VNC FAQ

What is VNC?

Recently, I stumbled upon the VNC web page while surfing the net and checked it out. It turns out that VNC is a really cool (and free!) app that lets you use another computer remotely, much like the commercial product Timbuktu. There are servers for all major platforms: There are even more viewers. In addition to all the platforms with servers, there are viewers for Java, WinCE, Mac 68k (though it's a bit slow), and even the Palm Pilot (I've only tried the 68k one).

How do I get VNC?

Well, the VNC main page is probably the best place to start looking. However, you could also go straight to the VNC Download page for the main platforms or the Contributions page for user contributions to support other platforms.

How do I use VNC?

Well, it really depends on the platform of the server and the client. If you want to run a VNC server on the sweet hall machines, I've put the binaries in my public directory (~dianders/public). If you want, the following will work (at least I think so...most of this was done from memory; let me know if it does or doesn't):

1. Put my directory in your path (note: putting my directory in your path is not a great solution for a number of reasons. Eventually, maybe the folks at sweet hall will put this someplace centrally):

myth9:~> set path=( $path ~dianders/public ) myth9:~> rehash 2. Set yourself up with a password (you only need to do this the first time you use VNC): myth9:~> vncpasswd Password: Verify: 3. Start VNC: myth9:~> vncserver New 'X' desktop is myth9.Stanford.EDU:2 Starting applications specified in /afs/ir/users/d/i/dianders/.vnc/xstartup Log file is /afs/ir/users/d/i/dianders/.vnc/myth9.Stanford.EDU:2.log ...write the machine name and screen number that VNC gives you. Here, that information is "myth9.Stanford.EDU:2". You will need it for your client.

4. Run your VNC client and enter in exactly what you were told in step 3 for the host. Here's the Mac version of VNC using the information I was given here (note: I have clicked the "Show Options" button in the screenshot).

5. Theoretically, this should bring up xwindows. However, when I tried it, things weren't quite right. It brought up xwindows all right, but no window manager. You can solve this problem manually by typing in:

myth9:~> setenv DISPLAY myth9.stanford.edu:2 myth9:~> fvwm95& myth9:~> xterm& ...to bring up fvwm95 (you can use any window manager). Note: you would not use "myth9.stanford.edu:2", you would use whatever was given to you in step 3.

You might be able to permanently fix this by modifying ~/.vnc/xstartup, but as of yet I haven't gotten around to really figuring it out.

6. Because of the way VNC works, you can actually close your VNC client and then reconnect to the server without having to reopen all your windows. This is because the server always stays around. This can be good and bad. However, if you're not planning on reconnecting, you really outta close your vnc server (otherwise people at sweet hall might get mad). You can do this with:

myth9:~> vncserver -kill :2 ...where ":2" is the screen number given in step 3.

How well does it work?

Try it for yourself. It seems to work pretty well for me, even over my DSL connection from home at a 1024x768 screen size. Your resumts may vary. This page was written using a vnc server on a myth and a vnc client on a PowerMac running over a DSL connection. It was a bit sluggish when switching desktops in fvwm95 and the lack of copy/paste between the mac and unix was a bit of a pain, but other than that things were great!

IMPORTANT NOTE:The mac server is still in alpha and doesn't support compression. It is _very_ slow and the networking people probably wouldn't be very happy if you tried to use this across campus. The mac client works fine as do the rest of the servers...but just beware the mac server. Seeing as how the code for this whole project is under GPL (at least that was my impression), maybe someone here will fix it up.

How do I find out more?

Read the documentation? Check out the web page? I dunno. This page was just meant as an introduction to let more people know about this exciting technology that I found out about. Explore around!
Last modified: Tue Jan 5 00:24:07 PST 1999