Suddenly stopped working

[Scott D. Breunig]

I'm stumped. I'm pretty green with the product in my opinion also. I've only
used it on my home machine for practice. Now, I've tried it in a small (8
node LAN).  

I installed the product on a single XP Pro workstation on an 8 member LAN
behind a firewall. The only way I was able to get it to work was by opening
port 5900 on the firewall and setting the client to "auto" regarding the
number and checking the box for the java viewer. This confused/confuses me
since my understanding was that when java was enabled port 5800 must be
used. Anyway it worked, I was happy I was successful at that. Etc.

I also have been using gotomypc on the same machine at the same time
successfully without incident.

Then I decided I wanted to teach myself how to use the remote access feature
of xp.  Mistake.  I read that VNC won't work if this service is enabled. No
problem I'll just turn it off when I want. Well, in addition I was asked to
visit the client on another matter. During that time I decided to install
the vnc server service on 5 or 6 of the machines.

After deciding to abandon the xp remote access issue. Uninstalling and
rebooting the machine. VNC no longer works. Specifically when I try to
access the vnc server via the viewer from my quick launch tray. It times out
after about 10 seconds with a dialogue box titled "vnc info", with a yellow
warning symbol. And the message "failed to connect to server"

I am able to access the machine at any time via gotomypc. So I have
uninstalled, reinstalled vnc on this server. I have Double and triple
checked that the service is running, no event viewer messages regarding
this. I have changed the port number on the server to 5800, back to 5900.
Even hard coded this server with the number 10 (to match the 4 octets value
in its IP address). Then hard coded the firewall with port 5810 and then
5910.  Nothing. Nada.

So I'm perplexed if it was my attempt with the remote access utility of xp
that has hosed me it up (another words lack of experience on my part), or if
somehow installing vnc on several machines in this network has caused some
problem that I'm not familiar with.

What am I ignorant of?

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