How To: Run a Windows VNC Server and Use Your Computer from Anywhere!
First, a little history:
VNC was created at the Olivetti & Oracle Research Lab, which was then owned by Olivetti and Oracle Corporation. In 1999 AT&T acquired the lab, and in 2002 closed down the lab's research efforts.
Why do you care?
Because what we're about to do it really cool:
The Parts of a VNC System:
- Server:
This sends out the video to the client.
- Client:
This takes the data from the server, displays it, and sends any keystrokes/mouse information back to the server.
- Protocol:
How all this data is sent, some examples are: Ultra, Tight, and HexTile. The main differences are bandwidth efficiency.
First things first:
On the computer you want to gain access to, install a VNC server. I highly recommend UltraVNC, the latest version as of this writing is 1.0.2 Stable. You can pretty much click next through the whole thing. At the end, however, you need to check the following:
- Register UltraVNC Server as a system service.
- Start or Restart UltraVNC Service
- Configure Admin properties
The rest may remain unchecked. After this, the admin properties will open. You need to pick a strong, secure password and enter it here. Anyone with this password can access your computer and files, so make it long, alphanumeric, capital and non, and feel free to throw some symbols in too.
Now your server is installed! You next need to configure your firewall/router. For information on how to forward the correct port, see PortForward.com for a guide. Just choose your router then choose VNC from the resulting program list and you'll get a complete guide.
In order to access the server you just set up, you need to use a VNC Client, UltraVNC comes with one, you can download just the client by itself (No installation needed) here. Once that's installed, you need to know the I.P. address of your router. This can change, and is a pain to keep track of, so the best solution (If you don't have a static IP is DDNS.) DDNS basically constantly asks your router what its IP is and then routes that into a domain name. You will end up typing in something like [username].gotdns.com instead of 212.42.65.211. For a guide to setting up DDNS, look here.
Now, the only thing left is to test it out!