Conferencing with VNC

[S. I. Becker]

> Can someone help please.
>
> I require remote access software for my small business.
>
> I am considering using the Free edition but I am not sure if it will offer
> the two features that I am interested in, these are:
>
> 1)The abilitiy to remote access a customers PC and offer them technical
> support remotely. This I understand is available
>
> 2)I require customers to be able to  be able to  view my PC screen so I 
> can
> demonstrate software or offer tuition remotely.
>
> Can you please advise if this is possible with the Free software.
>

Yes, and I'm looking at doing the same myself, so I'm aware of some of the 
issues involved.

1) Yes, provided that your customers have installed a VNC Server.  You can 
distribute the Free version to your customers if you want, provided you 
follow the rules set out in the GPL.

2) Yes, all your client requires is a Java enabled browser, but can also use 
a VNC viewer.  First set up your VNC server, and configure it so that 
incoming connections cannot control your PC, but only view it.  In RealVNC 
under Windows, you do this by going to the Options dialogue, going to the 
Inputs page and unticking everything on that page.  While you're there look 
at the Sharing page if you want to allow more than one potential customer to 
view your screen at a time.  Select the "Always treat new connections as 
shared" option and untick the "Non-shared connections replace existing ones" 
box.  However, be aware that using sharing can tend to slow things down a 
bit.

You may need to check whether you are behind a router, and configure that 
router to forward port 5800 (and port 5900 for standard VNC connections) to 
your PC.

Then your client types the following in their web-brower:
http://your.external.address:5800
replacing "your.external.address" with either the ip address or external 
name of your computer, and then enters the password needed to connect (if 
you set one).

NB Some of your potential customers may have firewalls which block outgoing 
connections higher port numbers like this of this type, which some of your 
clients might have.  In that case, you can change the port on which you 
serve the java/http server in VNC from 5800 to one that is more likely to be 
let through (e.g. 80), and have your clients connect to:
http://your.external.address:80
instead.  (If you choose 80, then the ":80" bit can be removed, but if you 
choose any other number then you need to keep the ":number" in there).  The 
port number can be changed by going to Options -> Connections -> Serve Java 
viewer via HTTP on port: ____.  It defaults to 100 less than what you set 
the standard port to, but can be changed to anything you wish.


HTH (and hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs either) and sorry for the 
delay in replying.

Stewart