Chris Pirillo » vnc

Is VNC on the iPhone Worth Using?

Chris — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:40:38 +0000

Is VNC on the iPhone Worth Using? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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A community member sent me a $75 iTunes gift certificate the other day. $50 of it was for a birthday present, and the other $25 was to buy and review Teleport for the iPhone. Thank you, so much. I really appreciate it! Teleport is a VNC application that impressed me from the first time I started playing with it. It quickly picked up servers (machines with VNC running) throughout my local network. I only had to add one manually, and that one is on a completely separate network. He says that he sent me the money to review this to see if it’s worth the money or not.

When launched, Teleport will scan your network and find any machines on which you’ve enabled sharing–you can then select the proper machine, enter the password, and save that connection for future use. Once connected to a machine, you’ll find that Teleport can display all of that machine’s displays, and display them at their full resolution. You can rotate the screen horizontally, and use the usual iPhone gestures to zoom in or out on the display. Beyond zooming, though, Teleport offers a full suite of gestures to do those things you’d do on a Mac or PC. A two-finger tap is a right-click; drag is a double-tap, followed by a drag motion; move scroll bars with two-finger vertical swipes; send the Left and Right Arrow keys with a two-fingered horizontal swipe.
If you need to really work with remote machines, Teleport is a worthwhile investment, even with its current issues of occasional lockups or crashes. The way you use gestures for control is intuitive, the ability to position your finger away from the mouse cursor greatly helps with usability, the local-echo keyboard reduces typing errors, and the overall interface just feels very well thought out and works well. Add in the auto-discovery of servers, and you’ve got a winning application–even with the steep admission price–for those who need to really work with remote machines on their iPhone or iPod touch.

If you have a need to have this program, I would wait for a bit until another version is released. I have a very good idea that this will quickly be updated to work out the bugs and crashes. This program works very well for the most part, and I’m looking forward to seeing where they go with future releases.

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Do You Have VNC on the iPhone?

Chris — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:19:08 +0000

Do You Have VNC on the iPhone? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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If you guys are wondering why on Earth you would ever want to stop by our live show. Well, the reason is VNC for the iPhone. I am browsing the computer that runs my live stream with it right now. Specifically, the app I’m using on my iPhone is called Mocha VNC Lite.

Mocha VNC provides access to a VNC Server. Using your iPhone, you can connect to a Windows PC or Mac OS X and see the files, programs, and resources exactly as you would if you were sitting at your desk, just on a smaller screen.

The features include:

Standard VNC protocol with encrypted password signon
8 and 32 bit color modes
Server screen resolution up to 1680×1200
Local Mouse support
Zoom and scroll as the Safari browser
Landscape mode
Can handle 6 different Host configurations
Has been tested with RealVNC, TightVNC, UltrVNC on Windows, and Apple Remote Management, which is included with the Mac OS X.

It doesn’t matter what operating system you use on your computer. As long as you have an iPhone, and a computer running VNC software, you can connect. For a first version, it works really well. I’m certainly looking forward to forthcoming versions.

When you’re away from your desk, but want to still be connected to your computer, Mocha VNC Lite is the way to go.

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VNC or Remote Desktop or What?

Chris — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:41:11 +0000

VNC or Remote Desktop or What? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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My last caller for tonight was AfroThunder, another long-time member. He was wondering if I know of any KVM’s with USB support. There are several out there, but I’m unsure as to what brand may be better. You definitely want to get the most for your money. You have to keep in mind what kind of video it supports. I’m unsure of pricing, also. He plans to use the KVM to switch from the Notebook to the Desktop.

Instead of doing this, I wonder if he’s thought of using Win2VNC.

This program will let you use two screens on two different computers as if they were connected to the same computer. It even works between different operating systems.
If you have two or more computers on your desk and you are tired of having several keyboards and mice around to control them, this is the program for you. While running this program, you can move the mouse pointer beyond the right or left edge of your primary display and the pointer will appear on the other computer screen. If you have ever used x2x or a computer with two graphics cards, you know what I am talking about.
The program will open a small (one pixel wide) window on the edge of your screen. Moving the pointer into this window will trigger the program to take over your mouse and send mouse movements and keystrokes though the RFB protocol to a VNC server running on another machine. When the pointer is moved back towards the opposite edge on the other screen, the mouse is returned to your primary display.
The operation itself is almost identical to x2x, but most of the code was actually borrowed from the program vncviewer.
Win2VNC works with Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. Note that if your secondary machine is running X-windows, you will need to use x0rfbserver rather than the regular Xvnc server to achieve the proper effect.
Win2VNC normally lives in the system tray and has a menu there that allows you to exit the program, send syskey events and save connection options.

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What is LogMeIn?

Chris — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 02:33:53 +0000

What is LogMeIn? is a post from Chris Pirillo

YouTube subscriber, Dustin Alden:

Chris, I currently work as a student employee in the aerospace helpdesk at the University of North Dakota. We have a lot of computers here to take care of in the aerospace buildings, including full student labs and faculty computers.
Recently we started using this free Log Me In software: logmein.com. What it does is allow you to access any computer you install the software on; it gives you full admin control over the remote computer. So you install the software – it takes maybe 30 seconds – onto any computer you wish to access. Then, at your own computer you log onto the website and you have a full list of all the computers you can access. The great thing is you don’t have to worry about ports or IP addresses or any other nonsense, it’s all automatic.
This is great for me because I can do updates and software fixes on any computer in the entire aerospace from my desk or even from home! Anyway, I think it’s a great software and I think it could benefit many people in our community.

Yeah, LogMeIn is pretty slick – they’re the people who deploy Hamachi for personal use. Not quite like GoToMeeting, but useful in a different way. I like the elegance and simplicity of iChat 4.0, if only more people were using OS X! :)

How to Access Your Computer Remotely with a VNC KVM

Chris — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 06:33:19 +0000

How to Access Your Computer Remotely with a VNC KVM is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I have a monitor hooked up to one MacBook Pro, the other monitor hooked up to my Vista desktop machine, and the other MacBook Pro all sitting on the desk here. I have ONE mouse, and ONE keyboard. Now… watch as I play around and move things on all three screens using that one little mouse.

No, I’m not using the Synergy software I had planned to use for this. It’s a pain to install and configure, and it wouldn’t even work. It hasn’t been updated since 2006, and didn’t want to work with Vista or Leopard. So again I turned to my chat room at live.pirillo.com to find an answer. iKteck, who is one of our chat moderators, suggested a totally free program called Win2Vnc. What’s that you said… FREE? I love free, so I went to check it out.

This little program is amazing. The primary machine needs to be a Windows machine. It acts as a VNC Viewer and will connect to any other machine where the VNC service is enabled and running. You cannot drag and drop things from one screen to another, no. To set it up, you simply need to tell the host machine which direction (N, S, E, W) the other machine(s) are from it, and then when you move your mouse in that direction, it will switch over to that machine/system. It can’t get any simpler than that. How it works:

The program will open a small (one pixel wide) window on the edge of your screen. Moving the pointer into this window will trigger the program to take over your mouse and send mouse movements and keystrokes though the RFB protocol to a VNC server running on another machine. When the pointer is moved back towards the opposite edge on the other screen, the mouse is returned to your primary display.

Now, this only works if the host machine is a Windows machine. When I make the final switch over to Leopard as my primary system, I will likely use Teleport at that time. It only works between Mac machines, which is all I will be using then anyway.

All in all, I have to say: Win2Vnc FTW. It’s an excellent program that just works… for free. It doesn’t get better than that.

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How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

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