Remote-desktop sharing between MS Windows machines October 27, 2007
Posted by Schollii in Software tools and toolkits, freeware, mswin.add a comment
There are many free VNC client/server bundles available (see wikipedia for a discussion). The three that stand out are:
- TightVNC: like RealVNC, but adds filetransfer and more
- TurboVNC: built upon TightVNC, adds faster OpenGL rendering
- UltraVNC: alternative to TightVNC, provides encryption and audio
The only advantage of UltraVNC over TightVNC is that former supports audio chat, and natively secure data transfer via a plugin system. However I have not been able to use encryption feature in many-to-many configurations, ie to have N clients connectable to M servers running UltraVNC with encryption: they must all use the same key!!! Looks like there might be a way when used from command line (http://msrc4plugin.home.comcast.net/~msrc4plugin/faq.html#shortcut) but it seems a bit convoluted and requires too much “memory” and “thinking” (not integrated in GUI).
Secure connection via encryption is likely best achieved via tunnelling. This involves an ssh server on a host that forwards requests to other programs, and an ssh client that forwards communication from other programs. E.g. telnet localhost, and ssh client listening on telnet port, sending over port 22; ssh server listening on port 22, forwarding all other ports; telnet server listening on telnet port. The following link gives a good summary: http://members.shaw.ca/nicholas.fong/vnc/.
On MS Windows the ssh tunneling can be done via Putty or stunnel or Zebedee, though the latter hasn’t been updated since 2005.
Kaboodle may also be useful but remains in need of further investigation. It integrates zebedee and VNC (any of the clients) to find devices on a network (using WinPCAP) and run VNC on them (assumes each one has a VNC services installed of course).
