Office applications Toolkit

Remote control with VNC

Tags:
VNC,
Virtual,
Platform Independent,
Computing

Brien M Posey Tech Republic

Published: 21 May 2002 11:36 BST

I've written several articles on Windows XP's remote desktop feature, but other remote control and terminal emulation products such as Symantec's pcAnywhere and Procomm Plus have been around for years. While these programs are excellent, there's another remote computing solution, Virtual Network Computing (VNC), which provides an easy way to remotely control computers running a wide variety of popular operating systems. In this article, I'll explain how VNC works and why it might be a good solution for your organization's remote computing needs.

The birth of VNC
In 1994, the Olivetti and Oracle Research Laboratory (ORL) introduced a very thin client, ATM network computer named the Videotile. The term "ATM network computer" is somewhat misleading, however; the Videotile wasn't actually a computer but rather a display device with an LCD screen, a stylus, and a fast ATM network connection. The Videotile contained an extremely thin client and acted as a viewer in much the same way that pcAnywhere does.

VNC is a software-only version of the ATM network computer. It allows you to remotely control a host system in a manner similar to pcAnywhere or Windows XP's remote desktop. However, there are several very compelling reasons to use VNC instead of the other remote control software products.

Price and multiplatform availability
The first compelling reason to use VNC is its price: It's free. You can download both the software and its source code from AT&T Laboratories Cambridge's VNC home page.

Also, there are versions of VNC available for a variety of platforms. There's a version for Windows that supports Windows 9x, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. Separate versions are also available for Windows CE, DEC Alpha, Macintosh, Solaris, and Linux. Although each version must be downloaded separately, the download shouldn't be too time-consuming. I downloaded the Windows version, and the entire thing was less than 900 KB -- small enough to fit on a floppy disk.

Cross-platform compatibility
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons for using the VNC software is that it's cross-platform compatible. For example, you can use a Windows machine to control a Macintosh machine or you can use a DEC Alpha to control a Linux machine. You can mix and match operating systems at will. In fact, I have a friend who uses VNC to monitor his UNIX servers from his office using a standard Windows 2000 Professional workstation.

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