Chapter 10 Accessing User Sessions Remotely

This chapter describes how to access remotely the GNOME Desktop session of a user.

• Introduction to Accessing Sessions Remotely

• To Access a Session Remotely

Introduction to Accessing Sessions Remotely

GNOME Desktop provides a remote session feature to enable you to view or control remotely the session of a user. You can use the remote session feature to resolve user problems remotely, or to train a user to perform a particular task. The remote session feature also contains security settings that you can use to protect the remote session.

To Access a Session Remotely

To access a user session remotely, perform the following steps:

1. Instruct the user to start the Remote Desktop preference tool in their GNOME Desktop session.

2. Instruct the user to set the preferences as required. For information about the preferences in the Remote Desktop preference tool, see the GNOME 2.2 Desktop on Linux User Guide.

3. Instruct the user to click on the URL in the Remote Desktop preference tool. An email application is started, and a new message is created with the URL in the body of the message.

4. Instruct the user to send you the message with the URL.

5. Access the URL that you receive from the user in a web browser. If the user selected the Require the user to enter this password option, type the password in the Java™ applet dialog.

6. If the user has selected the Ask you for confirmation option, an alert is displayed in the session of the user. Instruct the user to click on the Allow button. The session for the user is displayed in a window in your session.

7. To end the remote session, press F8, then use the menu to end the session.

You can set GConf keys to set mandatory values or default values for the options in the Remote Desktop preference tool. For information about how to set GConf keys, see Chapter 1, Using GConf.

You might need to disable the Ensure the user is using encryption option. For example, if you want to use another VNC viewer, you must disable this option. If you do not use encryption, your keypresses are sent across the network unencrypted. If you do not trust the network, do not send any confidential information across the network while you access the remote session.