Secure Remote Desktop Sharing with VNC on Windows
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What is
Remote Desktop Sharing? It's being able to give access to yourself or another user from a PC anywhere in the world. The remote user can use the PC just as if they were sitting in front of it. If a remote user is controlling the PC, the local user can see everything -- mouse cursor movement, menu use, text use, and so on -- just as if they were using the computer themselves. VNC is the most popular remote desktop sharing application.
VNC is the abbreviated form of 'Virtual Network Computing.' It is a system that allows users to remotely manage and share their desktop environment of operating systems. Basically, it is possible to view and control any system via the Internet all over the world that has VNC up and running provided the supposed user is eligible to do so -- in other words, has account permission. VNC is quite popular because it is the easiest solution and has a lot of benefits.
Official Logo of the VNC
On the DevHardware Forums (as elsewhere), every now and then we face questions about remote desktop sharing and such. In most cases we're helping out newcomers by linking VNC software. But the problem in essence is that there is more than one VNC program (client + server). A dilemma occurs when the user can't decide which one is the "best" (if there even is a "best"). Eventually, the user might have problems through the installation process and configuration.
This is the first of a two part series and its purpose is, in a nutshell, to describe the benefits and usefulness of VNC software, giving a little background on it, analyzing a few of the most popular applications and pointing out their pros and cons. Ultimately I'm going to lead you through very strong encryption methods to secure your VNC connections. Therefore reading this article will get you familiar with VNCs regardless of whether or not you have had any prior experience in this field.
This part will discuss the VNC solutions for Microsoft Windows. The second part will do the same, but for Linux, and its style will be similar to this. Since it will be dealing with open source, the second part will appear on Dev Shed.
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