connecting to vnc server on pc

Check authentication settings. Did you set a password? Some require one.

I found it quite difficult to get a VNC Viewer that worked on the Mac client -> PC server.

You can try VNCViewer from RealVNC (follow [this hint|http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071008142249967]). Note that this client os only licensed to be used against a valid RealVNC Server. If your PC has a valid installation of RealVNC, you shouldn't have any problems.

Try LogMeIn?

I actually got my Windows XP access sorted out through Microsoft Remote Desktop Beta 3. Works like a charm over a VPN. Logmein looks like a great service though....

IMO Microsoft's Remove Desktop Connection is the way to go for Mac --> PC VPN.

I agree with the suggestion that the Microsoft Remote Desktop Client (RDC) is one of the best ways of accessing a remote Windows system.

However, with respect to VNC, I have found that sometimes if I have told Chicken of the VNC to use less colors than the server wants to send, some VNC servers will break off the connection.

For those VNC servers I have to tell Chicken of the VNC "Let Server Decide" for the Connect Profile color depth.

And there are other VNC clients available:
JollysFastVNC
TightVNC (via Fink and maybe MacPorts)
RealVNC
/System/Library/CoreServices/Screen Sharing.app

I have a similar issue. I am running chicken of the vnc on my mac and real vnc on my pc at work. Everything was working fine until last week. All of a sudden I get that same error message as the first poster "connection refused: connect()".
If I bring my mac to work I can connect via the network directly with no problem -
so I know the programs are working.

The only thing that I have changed recently is upgrading to Firefox 3.0.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

I'm just getting around to some self-education about VNC from Mac to PC to try and help my (clueless) Dad on his Dell.

Today, experimenting on two Tiger (10.4.11) machines with an Airport network (Apple Remote Desktop enabled as the 'server' on one machine and Chicken of the VNC as viewer on the other), I was kind of disappointed... yeah, it works but it's awfully slow... to the point that you wonder if the action you just made in the viewer is actually (ever) going to take effect on the server.

I assume the limiting factor was the 11 Mbps throughput of the 802.11b card I had on the server machine, but still...

At the moment, I have nothing more than a (very slow) dialup connection to the web, and would have to invest in satellite or cellular to get the bandwidth that might work for VNC. I just wonder if I go to the expense and effort whether I'll have a prayer of doing what I want.

Is the test wireless network (as described) the best I can hope for?

Thanks for any input.

Peter B.

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The Mac OS X VNC server performs very well with the Apple Remote Desktop Client in Leopard. However, the performance tricks it uses do not seem to be in Chicken of the VNC.

However, the Vine Server (aka OSXvnc) works very well with Chicken of the VNC. I use this combination all the time on my Tiger based systems. Especially when controlling my Mom's iMac 300 miles way. The Vine Server and Chicken of the VNC set to 8 bit color gives acceptably good performance over a 768Kbit/sec DSL uplink connection.

I've used Chicken of the VNC with Linux boxes without problems. I've also use TightVNC to Linux (a X11 based version I installed via Fink).

I've used Chicken of the VNC to PCs. Although there is a question of which VNC server is used. I like the PC version of TightVNC as Chicken of the VNC uses the TightVNC compression protocols.

The Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 2.0beta client gives very good performance to a remote PC. It will even transmit the sound from the PC.

If you are having problems making the connection to your Dad, you might look into something like LogMeIn.com, as it is cross platform. The free version lets you control the desktop, and the paid version allows file transfers and other features. The advantage of something like LogMeIn.com is that it does a very good job of getting through home routers.

BobHarris:

Thanks for your reply...

The worst stumbling block I foresee in any scheme is that my Dad has gotten ever more difficult to coach by phone... and it's open to question whether he could successfully manage setting up a VNC server or a LogMeIn account on his own... though he can afford to hire a local tech to do at least that much, I suppose.

All in all - LogMeIn might be the best solution if it can be managed.

Though I only have dialup at home, I could still (presumably) go to the library and tweak his PC from there on LogMeIn. A bit of a pain, but better than nothing.

A friend who did some service on my Dad's machine a couple of years back may have left a RealVNC server behind... but I haven't been able to verify this yet.

So, I've got some work to do figuring out what the best approach might be - short or long term.

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For what it's worth, I gave the Mac version of the RealVNC server a try yesterday as well... and it seemed to work better (faster) than Tiger's ARD Agent alone. Oddly - though my test was far from exhaustive or conclusive - it appeared that ARD still had to be activated on the server machine for either the RealVNC or Chicken of the VNC viewer to connect.

I've bookmarked this topic, and may return to it if I have some luck with one of the options mentioned.

Thanks Again.

Peter B.

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For what it's worth...

I now have a reliable VNC connection to my father's Windows machine from my Mac.

At this point, it has become difficult for my father to remember to reliably click an icon to start the VNC server, so...

At the moment, I'm running the RealVNC server in Service Mode... using the default ports and (because my own IP changes from time to time) with Access Control set to accept any/all connections.

I'm aware that this is a security risk and am hoping to make changes to reduce that risk.

But my understanding of 'how it all works' and how a computer can be exploited is minimal, so I'm hoping some of the following questions might be answered here.

(By the way, I don't think, at this moment, I have enough skill to set up an SSH tunnel, so I am excluding that from consideration.)

My questions are these:

- Do open ports - in and of themselves - constitute a security risk even if there is no program listening on them? Or, stated another way, if the VNC server is not running is there a risk in having port 5900 open? This is pertinent because I could open ports via a web remote access service to initiate a VNC session, then close the ports at the end of the session - OR - I could start and stop the VNC server via the same web service. But I don't know which - if either - would be an effective means of reducing risk.

- Would assigning the VNC service to another port well outside the range of the normal default (5900) offer any additional protection from an 'obscurity' standpoint?

- My father's IP changes with almost every reconnect. Does this represent any advantage in terms of obscurity?

- My own IP changes at the discretion of my ISP also, but usually falls within a range of xxx.yyy.999.99, where xxx.yyy are pretty constant. Can I configure Access Control to accept VNC connections only within that range without specifying the actual originating viewer IP? The documentation isn't clear to me on this point.

Any help would be very much appreaciated.

Thanks.

Peter B.

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PS - I am on a dialup at a max of 24K yet can still reliably access my Dad's PC and do 'useful work' there... which I find little short of amazing. I'm grateful for the ability to do so.

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I can't answer the security questions except to say that unless you're running VNC inside a secure (SSH) environment, you're at risk. I once had one of my Windows machines wide open on the internet while I was working out a configuration issue (without even a password assigned) and it was only a matter of a minute or before someone discovered it and things started moving around on the screen "by themselves"!!! I panicked when I saw that and poked the reset button as fast as I could to make sure they didn't get anything on or off my system.

But I do have a recommendation now that you have a reliable VNC connection and can control your father's computer. Use VNC to install the free LogMeIn software on your father's computer, then disable VNC. LogMeIn is very secure and is cross-platform friendly. I access my Windows computers from my Mac all the time using LogMeIn, from both inside my own network and from outside when I'm away from home. LogMeIn successfully gets through the firewalls without any head-scratching hassles figuring out ports, etc.

Just a recommendation. I've found LogMeIn to be SO good (for my uses, anyway) that I'm considering upgrading to the paid version to get additional benefits (such as file transfers).