Cross-platform fun with Virtual Networking Computing

                                   by Axon

First, I'd like to give you all some background info on a program called
VNC (Virtual Networking Computing).  It's produced by ORL (www.orl.co.uk).
VNC is a client-server application, with support for java over the web.
It was originally designed for the X window environment, allowing users to
remotely use X through another computer.  like PC Anywhere, for unix.  VNC
servers already exist for many flavors of unix, Windows 95, and there's an
alpha VNC server for Macintosh.  Viewers have been ported to many unices as
well as windows, DOS, Macintosh, OS/2, Palm Pilots, and even Windows CE 2.

I work in an environment which requires use of programs available only for
Windows 95, but i really prefer using my Linux workstation.  I'm not given
enough desk space for 2 monitors, keyboards, and mice, and neither one of
my systems enjoys monitor/keyboard switches.  A colleague of mine pulled up
Netscape one day, totally taking remote control of his office computer.  I
was floored. 

Always on the hunt for new information, I asked him what he was using, and
I could have never been prepared for what was about to come.  "VNC", or
Virtual Network Computing, was the answer.  It's a totally cross-platform
remote control program, sort of like PC Anywhere.  VNC Has servers for many
flavors of unix, Windows 95, and macintosh.  There are viewers for
*EVERYTHING*, including palmtops, palm pilots, all the OS's that the Server
can run on, and then some.  Even DOS!  In the X-Window System, VNC creates
a different display and uses that one, but with Mac and Win9x/NT, the VNC
server allows the remote client to TAKE OVER the mouse and keyboard of the
console.  Imagine the fun there... of course for Win9x and Mac, there is a
"Sit back and Watch" mode for the server, which doesn't allow the client do
take it over, which makes for a very good helpdesk application, allowing
remote technicians to watch what's happening as the user on the phone shows
them the problems, and since VNC uses TCP/IP, it works from anywhere on the
Internet/Intranet.

With the X-Window system, the VNC Server/Viewer combo can be a free
replacement for that bulky and expensive X-Server software for Windows,
Such as Hummingbird EXceed and Reflection X, and when you disconnect from
VNC and reconnect later, the screen doesn't change.  Your work stays put,
unlike X servers where applications close when you disconnect. VNC can't
take over an existing display in X-Window System, though.  It's ability to
go cross-platform (a viewer for one OS works on servers for any OS) makes
it even more useful for support technicians.