I'm having a strange issue with tigervnc and connecting via ssh

i'm running the command vncserver -localhost

which creates a connection on port 5901 which is exactly what i need.

i've configured putty as it should be L5901 192.168.1.99:1

now when i try to connect via localhost:1 through ultravnc it comes back with the error

"Connection failed - End of Stream

Possible causes: another user is already listening on this id"

If your SSH server is running on the same machine as your VNC server then the tunnel you create in PuTTY should be configured as follows:

source port = 5901 (I usually pick a high port. For example, 55901);
destination = 127.0.0.1:5901 (the port here - 5901 - must be the same port as that reported when you start the VNC server).

You would use the IP address 192.168.1.xxx only if your SSH server is, for example, running on a separate firewall machine and you are forwarding VNC to a client behind the firewall on the LAN.

Having configured the settings I have outlined above, you would start PuTTY, and when your SSH tunnel comes up you would use the following address in your VNC client to connect to the remote VNC server:

127.0.0.1:55901

If indeed you are running your SSH and VNC servers on separate machines then you would create your tunnel as follows:

L55901 192.168.1.99:5901

You would then connect using the following address in your VNC client:

127.0.0.1:55901

Finally, I am not familiar with TigerVNC but with the TightVNC server there is no need to specify localhost when you are starting your VNC server. It is sufficient just to issue the command as follows:

vncserver


That will report the port the VNC server has created (for example, 5901) which you should use when you are configuring the destination settings in your PuTTY tunnel.