For some reason on my dual 2g G5, when I start the system server and close vine server, I cannot connect (checked activity monitor and the system server is indeed running). Connection is refused immediately.
While vine server is running however, I can connect.
Is there a difference between the system server and just vine server? I did notice the system server runs as root and the regular server runs as my user name.
What OS version are you running, and are you trying to connect on same host with FUS on seperate account?
10.4.8
Not FUS, from a different computer on LAN, or from outside LAN.
If I try to connect from another computer on the local network, the connection window just flashes, never get the password prompt.
Connecting from outside the lan, I get a timeout - connection refused message.
If you aren’t even getting to the login step then you probably aren’t even talking to the VNC server. Verify that whatever port you are running the system server on is OPEN in the mac’s internal firewall (SystemPreferences->Sharing->Firewall).
Keep in mind that if you set the port number to be “automatic” that it will run on the first open port that it finds between 5900-5909. That means that if you have the GUI app running on 5900 when you start the system server it’ll probably launch on 5901.
Internal firewall is off. Port forwarding in router is correct. I CAN connect to the vnc server that is started when vine server app is running. After I close that and the system server is running I cannot connect to it. I’m just trying to figure out why one works and the other doesn’t - I don’t want to leave vine server running all the time.
Both versions of the server should work just fine – although the System server is designed to stay running all the time, that is it’s primary benefit is to allow it to survive user logout and let users access the machine when it’s at the log-in panel. From your description it sounds like a port problem where it’s not running on the port that you expect it to.
Try setting an explicit port number (make it very explicity like 5907) and then do a “Start System Server”. Try connecting to it on that port and then close the GUI.
now the system server is working. Is it possible that the server that automatically starts with vine server app could make the system server not startup properly if they’re on the same port perhaps?
This time I stopped the vine server before starting the system server.
Or does it matter?
They can’t both run on the same port. If the server is set to automatic then it probably opened on the next port, if it was set on an explicit port and that port was already in use then it would just fail to startup.