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There are many VNCs out there. realvnc, tightvnc, and so on. Which one would you recommend, or would you recommend avoiding the VNC protocol altogether? (And if so, in favor of what?)

Eddie
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10 Answers10

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I would recommend Ultra VNC, which now supports Windows Vista and has file transfers.

stukelly
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  • Why would you recommend Ultra VNC over the others? – Charles Roper May 06 '09 at 07:55
  • Ultra VNC is open source and can be installed on Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista. The current version forces you to enter a password, before allowing access. One new feature I like is folder transfer, which zips up a folder, transfers it and unzips on the remote computer. – stukelly May 06 '09 at 11:19
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if you're using Linux I'd highly recommend FreeNX. I've often found it a lot more responsive than VNC and it runs straight over SSH is secure and wouldn't require any additional ports.

Adam Gibbins
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    I've implemented FreeNX as a remote desktop solution for a small company that I administer with great results! I can really recommend this! – Anders Hansson May 07 '09 at 18:56
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I recommend NoMachine, they have both free and pay versions. Only for Linux do. Lot's of bells and whistles, and it's awesome.

But if you're on Linux and on a LAN, X forwarding is pretty awesome too (ssh -X myuser@server).

Ivan
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I have used a few of them, they used to suck but the latest versions have improved a lot, realvnc or tightvnc are both good options

BlackTigerX
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I recently stumbled over TeamViewer. Don't know how good it is compared to others really, but I like it a lot cause it Just Works. And cool thing is that it Just Works through routers and stuff like that without any setup.

Brilliant for doing remote support for friends and family for example =) Just make them run the client thing and give you the number and password. Voila.

Svish
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Ultra VNC, mainly for its Single Click addon.

alexandrul
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UltraVNC because you can encrypt the connection (such as AES) and because you can use Windows/Active Directory credentials to connect. This means that the traditional exploit of VNC of grabbing the password out of the registry (which is weakly encrypted) and then using it to log on doesn't work.

K. Brian Kelley
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TightVNC has worked well for me.

rick schott
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RealVNC has always worked well for me. They have a free version but I broke down an bought the Person edition for some of the additional features it provides... like screen scaling.

silent__thought
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We have moved all our users on multiple networks to UltraVNC. It offers file transfer, chat and is lightweight. It works quite well and is pretty fast. Compared to TightVNC and RealVNC which work fine, you get more bang for your buck with UltraVNC. I take issue with their web site, it's not that simple to navigate, but once you get the right version, it's all good.

Also, when in a pinch, we have used showmypc.com which temporarily installs TightVNC on a user's PC and let's you establish a connection without any initial install. It's free and it uses security codes to keep things on the up and up. Good luck!

John Virgolino
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