Updated VNC Viewer For The Pocket PC

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.cs.utah.edu/~midgley/wince/vnc.html">http://www.cs.utah.edu/~midgley/wince/vnc.html</a><br /><br />If you run the <a href="http://www.uk.research.att.com/archive/vnc/">VNC service</a> on your PC, there is a new VNC client for your Pocket PC. <br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2004/20040219-vncviewer.gif" /><br /><br />They have added the ability to send a right-click (tap and hold) to the server and specify a port number. I had trouble with the right-click functionality though, but I need to see how old my VNC server software is. It worked fine on the Windows 2000 desktop but in Excel, the menu would disappear as soon as I lifted the stylus. I also didn't see a menu option to refresh the display, something I find myself using quite a bit on the desktop client. In the few minutes I played with it though I didn't need to refresh on a relatively speedy 10mb connection.<br /><br />The price is free. Through this weekend only, you can get two for the price of one. There is no installer. It is just a simple .exe you can copy to your device. To uninstall, just delete the .exe and manually remove the section of the registry that remembers the server names you have put in. There are versions for all Pocket PC types and even the SHx/MIPS processors for some of the 2000 devices.

[Zack Mahdavi]

I haven't tried out the new VNC Viewer client, but did anyone have problems with it being really slow? I remember even when on the fastest connection (WiFi), it would take a few minutes for my Mac OS X desktop to display on my iPaq 4155.

I wonder if it's just my PocketPC, as numerous SSH clients also seem to be slow.

Thanks for any tips!

[paris]

Grrrrrr why did they not update it a week ago when i was trying to configure it on my pc and i was strugling? why? why?

It will be fun to wake up in the monring and stay in bed and just use vnc to put some music on, or check if a download you have set at night is finished :) I wont have a reason to get up from bed :)

[johncruise]

seems the ppc2002 exe file doesn't work. maybe it's compiled for some other processor (not arm ... and obviously not ppc2002). I was able to load the ppc2000 version and it works fine (slow though)

[imorton]

Hi, I just downloaded and copied the VNC.exe installer to my
PPC (Jornada 565) and it doesn't work, something about
"missing libraires DLL blablabla"
I get the feeling it's not the proper file that we're getting from the site REAL VNC...

I also downloaded the PPC 2003, same thing

If anybody got it to work on a PPC 2002, I'd love to hear about...

:evil:

[axe]

Hi all

Yes, I have got VNC Viewer to work, at least the previous one. I haven't tried this one yet though. I had the older one on my 2k2 upgraded 3630 over WiFi, and while it worked fine it was SLOW!!! I would really like TightVNC to release a viewer for the PPC. We use it at work and it is Light-speed compared to the base viewer.

TTYL
Axe

[T-Will]

Cool...this looks like a cool alternative to the Terminal Server...can't wait to try it out at home.

Question: Is it possible to connect to a computer over the internet that is behind a router? Let's say I wanted to connect to my computer at home which is behind a router...do I have to configure the router a certain way? Any tips? Thanks!

[Cornish]

I have the Same Question, I have had problems with sort of thing before so any help would be wounderful. Thanks

( This does look cool)

[ctmagnus]

:clap: Excellent job!

[ctmagnus]

Question: Is it possible to connect to a computer over the internet that is behind a router? Let's say I wanted to connect to my computer at home which is behind a router...do I have to configure the router a certain way? Any tips? Thanks!

Set up the computer with a static IP and forward a port from the router to the desktop.

[T-Will]

Thanks, I'll try that when I get home.

[Aleq]

Hi all

Yes, I have got VNC Viewer to work, at least the previous one. I haven't tried this one yet though. I had the older one on my 2k2 upgraded 3630 over WiFi, and while it worked fine it was SLOW!!! I would really like TightVNC to release a viewer for the PPC. We use it at work and it is Light-speed compared to the base viewer.

TTYL
Axe
There is VNC for PocketPC that supports Tight compression. However, I don't know exactly where it can be found. It definitely exists. Try to google it

[fit4life]

VNC uses ports 5800 and 5900 to pass traffic. If you open those ports or forward those ports to a specific internal IP and you should be all set.

[Dave Beauvais]

There is VNC for PocketPC that supports Tight compression. However, I don't know exactly where it can be found. It definitely exists. Try to google it
Here is the VNC Viewer (http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~ssamak/) with TightVNC features. I was unable to get it to work well on my h5455 upgraded to WM2003. The initial display would draw on my Pocket PC, but no screen updates would display. i.e., tapping on the Start menu on the remote PC would not show the Start menu even though it was actually displayed on the remote system.

[axe]

Thanx for the tip. I'll give it a shot. we use TightVNC for almost all our 'over-the-shoulder' support where TS doesn't work.

I'll give it a try.
Axe

[ctmagnus]

VNC uses ports 5800 and 5900 to pass traffic. If you open those ports or forward those ports to a specific internal IP and you should be all set.

You can actually forward *any* port on the gateway to 5900 on the PC. I'd recommend against forwarding xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5900 to 192.168.1.x:5900 though, as that would be a bit of a giveaway.

[T-Will]

VNC uses ports 5800 and 5900 to pass traffic. If you open those ports or forward those ports to a specific internal IP and you should be all set.

You can actually forward *any* port on the gateway to 5900 on the PC. I'd recommend against forwarding xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5900 to 192.168.1.x:5900 though, as that would be a bit of a giveaway.

Could you elaborate? :?

[jasonc]

No matter what I do, I cannot seem to get this application working on my x3i. When I tap the "OK" button to connect to the server, the dialog disappears and nothing else happens. The VNC server is set up to require a password, but I never see a password dialog entry! I've read that there's some sort of bug that might cause the password dialog entry to go behind other windows, but after closing all of my windows to get to the Today screen, I can't find the password dialog box! On top of all that, I can't find any other way to terminate the vncview.exe process other than resetting my PDA!

Has anyone else had problems like these?

Jason

[T-Will]

Thanks for the tips ctmagnus!

Jason, this might help...when inside the network I found that I need to put in the IP address with port zero or 5900 to get it to connect.

When connecting from the internet I found that the address my router forwards to must use port 5900, it won't connect if I have it set to use port 0. It looks like the outside port can be set to anything within a valid port range.

Now another issue I've found is that it's extremely slow, it takes 20 secs or more just to draw up a menu on the Pocket PC. Is there any way to speed it up?

[Dave Beauvais]

Now another issue I've found is that it's extremely slow, it takes 20 secs or more just to draw up a menu on the Pocket PC. Is there any way to speed it up?
I haven't seen it quite that slow for minor screen updates such as a menu, but the initial display or any major screen changes like opening a new full-screen app do take quite a few seconds to fully render on the client side. I know Pocket PCs are slower than most desktops, but I really don't understand why the PPC-based VNC viewers are so painfully slow compared to their desktop counterparts. Screen draws are no big deal on desktop VNC clients, but are brutal on the Pocket PC. I try to use the Terminal Services client as much as possible for this reason, keeping VNC around for use with servers or workstations which don't have Terminal Services or Remote Desktop capabilities.

The best ways to speed up the display are to reduce the resolution of the host PC as much as is practical, and set the color depth no higher than 16-bit. Connecting from a Pocket PC to a computer running at, say, 1280x1024, requires a lot of data to be transmitted to the Pocket PC over whatever connection its using. An 800x600 display is much easier to deal with for two reasons: there is much less data to transmit, and significantly less scrolling involved on the Pocket PC. :-) I long for the day when 480x640 LCDs are standard on Pocket PCs...

The PPC Terminal Services client does a few things to make the experience a little nicer. The most important thing it does is reduce the host PC's resolution to 640x480. This is about the minimum usable resolution for a Windows PC, and greatly reduces the amount of data transmitted to the Pocket PC. It also turns off most of the desktop Windows eye candy such as animations and themes, and transmits only 8-bit color (256 colors) to the client software.

[T-Will]

Yeah I noticed when I connected to my other PC which is set at a lower resolution it went much faster.

Also, I was talking about connecting over the internet and not my internal network. Over the internal network the updates are faster.

[T-Will]

Would anyone mind giving any tips on setting up a secure (or somewhat secure) Terminal services connection with Windows XP? I assume if I want to connect from the internet I need to setup my router with the same type of port forwarding as with VNC...is this correct? Is there a way to manually startup the terminal server software rather than going through XP's remote help feature? Thanks!

[Dave Beauvais]

To connect to a Windows XP box using Remote Desktop via the Internet, you have to forward a port on your router/firewall to TCP port 3389 on the host machine. When connecting from your Pocket PC via the Internet, enter the IP address assigned to your router by your ISP followed by the port number you're forwarding. For example, if you specified port 33890 as the forwarding port in your router, you'd enter nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn:33890 . You don't have to do anything with Remote Assistance on the PC side because the WinXP box will be listening for connections on port 3389 and will initiate a Remote Desktop session automatically. You'll be greeted with a login dialog on your Pocket PC's display. Once you log in, you'll be remotely controlling the host PC.

As for making it "secure," about the only way to ensure it's secure is to go through a VPN of some sort. Using a high, obscure port number will probably be sufficient for most people, however.

[T-Will]

Great, thanks for the guide! :)

[T-Will]

One more question...to connect to a PC remotely with another PC do I use Hyperterminal?

[T-Will]

Hmm...I'm having trouble getting my PC's which are on my LAN connecting to each other through the Remote Desktop connection...

Do I just have to have Terminal Services started for Remote Desktop to work or are there other services that need to be running?

I even tried enabling all the Remote... services and it still doesn't work. The only way I seem to be able to get them to connect is by using the Remote Assistance invitation through Windows Help... :?

[T-Will]

LOL...ok here was my problem...I had to go to My Computer -> Properties -> Remote Tab and check the "Allow users to connect remotely..." box. Thanks for the help guys!

[T-Will]

Ok...now I've got another question...is there a way to specify the port number when connecting over the internet with the Pocket PC Terminal client?

Every time I type in xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:xxxx it just says "The server name specified is invalid." The only way around this is to set the port forwarding on my router to route anything coming in from pot 3389 to my PC, then I leave the port number off the address I'm typing in. The other problem with this is that there's 2 PC's I'd like to access with remote access, and since I'm not able to specify the port number on my PPC then I'm stuck only being able to connect to one PC.

And finally, in addition to the XP Remote Desktop Connection app, what other app can I use to terminal service into my PC?

[james048a]

Hi, im new to the forum, i read this thread, and thought to bring it alive.

I got my VNC for my Cingular 8125 to connect to my server through our symantec firewall/vpn unit, but i want to be able to remote into my desktop witch is also behind the firewall. Im not sure how to get the VNC to connect.

Example of how it is.
Ip before the firewall
67.xxx.xxx.220
Ip of server
192.xxx.xxx.239
In the firewal i have a port
192.xxx.xxx.239:5500

This config in my VNC in my 8125 67.xxx.xxx.220::5500 works connecting to my server, I need to be able to remote to my desktop thru the firewall with an Ip 192.xxx.xxx.87

Help!
Thanks,
James

[T-Will]

Hi, im new to the forum, i read this thread, and thought to bring it alive.

I got my VNC for my Cingular 8125 to connect to my server through our symantec firewall/vpn unit, but i want to be able to remote into my desktop witch is also behind the firewall. Im not sure how to get the VNC to connect.

Example of how it is.
Ip before the firewall
67.xxx.xxx.220
Ip of server
192.xxx.xxx.239
In the firewal i have a port
192.xxx.xxx.239:5500

This config in my VNC in my 8125 67.xxx.xxx.220::5500 works connecting to my server, I need to be able to remote to my desktop thru the firewall with an Ip 192.xxx.xxx.87

Help!
Thanks,
James

Right now it looks like this is how your port mapping is setup in the router for the server:

67.xxx.xxx.220:5500 forwards to 192.xxx.xxx.239:5500

You should be able to setup an additional forwarding rule which would allow you to use a different outside port when connecting to your desktop, for example:

67.xxx.xxx.220:5501 forwards to 192.xxx.xxx.87:5500

If for some reason your router doesn't allow you to choose different outside and inside ports, then you should be able to change the VNC listening port on your desktop through the VNC options.

Hope this helps! :)

[james048a]

Hi, thank you
Yes it help alot,
Got it to work on the first try. This was exactly what i need, thank you for the reply and help.

James

[jruetten]

I have an 8125 as well and can't connect to anything via any remote software, including the terminal services included in Mobile 5.0. Using the realvnc, i keep getting a RFB 003,003 error and nothing happens when I try this version. The only thing I can see different is that I have .net 2.0 installed on it instead of 1.1. Do you thing that would make a difference?

Jeff