Ok, I have a strange question here. I have a suse9.3 box and I want to run tight VNC to control a few windows boxes. Since I am the only computer person in my family, I do all the tech work, (cough) free. I need a good and safe way to fix there software without me having to go over there and fix it. I don't understand what I need to have to make this work. I don't have any servers at my house, but I do have an extra pc that I could convert into a really, really, small, small small server.

So, here are my questions. Is all I need is tight vnc on suse and then have the windows install tight vnc on theres. Are there any special things that need to configured on the windows side. Can I make a script to the window file to auto setup when they install it?

If this is not the place for this just tell me and I will post it somewhere else. I don't mind.

You'll need to install the VNC server (version of the software that excepts incoming connections) on the windows boxes so that you can connect and view.

Why do I want to put the server on there end? I would need to be able to take over the mouse and change and edit things on the system. I thought that I would have to set up a small server and run it from there. Can I make my 9.3 the server?

Download and install RealVNC from this link.
http://ftp.nux.at/pub/vnc/vnc-3.3.7-...-x86_win32.exe
Install it on all the windows machines.
You must be having "krdc(Remote Desktop Connection)" on your SuSE already. krdc is fully compatible with RealVNC. You can now control all your windows machines remotely.

Replace "foo" with your desired VNC flavor. Over remote connections I've had great results with TightVNC. There's UltraVNC, RealVNC, etc... some have more features than others, and the commercial version of RealVNC isn't free.


The foo_VNC server has to be run on the target workstations i.e. the ones you wish to control. They are the ones serving the connection to you.

You actually will be using the foo_VNC client on your SuSE 9.3 box in order to connect.

No other machines are necessary here; only your box, the viewing workstation (via client) and the target box, your family member's computer (running the vnc server to allow your vnc client to connect).

Generally speaking, it's not a great idea to select the option to install foo_VNC as a system service on a Windows box--especially if they have no actual firewall protection. It's usually best to have them manually start the foo_VNC server each time, only as needed (start --> programs --> foo_vnc --> start server etc...)

Also, don't forget that VNC is horribly insecure--by default, there's literally no encryption of network traffic between the host and client machines. That's not a big deal on a LAN, perhaps, but over the internet is another matter... UltraVNC has a modification/utility that allows some form of encryption--it certainly is better than nothing. The commercial version of RealVNC supports encrypted connections as well, last time I checked.

Another option--albeit a rather complicated one--is to establish an SSH tunnel between the host and client machines, and then tunnel the VNC traffic over the encrypted tunnel. You would need to look up some more documentation on that, and install PuTTY on the host machines...

Oh, and if your target machines are behind firewall/NAT devices, then you'll need to modify their rules or port forwardings to allow the connection to work!

Good luck!

Wow, strick1226. Thanks for the explantion. That clears up a lot of confusing things. I will give it another try.

You linked to a really old version of RealVNC. The current version is 4.1.1 here

Thanks for the update, but, I posted that link as I have tested that version well. Anyway, thanks!