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                         -= VNC: The Art of Laziness =-

                                -= By Grifter =-
                        -= grifter@staticdischarge.com =-
                           
                           -= http://www.2600slc.org =-
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§ The Art of Laziness

Why go into your office when you can sit at home with your nutsack hanging out of your 
boxer shorts, watching cartoons and pondering the mysteries of life, like...what color one 
would a smurf turn if you strangled it?  Where did baby smurf come from?  And Damn, you 
could make some bank if only you could convince Smurfette that she needs a pimp.  So sit 
back, eat your corn pops, scratch yourself, and make sure that the CTO gets those reports 
he just has to have by 5:30am.

Remote Administration is nothing new.  Although it hasn't always been the best tool.  Slow 
and Steady seemed to be the only way to get work done without having to go into the office.  
I myself have to head into the office each and every night of the week just to make sure 
that our daily status reports are completed by 4:30am.  Oh the fun that I have, and if it 
didn't pay well, I wouldn't do it at all.  But it does, so alas, I go.  But not anymore.  
While there are many remote admin tools out there today, the one that I will focus on is 
the one that I use myself.  Step inside the world of VNC.

§ Enter VNC

Since the majority of the work that my company handles is made up of servicing the needs 
of businesses in a 75 mile radius, not having to drive 75 miles to fix someone's e-mail is 
like being given the gift of time, well, and the fact that you don't have to deal with the 
end user.  Since not all clients are created equally, some use *nix, some use Windows, 
using VNC seemed the right choice.  Oh, and the fact that it's free didn't hurt either.

VNC stands for "Virtual Network Computing".  It was developed by AT&T at their research 
labs in Europe.  It's open source, works on Unix, Linux, Windows and Macs. And once again, 
it's free.

VNC is broken into two parts.  The Client and the Server.  You can connect to any machine 
running the VNC Server by using the VNC Viewer that has been compiled for that specific OS.  
There is also the added feature of a Java Web Interface that can be used to run remote 
applications through your web browser of choice.

§ Installation


Windows - Well it doesn't take much explaining to set up VNC on Windows.  But If I must.

 -Download VNC Binaries from the address provided below.
 -Double Click EXE
 -Use VNC

See, that was just a waste of time.  Linux however is different.


Linux - Here goes...

 -Download Linux Version of VNC
 -Untar the files into a directory such as /home/vnc
 -Copy the files vncserver, vncpasswd, vncviewer and the Xvnc to your /usr/bin/ directory.
  (If you want to use VNCs' Java interface, you’ll also need to create the subdirectory 
   /usr/local/vnc/classes and copy the VNC Java .class files to it.)
 -Make sure the PERL scripting language is installed on your machine and that the Perl 
  interpreter is located in /usr/bin/perl.
 -Start VNC


§ Using VNC


At this point you should be asked to set a password by the Server, and it should give you 
a message saying that it has been started on Display :0.  The number will increase 
dependent upon the number of sessions you are running from between 0 to 99.  You will 
probably not want to use X while running VNC since it can really slow things down, but, 
whatever floats your boat, it's your bandwidth.

Now to make sure you've done everything right, go ahead and start up VNC Viewer and enter 
the IP address or hostname of the machine the server is running on.  You should be prompted 
for a password, and if all goes as planned will be up and running and telecommuting from 
the toilet in no time.

If you installed the Java Interface you can open your browser and enter the IP or hostname 
into the address bar as well as the port the server is running on.  For Example, If VNC is 
running on http://www.2600slc.org on port 5801.  Just enter http://www.2600slc.org:5801.  
If you couldn't figure that part out on your own, I am so very sorry.  The vncviewer Java 
applet should load in your browser and you’ll be prompted to enter the server password that 
you set earlier. 

When administrating a Windows or Mac box, there is only one default display.  So you 
connect on port 5900.  These Operating Systems also set the color depth to 16 Bit, this 
can slow things down significantly if you're trying to VNC over a 56k modem, set it lower, 
it won't be pretty, but it will be effective.  To do this you'll want to open the viewer, 
at the prompt to enter IP and Port, select options and in the display settings check 
"Restrict Pixels to 8-Bit".  Keep in mind that if the vnc server you're connnecting to is 
as old as your underwear, then it will not allow you to change that setting.  So know what 
you're are connecting to, and upgrade accordingly.


§ VNC Security


About the only thing you are going to get out of security from VNC is a password prompt.  
So is it secure? No.  Can it Be? Yes.  If you connect to your machine through a VPN or 
pipe VNC through SSH, then security for VNC has been taken care of and you can sleep well 
at night.  So shut up, download, install, and go to town.



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§ http://www.uk.resarch.att.com/vnc/download.html

§ http://www.tightvnc.com  - For Better Compression


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© 2600SLC.ORG 2001
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