Bad Review of VNC at CNET

[Michael Milette]

Bonjour Patrice,

I have had it running with a very similar configuration to yours except 
that the CPU's were just quad Xeon 450's. I will even raise you the fact 
that it wasn't only running NT Server but NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition 
plus MetaFrame and it worked great. I would connect remotely to MetaFrame 
and then run VNC to connect to a local machine. I have even had multiple 
sessions going by multiple users.

Of course I have see situations where programs like PatchWorks will tighten 
security to the point where almost nothing will run on a box. Even without 
PatchWorks, I seem to remember a security utility which can increase the 
level of security of your server. Set to the highest level, your system 
won't even be able to see any network.

Perhaps if you could give us some additional insight into what exactly the 
symptoms are, we might be able to provide you with a few suggestions. Give 
it a try. You will find that many people here enjoy helping each other out, 
something you don't necessarily see with commercial software. In my 
experience with commercial software, except in the case of the simplest 
problem with the users ability to use the software, tech support will 
typically act as if you are the very first person in the world to ever 
experience the problem and then will tell you that they will send a request 
to have the developers look it. This does not guaranty that it will 
actually be fixed. I have spoken to many Tech Support managers who made it 
clear to me that the first bugs to get fixed are the ones they get the most 
calls for. If you are actually the only person to ever complain about a 
real bug, they may never even look into it.

This is not to say that VNC is any better in that respect. I have been 
waiting for a bug to be fixed for about 2 years now (depleting resources 
while connecting on Windows 9x over a slow connection). However, at least 
there is an active community of end users ready and willing to help you out 
and the developer has actually looked into "the source code", confirmed the 
problem and has stated that he will try to fix it some day since it is not 
a small undertaking to correct the problem. With commercial software, you 
NEVER get to talk to the developer. For all we know, they never even see 
your bug report.

Just one word of warning: People around here get cheesed off really quick 
(probably too quick if you ask me) if you ask a question which has already 
been answered on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. It is very 
possible that the reviewer of the VNC article at CNET did ask a question 
and was sent to the FAQ page to find the answer him/herself.

I realize that the FAQ page is there for a reason, and a good reason too. 
However for newcomers who may not be used to looking for information on the 
Internet, this can leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. First 
impressions are very important. Someone who feels good about having found 
and subscribed to vnc-list could easily be quickly discouraged when simply 
told "RTFM" or just "Read the FAQ before asking a question here!"

Hope this helps. By the way, the FAQ page can be found at 
http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/faq.html.

At 08:00 AM 2001-09-18, you wrote:
>VNC doesn't work against a Dell PowerEdge 6400 quad-700MHz CPU machine, 2G
>of RAM, with NT Server 4 SP 6a with security hotfixes applied, including the
>fixes highlighted by PatchWork.
>
>VNC works against an old Pentium II clone, with less memory, no brand name,
>NT4 SP5.
>
>Regards,
>Patrice Boivin
>Systems Analyst (Oracle Certified DBA)
>
>Systems Admin & Operations | Admin. et Exploit. des systhmes
>Technology Services        | Services technologiques
>Informatics Branch         | Direction de l'informatique
>Maritimes Region, DFO      | Rigion des Maritimes, MPO
>
>E-Mail: boivinp "at" mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca <mailto:boivinp "at" mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca>
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