Question about VNC programs and MACs and PCs

Vine
1

Hi…I downloaded VineViewer and VineServer and installed them on my OS X computer and also installed a VNC server on my OS 9 computer…I can’t remember the name…something like OS9VNC. Anyway, I am now able to remotely connect to the OS 9 computer from the OS X one. I also found that from my Windows XP PC I could connect to both the MACs…I have UltraVNC Server and Viewer on the PC.

Here’s a couple of questions:

  1. When I use my OS X computer at a starbucks and use a browser to connect to the XP computer at home running UltraVNC…is it secure? Should I be worried about hackers for either machine or anyone picking up data?

  2. Sometimes I use a windows laptop to connect remotely to my windows desktop using UltraVNC, but usually I use my OS X laptop and use a browser…in my router I have forwarded ports 5800-5801 and 5900-5901 to the XP desktop’s static IP so that no matter how I try I can connect. I also have DYNDNS set up so I don’t have to type my IP address which might change. Anyway, I was thinking that maybe I could also connect to my OS 9 laptop remotely as well which is running the OS9VNC Server from Redstone Software (I can connect to it from within my LAN as mentioned above…FYI). In VineViewer I tried entering the DYNDNS address and even the cable modem IP and it wouldn’t work. I then realized that I have both incoming ports (5800 and 5900) forwarded to the XP machine so nothing happeded (I assume that VineViewer can’t connect to UntraVNC Server). Anyway, before I go changing the port forwarding info, does anyone think it will work? I mean does VineViewer work outside the LAN? If so, what ports should I forward? I’d like to still be able to use the MAC OS X browser

2
  1. Is a connection between Vine Viewer and an UltraVNC server secure?

Generally, no - not unless you make it secure. Vine Viewer has the capability to tunnel the connection through SSH. But this requires that you have an SSH server running inside the network that you can connect to - for further details please read the Vine Server manuals.

2a) Does Vine Viewer work with UltraVNC?

Yes, but you need to disable the Zlib-Hextile encoding Vine Preferences->VNC. Then it should work for you.

2b) How can you port forward to multiple machines inside a LAN?

This can work just fine, typically you would assign different ports to go to different machines. For sanity’s sake I would keep the port numbers in sync and run the servers on those ports, like this:

External Internal
5900 -> XP Machine (Port 5900)
5901 -> OS9 Machine (Port 5901)
5902 -> MacBook (Port 5902)