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Remote control with VNC

Brien M Posey Tech Republic

Published: 21 May 2002 11:36 BST

Simple, yet stable and powerful
The entire concept behind the VNC software is to be small and simple. In fact, the viewer portion of the software doesn't even have to be installed on a PC. It can be run directly from a floppy disk. It allows you to connect to or disconnect from a host from any computer. One of the biggest advantages to having such a design is that the viewer doesn't record any information about the state of the host. This means that if your viewer PC were to crash or if you were to reboot, there would be no danger of affecting the host machine or any applications running on it. Upon reconnecting to the host machine, you'll find the host and its applications exactly the way that you left them. Also, the component that runs on the host machine is designed to be small and unobtrusive.

Another unique feature is that multiple viewers can simultaneously connect to a single host. By doing so, you can allow a group of people scattered all over the world to watch as you perform a procedure on a host machine. The exception is Windows NT Servers, which support only a single connection.

The only real requirement for using the VNC software is that there must be a TCP/IP link between the host and the viewer. The two machines may exist on the same physical network or be connected via a dial-up link or the Internet.

The bottom line
VNC is fast, simple, and has few disadvantages. The only real issue I know of is a potential display problem when using two computers with very different video display settings. For answers to frequently asked VNC questions, check out the VNC FAQ.

In addition, VNC has one more surprise up its sleeve. Because the VNC source code is available, versions of the VNC software have been written by users to support other operating systems including Amiga and SunOS. You can find all of the user-developed versions of the VNC software on the VNC platforms page.

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