VNC Password Authentication vs. Windows

[Calvin Webster]

On Fri, 2006-10-06 at 06:07, James Weatherall wrote:
> > I understand there is a challenge/response mechanism used in RealVNC
> > Free Edition, but is this authentication session encrypted? What
> > safeguards are in place and how do they compare with a 
> > default setup of Windows 2K/3K, for example?
> 
> VNC Free Edition uses a simple challenge-response scheme based on encrypting
> a random challenge with up to 8 bytes of password data.

In terms of authenticating across a protected intranet LAN, would you
say this is is at least as secure a method as default MS Windows
password authentication?

--Cal Webster