Faster VNC client than Chicken of the VNC

Question

Level 1

29 points

Faster VNC client than Chicken of the VNC

I make quite a lot of use of VNC and on Macs I always use a Windows VNC client (TightVNC) via VM Fusion or Parallels since it is so so much faster than COVNC. Surely this shouldn't be the case though, I would have thought a native Mac app ought to have the edge.

macbook Air, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Oct 7, 2008 12:04 PM

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Answer 1

WBW

Level 4

1,265 points

Oct 7, 2008 12:30 PM in response to tonydenson

JollyFastVnc http://www.jinx.de/JollysFastVNC.html
"Fast" is in the name 😀

I've used it since it came out and never looked back to "chicken"....

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Answer 2

tonydenson Author

Level 1

29 points

Oct 7, 2008 3:25 PM in response to WBW

I've just had a play with that and OK it is faster than Chicken of the VNC, but it's still way slower than TightVNC via Windows. On a VNC connection to a local machine with TightVNC there is no visual separation between the two mouse pointers when you move it across the screen, however with JollyFast it noticeably lags.

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Answer 3

Oct 7, 2008 3:48 PM in response to tonydenson

You've posted your question and follow-up comment in "Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard" > "Using Mac OS X Leopard."

Presuming you are, in fact, using Leopard, you don't need a third-party VNC client. Just go to /System/Library/CoreServices/ and use "Screen Sharing.app". You can put the application in your dock or use a launching program to have it launch with a keyboard command.

Leopard's built-in Screen Sharing.app has many features including the ability to resize the VNC window and to see the entire desktop for multi-monitor desktop setups.

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Answer 4

tonydenson Author

Level 1

29 points

Oct 8, 2008 1:43 AM in response to mistersquid

Well yes, I am using it on a Mac - however I almost exclusively connect to Windows machines. As I understand it Screen Sharing.app only works to a Mac.

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Answer 5

Tim Haigh

Level 7

24,198 points

Oct 8, 2008 3:08 AM in response to tonydenson

The way to compare tight vnc with other mac vnc clients is to make sure they are both using the same type of compression. Also make sure they are using the same color depth etc.

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Answer 6

tonydenson Author

Level 1

29 points

Oct 8, 2008 3:25 AM in response to Tim Haigh

I've ticked all the preferences for JollyfastVNC that are relevant (including 8 bit color depth) and it is still appreciably slower than my Windows client (on my Mac). On a LAN connection with my Windows client when I move the mouse across the screen the two pointers do not separate, but with Jollyfast they do. There still seems to be something fundamentally flawed with the native implementation when it is slower than an emulated Windows environment.

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Answer 7

Tim Haigh

Level 7

24,198 points

Oct 8, 2008 3:38 AM in response to tonydenson

I have not really used vnc to login to windows pc's.

My experience with login into my mac using screensharing with my 2Megabit upload on my home/office I get almost real time control of my server.

So apple have fully optimised the screen sharing app for mac to mac connections. So the same thing has probably been done with tighvnc and windows.

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Answer 8

Oct 8, 2008 4:20 AM in response to tonydenson

Yours is a common misconception. Screen Sharing.app can connect to most any computer with VNC services, including computers running Windows.

Screen Sharing is simply Apple's branding of the VNC standard.

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Answer 9

tonydenson Author

Level 1

29 points

Oct 8, 2008 6:14 AM in response to Tim Haigh

I'm not so sure because I get faster Mac to Mac performance as well

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Answer 10

tonydenson Author

Level 1

29 points

Oct 8, 2008 6:16 AM in response to mistersquid

My misconception was based upon the fact that I tried it last night and got an error and assumed it wasn't supported. However, I have just tried it again and it works great, a nice fast implementation, including to Windows. Thanks, I now don't need to fire up VM Fusion just to use VNC.

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Answer 11

Oct 8, 2008 6:20 AM in response to tonydenson

Another possibility is vine viewer. It costs but you can get a demo license. To be honest I don't know how it compares speedwise as I'm not a big enough VNC user to worry about it. But I find it works well with their vine server (free).

Michael

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Answer 12

Oct 9, 2008 5:21 AM in response to tonydenson

If what you really want is to connect to Windows machines, why not use the native Windows Remote Desktop client for Mac, available as a free download from Microsoft?

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Answer 13

tonydenson Author

Level 1

29 points

Oct 9, 2008 10:00 AM in response to John Wagner

Because I like VNC

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