Release 3.3.3 notes (authhost, /config and doc problems) and feature requests

[James "Wez" Weatherall]

> Now for the problems. I am using the AuthHosts registry entry
> and  changes to the entry don't take effect until I restart
> winvnc. I tested this under win95 only. It seems that this entry
> is only read upon startup of winvnc. Is this correct, and if so
> why? I would think it should be read upon every connection. If
> it is correct, it should be mentioned in the docs.

Settings are re-loaded every time a user logs in or out, at present and
whenever the Properties dialog is opened, I think.  I might add a
command-line option to force a re-load of the options.  I'd like to avoid
hooking the registry of possible, since that seems like a likely source of
new bugs!

> Also how long is the REG_SZ string allowed to be, I have 20-30
> dotted quad host addresses that have to be specified.

If I remember correctly, it auto-detects the length of the string
internally, so any string that will fit in the registry will work.

[snip of vncviewer problem - Q's department...]

> Also, you might want to mention in the windows NT section of the
> document that the helper application is automatically installed
> in the registry, not in the startup group.

Fair point.  The reasoning, in case anyone wonders, was that adding items
such as helper apps into the Startup group will tend to confuse novice users
unnecessarily.  Some of them might remove it and then wonder why WinVNC
stopped working properly. :)

> Also is there any flag that will disable connections if the user
> HASN'T set his/her own password? This would allow:
>
>    site wide generally known password for unused workstations
>    per user passwords for those who use VNC
>    no access to in use workstations with non-vnc users (without
> the users having to disallow connections)

By default, the server won't accept connections if no password is set.  If
you specify a machine password then this will be used if the user hasn't got
one of their own.  I _think_ what you describe is that if no-one is logged
in then you can connect remotely and if a VNC-user is logged in then you
still can, but if a user who doesn't use VNC logs in then connections are
refused.  A way to do this is to set a default password under
HKLM/Software/ORL/WinVNC3/Default and set the SockConnect registry option
there to false.  Then set SockConnect for HKLM/.../SYSTEM to true.  This
will allow remote connections before login (SYSTEM) and disallow them after
login (Default), unless the per-user settings override the SockConnect
option.

I hope that makes some sense!

Cheers,

James "Wez" Weatherall
--
Laboratory for Communications Engineering, Cambridge - Tel : 766513
AT&T Labs Cambridge, UK                              - Tel : 343000




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