Virtual Network Computing
Virtual Network Computing is a desktop sharing system which uses the RFB protocol to remotely control another
computer. It transmits the
keyboard presses and
mouse clicks from one computer to another relaying the
screen updates back in the other direction, over a
network.
VNC is platform-independent: a VNC viewer on any
operating system can connect to a VNC server on any other operating system. There are clients and servers for almost all operating systems and for
Java.
Encyclopedia
Virtual Network Computing is a desktop sharing system which uses the RFB protocol to remotely control another
computer. It transmits the
keyboard presses and
mouse clicks from one computer to another relaying the
screen updates back in the other direction, over a
network.
VNC is platform-independent: a VNC viewer on any
operating system can connect to a VNC server on any other operating system. There are clients and servers for almost all operating systems and for
Java. Multiple clients may connect to a VNC server at the same time. Popular uses of the technology include remote technical support, and accessing files on one's work computer from one's home computer.
VNC was originally developed at
AT&T. The original VNC
source code is
open source under the
GNU General Public License, as are many of the variants of VNC available today.
History
VNC was created at the Olivetti & Oracle Research Lab, which was then owned by
Olivetti and
Oracle Corporation. In 1999 AT&T acquired the lab, and in 2002 closed down the research part of the lab.
The name originates from a
thin client ATM Network Computer called the Videotile, which was essentially an LCD with a pen input and a fast ATM connection to the network. VNC is essentially a software-only version of this 'ATM Network Computer'.
Developers that worked on VNC while still at the AT&T Research Lab:
- Tristan Richardson
- Quentin Stafford-Fraser
- James Weatherall
- Ken Wood
- Andy Harter
- Charlie McLachlan
- Paul Webster
How it works
VNC has two parts, a client and a server. The server is the program on the machine that shares its screen, and the client is the program that watches and interacts with the server.
VNC is a very simple protocol, based on one graphic primitive: "Put a rectangle of pixel data at a given x, y position". That is, the server sends small rectangles of the
framebuffer to the client. This in its simplest form uses a lot of
bandwidth, so various methods are used to reduce it. For example, there are various
encodings - methods to determine the most efficient way to transfer these rectangles. The VNC protocol allows the client and server to negotiate which encoding will be used. The simplest encoding, which is supported by all clients and servers, is the
raw encoding where pixel data is sent in left-to-right scanline order, and after initial setup, then only transfers rectangles that change. Because of that, this encoding works very well if only a small portion of the screen changes from one frame to the next , but bandwidth demands get very high if a lot of pixels change.
VNC by default uses ports 5900 to 5906, each representing the corresponding X screen . A Java viewer is available in many implementations such as RealVNC on ports 5800 to 5806, following the same pattern. These ports can be changed.
Most Windows computers can only use a single port because Windows lacks the multisession features of UNIX-based servers. The default display number for Windows-based computers is 0 which maps to TCP port 5900.
Security in VNC
By default, VNC is not a secure protocol. While passwords are not sent in plain-text ,
brute-force cracking could prove successful if both the encryption key and encoded password are sniffed from a network. For this reason it is recommended that a password of at least 8 characters is used.
However, VNC may be tunnelled over an
SSH or VPN connection which would add an extra security layer with stronger encryption. SSH clients are available for all major platforms ; SSH tunnels can be created from UNIX clients, Windows clients, Macintosh clients - and many others.
UltraVNC supports the use of an open-source encryption plugin which encrypts the entire VNC session including password authentication and data transfer. It also allows authentication to be performed based on NTLM and
Active Directory user accounts.
RealVNC offers high-strength encryption as part of its commercial package.
Workspot released AES encryption patches for VNC.
On July 31, 2005, Tridia announced that they were discontinuing development of their free product Tridia VNC and suggested users instead pay for their commercial remote administration software iTvity, claiming that software based on the VNC protocol is unsuitable for deployment in a business environment due to design deficiencies in VNC itself.
See also
- Remote Desktop Protocol
- NX technology - allows very fast remote X11 on slow connections
- Ndiyo - ultra-thin client
- VNC Loop - a mildly amusing effect of recursive VNC connections
- Synergy - for sharing a keyboard and mouse between multiple computers
Further reading
- Tristan Richardson, Quentin Stafford-Fraser, Kenneth R. Wood & Andy Hopper, "Virtual Network Computing", IEEE Internet Computing, Vol.2 No.1, Jan/Feb 1998 pp. 33–38
External links
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- - a version of VNC maintained by the original team from AT&T Laboratories in Cambridge
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