Secure Remote Desktop Sharing with VNC on Windows - Background
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Let's drift back into the past for a bit. In 1994, the Olivetti & Oracle Research Laboratory located at Cambridge, England successfully developed VNC. It ran on an ultra-thin-client/server that was connected to an ATM-based device. The co-inventors were Andy Harter (project leader) and Tristan Richardson.
Now let me give you a little more background information on the lab. The Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL) was a research institute founded in 1986 by Andy Hopper and Hermann Hauser. Later on, Professor Hopper left the institute (1988). In 1997 the laboratory became Olivetti & Oracle Research Laboratory.
In January 1999 AT&T bought the research laboratory, but the project and research continued. In April 2002 AT&T announced that this laboratory would be closed; it spelled the end of further research and of this project.
Read more about the past of this research institute at AT&T Laboratories Cambridge - Archive. Check out their technical reports and publications.
Different Versions of VNC
As I previously mentioned there are quite a few VNC programs. Three of the most popular ones are the following: RealVNC, TightVNC and UltraVNC. All of these are client + server VNC applications. Also, the viewer is platform independent; all of the previously mentioned VNC viewers can interact with any other VNC server that runs on a different operating system.
RealVNC comes in three editions: Free, Personal and Enterprise. The Free one is usually enough for the average user but it lacks many of the advanced features (i.e., file transfer, desktop scaling, session encryption, enhanced security, MAC OSX support, etc.) that are included with the Personal and Enterprise Editions. RealVNC is open-source. Its server runs on Windows, UNIX and GNU/LINUX.
TightVNC on the other hand is freely available under the terms of GNU GPL. This alternative software has slightly more features (i.e., file transfer on Windows). It does not offer encryption. Its server runs on Windows, UNIX, GNU/LINUX and MAC OSX.
UltraVNC has an amazing set of features and is freely available. Its server-side runs only on Windows. UltraVNC has a "Data Stream Modification" (DSM) plugin system feature included. It's very powerful. It allows the use of an external .DLL, which means that you can use encryption, data recording, and more -- virtually anything that specific DLL allows you to do. This DSM plugin system is actually a "tunnel" feature for your connection.
First I want to point out that all of the applications above are great and useful. Regardless of which one you choose I'm sure you're going to benefit. If you choose the UltraVNC (remember, its server runs only on Windows) then you might want to check out this site, where you can download several DMS plugins for encryption. Otherwise with RealVNC and TightVNC you can manually set up an SSH 'tunnel' to secure your connection. We'll get to that a bit later.
Now you can decide how you handle your VNC desktop sharing. You can use either UltraVNC with a DMS encryption plugin or TightVNC/RealVNC with an SSH tunnel. Depending on your decision you can go directly to the parts of this article that specifically address your chosen approach.
Next: Installing and Enhancing UltraVNC >>
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