HIR Issue 7: Cross-platform fun with Virtual Networking Computing
by Axon
First, I'd like to give you all some background info on a program called VNC (Virtual Networking Computing).
It's produced by ORL (www.orl.co.uk). VNC is a client-server application, with support for java over the web. It was originally designed for the X window environment, allowing users to remotely use X through another computer.
like PC Anywhere, for unix.
VNC servers already exist for many flavors of unix, Windows 95, and there's an alpha VNC server for Macintosh.
Viewers have been ported to many unices as well as windows, DOS, Macintosh, OS/2, Palm Pilots, and even Windows CE 2.
I work in an environment which requires use of programs available only for Windows 95, but i really prefer using my Linux workstation.
I'm not given enough desk space for 2 monitors, keyboards, and mice, and neither one of my systems enjoys monitor/keyboard switches.
A colleague of mine pulled up Netscape one day, totally taking remote control of his office computer.
I was floored.
Always on the hunt for new information, I asked him what he was using, and I could have never been prepared for what was about to come.
"VNC", or Virtual Network Computing, was the answer.
It's a totally cross-platform remote control program, sort of like PC Anywhere.
VNC Has servers for many flavors of unix, Windows 95, and macintosh.
There are viewers for *EVERYTHING*, including palmtops, palm pilots, all the OS's that the Server can run on, and then some.
Even DOS!
In the X-Window System, VNC creates a different display and uses that one, but with Mac and Win9x/NT, the VNC server allows the remote client to TAKE OVER the mouse and keyboard of the console.
Imagine the fun there... of course for Win9x and Mac, there is a "Sit back and Watch" mode for the server, which doesn't allow the client do take it over, which makes for a very good helpdesk application, allowing remote technicians to watch what's happening as the user on the phone shows them the problems, and since VNC uses TCP/IP, it works from anywhere on the Internet/Intranet.
With the X-Window system, the VNC Server/Viewer combo can be a free replacement for that bulky and expensive X-Server software for Windows, Such as Hummingbird EXceed and Reflection X, and when you disconnect from VNC and reconnect later, the screen doesn't change.
Your work stays put, unlike X servers where applications close when you disconnect. VNC can't take over an existing display in X-Window System, though.
It's ability to go cross-platform (a viewer for one OS works on servers for any OS) makes it even more useful for support technicians.
