Index

Overview

• The server and the viewer  may be on different machines and on types of computer. The protocol which connects the server and viewer is simple, open, and platform independent.

• No state is stored at the viewer. Breaking the viewer's connection to the server and then reconnecting will not result in any loss of data. Because the connection can be remade from somewhere else, you have easy mobility.

Networking

Sometimes the IP address is fixed, and sometimes it is issued to you dynamically by your ISP. If it is allocated dynamically, you might consider using a third party DNS management service. Try typing "dynamic dns management service" into a google.

Running a Windows server Installing the Windows server, WinVNC, should create a RealVNC group in your Start... menu. Run the VNC server. If this is the first time you've used a VNC server on this machine you'll be prompted to set a password, which you'll need when you connect to the machine from a remote location. A small icon will appear in the system tray, and by right-clicking on this you can control most aspects of the server. The IP address of the computer running the VNC server can be found by hovering over the tray icon in the system tray. Unless this computer has a DNS name, you will need to specify this number to the viewer when you connect. Full instructions for installing and running the Windows VNC server can be found under the main documentation.) You can now go to another machine and connect a viewer to the server.

Running a Unix server To X applications, a VNC server appears just like the standard X display you sit in front of, but without a physical screen attached. The applications don't know this, they just carry on running whether or not a viewer is connected. You can start a new VNC server on a Unix machine by typing: vncserver If you haven't run a VNC server before you will be prompted for a password, which you will need to use when connecting to this server. All your servers on the same Unix machine will use the same password, and you can change it at a later date using vncpasswd With a normal X system, the main X display of a workstation called 'snoopy' is usually snoopy:0. You can also run as many VNC servers on a Unix machine as you like, and they will appear as snoopy:1, snoopy:2 etc, as if they were just additional displays. Normally vncserver will choose the first available display number and tell you what it is, but you can specify a display number if you always wish to use the same one: vncserver :2 You can cause applications to use a VNC server rather than the normal X display them by setting the DISPLAY environment variable to the VNC server you want, or by starting the application with the -display option. For example: xterm -display snoopy:2 & You can kill a Unix VNC server using, for example: vncserver -kill :2 Full instructions for installing and running VNC server for Unix can be found in the documentation. Nothing will appear immediately as a result of starting a Unix VNC server. To see anything you need to connect a viewer to the server, see below.

Running a viewer

In this case, you will be prompted for the host name (VNC server name) and display number:

Enter it and click OK, and you will be prompted for your password, after which you should see the remote display. If you are connecting to a Windows or Mac server, the display number will be 0 unless you have explicitly changed it, and can be omitted.

You can run the viewer on Unix and Windows by typing at the command line:

vncviewer snoopy:2

If the machine running the server does not have a DNS entry, you probably won't be able to use the name and will have to replace snoopy with its IP address, for example something that looks like 123.456.78.9.

Using a web browser as a viewer

http://snoopy:5802/

Troubleshooting

If that doesn't help, try searching the archives. There tens of thousands of items collected over several years.

If you're still having trouble, you could subscribe to the mailing list and ask your question there.