, LogMeIn, or any number of services that effectively are just remote control apps... If you have no idea what "router", "port" or "IP adress" are, then i would highly reccommend LogMeIn, its really simple, and takes all the config away from you. Only downside is that the free version doesn't allow file transfers or remote audio - but if all you want is to say log in and check on downloads or somethign similar, then it will be perfect for you.
Logmein.com will be offering WOL in its upcoming software update. I'm not sure if that will be a feature on their free accounts or not, but might be worth looking at...
SSH + indirect VNC Using your linux box as the SSH server, or even installing something like "copssh" ssh server for windows.
