[ubuntu-uk] Roll Your Own VNC Support Package

[Neil Greenwood]

On 15/02/07, Stephen Garton <sheepeatingtaz at gmail.com> wrote:
> Afternoon All,
>
> I (and I imagine a few people on the list) am the 'support' desk for
> family when it comes to PC's. Now, I am working on getting them to
> migrate to Ubuntu, so I can better support them, but at the moment
> they are (mostly) running windows. I recently found an article
> detailing how one can set up a 'Call Home' button on a Windows
> machine:
>
> http://www.runpcrun.com/create_your_own_support_software
>
> Now, I'm OK with the instructions, and converting 'my' part to ubuntu
> for the most part, until I get to the following bit:
>
> Have the VNCViewer program running in "Listen" mode, preferably with
> 8-bit colour for the best performance. (you can make a shortcut with
> "vncviewer.exe" /8bit /listen if you want)
>
> Can I do this with vncviewer /8bit /listen'' in my session startup
> options? Have I missed the point somewhere?
>
> TIA
>

I'm a bit rusty on VNC, not having used it for a few years now.
I think you run the Listen mode on the machines you want to connect
to, i.e. the Windows machines that you want to support.
You would then run VNCViewer on the Ubuntu machine in order to connect
to the Windows machine when you need to assist its owner.

Have you looked at NX as an alternative? It gives better
compression/performance than VNC. Downside is that it's not completely
Free (as in speech).

You definitely don't want to use standard VNC - use TightVNC instead
since it offers compression support, but is backwards-compatible with
standard VNC. Linux Format did a comparison of different remote
desktop technologies recently (maybe 3-4 months ago). I'll check which
issue tomorrow if you're interested.

Hwyl,
Neil.