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this isn't in OS X
Authored by: mithras on Sep 19, '01 12:51:57PM

Disappointingly, the OSXvnc port doesn't include the webserver or the java client. That's why I recommended downloading the linux or mac versions and finding the java client within those.

Incidentally, the java client isn't really http access to VNC. All the VNC webserver, or Apache with the Java client on a web page, does is deliver the Java client to you. So as far as I understand (which isn't terribly far), the earlier SSL speculation wouldn't work.

The Java client then runs just like a normal VNC client, connecting with the regular protocol over the usual ports (5900 or 5901).

Placing the Java client within an .htaccess-protected or SSL-encrypted page only prevents others from obtaining the Java client. Nothing stops them from running an ordinary client on their own machine. Thus VNC still depends on the simple password scheme. Note, though, that the VNC password is NOT sent cleartext to the server - the client uses the typed password to encrypt a challenge from the server. So it's much better than telnet or FTP in that respect.

SSH port-forwarding does indeed work for encrypting your VNC connection, but I don't know any obvious way to make this easy from any remote computer. I'd love to hear someone's ideas...



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this isn't in OS X
Authored by: vajonez on Sep 19, '01 03:14:33PM

Oops. If I had read your post more carefully I would have noticed that you mentioned the omission of the java client. Thanks for the clarification.



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this isn't in OS X
Authored by: professor on Apr 27, '02 01:01:27AM

>SSH port-forwarding does indeed work for encrypting your VNC
>connection, but I don't know any obvious way to make this easy
>from any remote computer. I'd love to hear someone's ideas...


From *any* remote machine? I don't think so, as you need a machine with
an ssh client.

From a *nix machine (including MacOSX), create an alias in your .cshrc
file

alias tunnelvnc 'ssh -L 5900:your.home.machine:5900 your.home.machine'

and type "tunnelvnc" at the commandline before connecting with the vnc client to localhost:0
(ie, port 5900 on localhost).

P.S.: As a VNC client for MacOSX, I'd like to recommend VNCDimension.app.



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this isn't in OS X
Authored by: professor on May 02, '02 01:44:22AM

Actually, because of its support for Tight Encoding, my favourite VNC client is now Chicken of the VNC.app. With the latest version of OSXvnc, this makes a world of difference in the usability.

In the same note, I also point out that you can couple SSH tunneling with firewalling external access to the VNC port(s) for extra security.

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osxvnc.com a dead link now?
Authored by: osxpounder on Oct 22, '02 12:40:59AM

I just went to osxvnc.com, and it links to a cheezy search page at Trafficz.com .... Could this mean that there is no more OSX VNC server anymore?



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osxvnc.com a dead link now?
Authored by: osxpounder on Oct 22, '02 12:40:59AM

I just went to osxvnc.com, and it links to a cheezy search page at Trafficz.com .... Could this mean that there is no more OSX VNC server anymore?



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osxvnc.com a dead link now?
Authored by: dump on Nov 06, '02 07:29:58PM

No, it's just bouncing around. Try
http://www.redstonesoftware.com/osxvnc/



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