Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop sharing tool that can be used cross platform (unlike other tools such as Apple Remote Desktop or Windows Remote Desktop). The drawback is that it is generally slower than these OS specific remote desktop apps because there is no inherent operating system information on the viewing machine. You can even view your remote desktop in a Java enabled browser (with some distributions of VNC). On Unix machines, VNC is usually automatically included in the distribution (most flavors of Linux have it floating around somewhere as well as OS X). You can dive into more details if you just search for a Wikipedia page. But essentially you are sending images of your server desktop to your viewer and can be tunneled over an SSH connection. In general it is not “very” secure.
Windows – I use TightVNC because it is free and it works. This provides both a viewer and a server for your Windows machine. To setup a server on your just follow the TightVNC directions. Note that you have to have TightVNC server running at all times to connect to the machine. Another free one out there is called UltraVNC.
A screenshot of TightVNC in action and remotely viewing an OS X session.
OS X – I use Chicken of the VNC as a viewer since it is also free and works well. The VNC server is automatically built in OS X 10.5 and can be found by navigating to System Preferences > Sharing > Screen Sharing. Go ahead and click on Computer Settings and check off that “VNC viewers may control screen with password” and insert an appropriate password. You may also have to check the box above as well. Now if you go back, you can read the dialog and it will let you know how to connect to your Mac via VNC.
Tags: remote desktop, screen sharing, VNC
