How to Access Your Computer Anywhere Using VNC


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There are probably many times you wish you had access to your computer but are not at it. It can be frustrating because it and the computer you are at are both connected to the internet. The solution is VNC and a Dynamic DNS service like No-IP. This howto will cover installing UltraVNC server and client and No-IP dynamic DNS service.

Link: http://winhowto.blogspot.com/2006/06/how-t...r-computer.html

Edited by mrp04

Such a setup is interesting, but unfortunately impractical. Even over a 100mbps LAN VNC is slow. Over an internet connection, quite noticably slow.

Remote Desktop is a much preferable setup, where appropriate.

If VNC is your only option, I recommend UltraVNC. A lot of nice features, and in my experience the fastest of all freely available versions.

I just recently installed this to access a computer at work from home. I thought it worked pretty decent seeing as we were both on DSL connections. I thought it ran a little laggy but I could understand that. Plus it is free.

How is remote desktop for XP much better? It seems to be it would be very comparable except with VNC you would have to install something where as Remote Desktop comes on all pc's with XP. But UltraVNC has a nice little server that will make just the minimal setup and removes itself when done. The person on the other end wouldn't have to configure anything.

Logmein isn't free although I have used it and it seemed to work pretty well. But it did put that annoying box saying someone was controlling the pc using logmein. Perhaps there is a way to disable that? Anyways I don't really care all that much since UltraVNC can do what I want for free.

Sorry, I usually would but I'm really not sure what info to give you?

I followed all the directions installing everything on my desktop. Then I tried to go to that address from my laptop and it's says its unable to connect.

Whatever info you need let me know.

Thanks

Will

First person first:

  Angel Blue01 said:

Hmm... My home computer doesn't have a fixed IP on my home network. How can VNC work in these circumstances (since port fowardign seems to be required and that depends on a fixed IP)?

Well then your computer will need to get a static ("fixed") ip. You can assign it easily. Just check the ranges of DHCP ip's in your router to make sure it doesn't conflict and then go into the tcp/ip properties and set it to a static one. Then it will work. If you don't want to do this (which I don't know why you wouldn't want to) then it won't work so you are out of luck.

  wez312 said:

Sorry, I usually would but I'm really not sure what info to give you?

I followed all the directions installing everything on my desktop. Then I tried to go to that address from my laptop and it's says its unable to connect.

Whatever info you need let me know.

Thanks

Will

Are you trying the WAN IP or the internal LAN IP (you can use the LAN IP if you are in the same network but outside computers will have to use the WAN IP)? Are you using the VNC Viewer or a browser? Are you sure you are typing in the port after the IP address?

  Jonathan2007 said:

First person first:

Well then your computer will need to get a static ("fixed") ip. You can assign it easily. Just check the ranges of DHCP ip's in your router to make sure it doesn't conflict and then go into the tcp/ip properties and set it to a static one. Then it will work. If you don't want to do this (which I don't know why you wouldn't want to) then it won't work so you are out of luck.

I don't because my latop plugs into various networks that use different IPs, its a pain to switch every time I plug in.

I might do it for my desktops though.

BTW, I couldnt get VNC to connect, it couldnt connect to the server, even though I installed the software and forwarded the ports as it said.

It might seem stupid - but i just have an ftp server on my systems. That way, i have access to the files on each computer from anywhere, without the hastle of VNC/remote desktop etc...

Also, i found that FTP was a heck of a lot easier to set up. All you need to do is redirect a port 25 from your router to a computer (i use port 8002 and 8003 for the other two), and use the NO-IP dns update thingy. Took me about 15 mins to set up on all 3 machines.

The one i use is Bulletproof FTP server. Admittantly, its not free, and there are some decent free ones out there, but that IMO is better - uses no more than 2-3 mb of memory on any occasion (and this machine has 2gb, which usually means programs use more :) )

  Jonathan2007 said:

If you are using a browser you need to use port 5900 not the 5800 (which is used for the VNC Viewer).

I think you got it the other way round. 5900 for Viewer, 5800 Http.

And yeah, VNC + dyndns has been a real blessing for me. been using them for years. Even set different ports on my router to connect to each PC at home.

Also, Remote Desktop and VNC are two different beasts. I do notice that RDP is faster than VNC, but you can't actually control your "desktop" with RDP. You can't have someone on the other end explaining stuff while moving your mouse on the screen (and chat with them at the same time, if you use ultraVnc)...

I tried the viewer and it still just doesn't connect. I have the correct ports forwarded and everything...I don't get it

EDIT - I just messed around with it a little bit and got it to come up with a username and password request for 'Home Gateway' while using the browser and the address given by the No-IP program. But I'm not sure what username and password they're looking for?

Edited by wez312
  wez312 said:

I tried the viewer and it still just doesn't connect. I have the correct ports forwarded and everything...I don't get it

EDIT - I just messed around with it a little bit and got it to come up with a username and password request for 'Home Gateway' while using the browser and the address given by the No-IP program. But I'm not sure what username and password they're looking for?

sounds to me like your routers password, it probably wont work internally, youll have to try it from a machine outside of your network

Try checking the computer's ip with a site like http://www.ipchicken.com or http://whatismyip.com Perhaps the No-IP client isn't updating correctly. Other than that I know there is a local loop thing if you are trying to connect to it on the same pc but from a different machine on the same network it should work fine if you are using the WAN IP (not sure if LAN IP works but WAN IP did when I tried it).

About the FTP client: I don't see how it is much easier to setup. To me the FTP is a little more if you have a few users you want to be able to connect to it because they need different passwords and perhaps different folder permissions. But if only one user needs it I would say the setups take about the same ammount of time. But with VNC you can actually do stuff on the computer and control it.

  GreenMartian said:

I think you got it the other way round. 5900 for Viewer, 5800 Http.

And yeah, VNC + dyndns has been a real blessing for me. been using them for years. Even set different ports on my router to connect to each PC at home.

Also, Remote Desktop and VNC are two different beasts. I do notice that RDP is faster than VNC, but you can't actually control your "desktop" with RDP. You can't have someone on the other end explaining stuff while moving your mouse on the screen (and chat with them at the same time, if you use ultraVnc)...

So you can't control their desktop? Sounds dumb to me other than seeing what their error or something looks like. Why wouldn't you be able to control it (other than security concerns). That seems so stupid. The person can explain it to me most of the time or take a screenshot. I want to be able to control something. And I think I did have those 2 ports mixed up about VNC. Sorry about that. Thanks for pointing that out.

RDP is for remotely logging into a machine, when you connect it is like actually logging on to that computer locally.

You get the windows login screen, asking you for your windows user/password, and then you can navigate, and use that pc as if you were sat infront of it, however should there be a person sat infront of the machine that you are controling, they cannot see what you are doing ( i think it is actually possible with some settings in the options), but not default. It is more used for servers, where admins/clients need to gain access to them visually. :)

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