VNC + VPN + ZA-P = Poor Performance?

[Al Jacoutot]

Hi,

I searched through the archives, but haven't found anything addressing this 
issue in particular.

First, my setup:
-- Cable modem into the house.
-- Linksys BEFSR41 Firewall/Router/NAT/4-Port-Switch
-- Win98 PC running ZoneAlarm-Pro (abbreviated ZA below) SW Firewall
-- VNC Viewer ver 3.3.3
-- Cisco VPN 3000 Client SW running on this PC.

If I run all of the above on my home PC, I can access the office.  Telnet 
and Browser sessions to the office network run fun.   However, if I open a 
VNC Viewer into any VNC Server (one on a Win 2K machine, one on a Red Hat 
7.1 server), the performance is horrendous.  It takes 30 second for the 
initial screen to load; 10-30 second for subsequent screen updates.  
Interestingly, the mouse follows along almost at speed.

If I turn off ZA, VNC Viewer performance is great.   Initial screen load is 
1 second or better.   Interactive response time is virtually instantaneous.

Under ZA, I have the VPN IP address, the office IP range, and my local PC 
loopback IP all declared.   Initially I had to declare the VPN IP and my 
loopback IP just to get the link to run.   Adding the office IP range added 
no performance benefit.

If I set the resolution down to 8 bit (vs the 24 bit setting on the server) 
things get a little better, but still nowhere near the performance level 
when ZA is turned off.

Given that telnet and web sessions work fine regardless of whether ZA is on 
or not, it seems like it's an issue between ZA and VNC only.

Has anyone experienced this?  Any suggestions to remedy the situation?

(I have submitted the same question to ZoneLabs, but I got a form letter 
reply.  I'll have to try again with them.)

Thanks,
AJ



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