Remote control
(Private - for Lynne's
use only)
Home -> Management -> Remote
control
UNDER CONSTRUCTION - SOME OF THIS PAGE STILL MISSING.
What is on your server
Your server computer is actually running three server programs:
- A web server (called Abyss). This is what lets other people
see your web pages.
- An FTP server. FTP stands for "File transfer protocol".
It's a program that lets you transfer files between computers. The one
I have installed is called the FileZilla server.
- A VNC server. VNC is a remote control technique, that will
let you bring the server's desktop to another computer (usually your
workstation computer). This lets you do things on the server (e.g.
install new programs, look at files) without having a monitor and
keyboard attached to the server. The one that I have installed is
called the TightVNC server.
(We could add other server programs, if you wish. The obvious extra one
to add is a mail server, to give you an e-mail address in your own
domain.)
Of course, I have also installed some non-server programs. The one that
you most need to know about is Avast antivirus, because you will have
to renew the (free) registration each December. By the way, everything
I have installed is free software.
For communication between two computers, you need a server program at
one end, and a client
program at the other end. The client programs that we'll install on
your workstation are Firefox (as a web client), FileZilla client (an
FTP program), and TightVNC Viewer (a VNC client).
Your router controls whether the server programs are visible to the
external world. I suggest that we make only the web server visible,
with FTP and VNC connections restricted to your LAN (local area
network, i.e. the computers inside your house). The FTP and VNC servers
have password protection, so we could make them accessible from other
places, but if you don't need that extra access then we might as well
tighten up the security.
Transferring
files
FTP operations require an account with a username and password. You'll
have to memorise the usernames and passwords, because I don't want to
write them down here. I have set up three FTP accounts on your server.
The first two are for you and me to get access to the whole of the C:
drive on the server. We won't need to do that very often. The third
takes you directly to the directory where the web pages are kept. (So
you don't get access to the whole drive, only to that directory and its
subdirectories.) That is the account you should normally use, because
normally you will only be using FTP to update your web pages.
To begin, run the program called FileZilla Client. You will see that
this program's screen display is broken up into a number of sections.
The most important part is the directory displays in the middle. The
display on the left shows the files on the local computer, and the one
on the right shows the files on the remote computer. To transfer a
file, just right-click on it and select either "upload" or "download"
from the right-click menu. ("Upload" means from the client to the
server, and "download" means from the server to the client.) By using
the usual file selection methods like ctrl-click, you can select
multiple files to transfer. You can also transfer entire directories.
(But be careful; it's easy to transfer things you didn't intend to
transfer.)
Before transferring anything, you must connect to the server. You can
do this by entering a hostname, username, and password in the fields
near the top, and then pressing the "Quickconnect" button, but there a
couple of easier ways:
- The arrow next to the "Quickconnect" button gives a
drop-down list of places you've recently connected to. There's a good
chance that what you want is there.
- The leftmost icon on the row of icons above the "Host"
field gives you a "Site Manager", where you can store passwords etc.
for sites you often want to go to.
You should hover the mouse over those icons to find out what they do.
The red X near the middle of the row of icons is important, because
it's how you disconnect from the server. Near the right you have
"synchronised browsing" and "directory comparison" buttons, which are
especially useful when you want to synchronise files between the server
and the client.
This program allows multiple connections to different places to be open
simultaneously. In that case there's a tab bar above the directory
windows, to let you switch between connections. Most of the time,
though, it's less confusing to have only one connection open at a time.
Using the VNC viewer
When you run the program "TightVNC Viewer" you will have to
supply a password. (Which I won't put in this document, for obvious
reasons.) You will then see a screen window that is an exact copy of
the server's desktop. You can then run programs, etc., exactly as if
you were sitting in front of the server. The response is a bit slow,
but that doesn't matter because you won't need to use VNC very often.
Because of conflicts between the two computers, the keyboard keys
"Ctrl" and "Alt" don't work properly. Instead, you have to click on the
CTL and ALT markers at the top right of the VNC window. Two clicks are
needed, one to turn Ctrl or Alt on and one to turn it off again.
To exit from the VNC program, use the red X at the top right of the
window.
Miscellaneous administrative details
Your external IP address is 115.187.246.121. This is the address that
other people will have to use to get to your web pages. Your router
looks after the detail of translating this external address into an
internal address.
All of the machines inside your LAN have addresses of the form
192.168.1.*, where the * stands for a number. Nobody outside your LAN
can connect to those addresses, except via a connection set up by the
router. (And we'll configure the router in such a way that the only
permitted connection is the one to the web server.) The internal
address of your server is 192.156.1.8. This is the address that you
have to use to view your own web pages from inside your house.
Last
updated 19-Dec-2010