[CS-FSLUG] Linux success story

[Frank Bax]

Client has a rural remote office with an awful dialup connection.  Neither 
ADSL nor cable are available.  User (win98) must access web-based 
application on a daily basis.  One day I had an idea - would it be any 
faster if this user used VNC to access a Linux machine behind ADSL router 
and then access the web-based app from there?  Would sending a 'picture' of 
a webpage be faster than accessing the actual webpage over dialup?  I got 
the whole thing setup in an afternoon late in March, then waited for 
feedback, which turned out to be positive for unexpected reasons.  The data 
entry time is about the same both ways, but user likes the new way (via 
VNC) better.  Why?  Because when dialup connection is lost and 
re-established (happens often), only her vnc connection is now broken and 
her session within the web-based app continues where she left off, without 
having to login to the app again!

How does it work when both machines are behind dynamic ip addresses?
The Linux machine (with vncserver installed) regularly updates (using php 
script) a 'public' server with the external ip address of the site's router.
The Windows machine has a desktop shortcut to bat file with two commands:
a) Use lynx for windows to ask the 'public' server (php script) for the ip 
address. Output is directed to replace "c:\windows\hosts" file.
b) Invoke vncviewer with hostname that was just updated into hosts file.

The two php script's mentioned is actually a single script with different 
(set/get) query options.

I've found a page that configures vnc to run as a window manager - this 
will provide normal logon authentication, which is on the todo list to 
replace the usual vnc setup.

This would not have worked with only windows machines because vnc would 
'takeover' the desktop of a windows machine running vncserver - linux 
allows this to happen without disturbing a user sitting the machine, so we 
used a desktop Linux PC at a site with fast internet connection.

Frank