Using Remote X terminals

You can run X applications on remote X terminals by following these instructions. This method is best if the two machines in question are on the same network, and that network is considered secure.

This won't work through a firewall, and is only as secure as the underlying network. You could also try the ssh tunneling method, which is much more secure and a lot easier to set up.

If you are looking for a free X software to run under Microsoft Windows, you could try Cygwin; other free and commercial alternatives are available.

Note that local refers to the machine you are sitting in front of, and
remote refers to a machine on the net (other than the local machine) that you wish to run X applications on.

  1. telnet or rlogin to the remote machine.
  2. in a local window, type
    xauth list
    or
    xauth list $DISPLAY
  3. in the remote window, type
    xauth add [paste]
    Where [paste] represents copying and pasting the first line shown by xauth list.
    You may have to edit the hostname if the remote doesn't recognize it.
  4. In the remote window, type
    xterm -display local_machine:0 &
    note that local_machine should be the same name (possibly edited) as was used above in the xauth add line.
If this doesn't work....