This is more for my benefit, because I keep forgetting how to do this:

Problem how to do remote control of client initiated VNC session if client runs Linux?

(Under Win32 the UltraVNC Single-click is the method of choice.)

On the clients computer you need x11vnc installed.(sudo apt-get install x11vnc for debian/ubuntu and variants).

Then have a script that fires up:

x11vnc -connect listeningviewer.myvnc.com:5500 -solid red

replacing "listeningviewer.myvnc.com" with whatever IP address points to your controller machine. A good idea is to use the free dynamic IP address services such as noip.com, or dyndns.org.

Then client only needs to run the script to have it REVERSE connect to your pc. (chmod +x scriptname will make it exectuable)

On your PC you need a listening viewer:

xtightvncviewer -encodings "hextile copyrect" -listen -depth 16 -compresslevel 0 -quality 0 -owncmap -bgr233

(obviously sudo apt-get install xtightvncviewer), and set yourself an executable script to fire it up when Mum needs help installing the latest Skype :-D