I received an request for help from Chris in Australia. He posted it via the contact form on my web site (near the bottom of every page), but sent it with a typographical error in his email address. When I responded, the email bounced!
Chris asked:
G’Day terry, This is the second time I have contacted you. This time I would like a little help with the Real VNC program that you recommended recently.I am running a home network on XP with 3 pc’s on it. Two are in my office and the other is in the kids room. I only want to connect to the kids, but can’t seem to get it to work. I did have it working in the office for a while, but then read the VNC web site info which said I had to muckaround allocating static IP address to work it on more than one computer.
As I wanted mainly to be able to access the kids for upgrades etc I deleted it off the two office computers, then loaded server on the kids and viewer on mine. I have my network set up through a wireless router (Netgear WGR614) with the 2 office computers wired and the kids room on wireless.
I have allowed the network IP address of both the router and my PC in my firewall (Bullguard) and put my PC’s IP in the connections tab in the VNC. No luck, just keeps timing out. The VNC FAQ doesn’t help either. Any suggestions. regards Chris
I think Charles was having some of the same types of interference as in the upgrade and install problem I wrote about above — his security software is doing what it is supposed to do.
I’m not sure why he read that he needed to be using static IP addresses. That’s just wrong. I’m using it with dynamically assigned IP addresses without any problem.
Chris needs to check the settings of his Bullguard firewall. If it’s a two-way firewall (and he should be running a two-way, if it’s not), it will control whether to allow the RealVNC server on the kids PCs to receive the incoming connection attempt and control whether to allow the RealVNC server to send back responses.
Chris mentioned changing the setting in HIS Bullguard firewall to allow the other IP addresses to communicate with his computer. That’s necessary. He also has to set the firewalls of the other two computers to allow his to communicate with them. Then, he can take the next step to see if the firewalls on the computers are blocking the application RealVNC.
In the case of Sunbelt Personal Firewall, I can control whether the firewall allows the connection attempt from the local network or allows it from the Internet — in addition to the question of whether I have everything from particular IP ranges blocked or allowed.
I use RealVNC extensively in my house — to control my home theater PC from my notebook and to install microsoft updates and other program updates on the other computer, too. It’s a great remote control program for personal use on your own computers.
RealVNC is not spyware and can’t really be used as such. It’s just a great tool for remote administration. The server (the computer to be controlled remotely) will display the RealVNC icon in the Windows status bar and will also show a flickering cursor. Anyone trying to use the computer at the time will know that something is funny
RealVNC is a great tool for remote administration. The free version transmits unencrypted data. The paid version will encrypt the data sent between the server and client (the remote computer that is controlling the server). If I was going to run RealVNC across the Internet, I’d use the encrypted functions in the paid version.
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