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Using VNC Viewer for iOS v1.4.1 you can now connect to Screen Sharing in Lion OS X. Authenticate using your Mac user name and password. If you are upgrading you no longer need to. VNC® Viewer from RealVNC® gives you instant remote access to your Mac, Windows and Linux computers from anywhere in the world. You can view your computer's desktop, and control its mouse and keyboard as though you were sitting down in front of it. The original and best for remote access across desktop and mobile. VNC® software enables you to remotely access and securely control your desktop or mobile device. VNC Viewer remote desktop VNC® Viewer turns your phone into a remote desktop, giving you instant access to your Mac, Windows and Linux computers from anywhere in the world. You can view your computer's desktop remotely, and control its mouse and keyboard as.
Contents
Downloading
VNC Enterprise Edition for Mac OS X is available for Mac OSX 10.3 and above and for both PPC and x86 processor architectures. Ifyou are not sure what type of processor your computer has, then youshould download the PPC version, which will run on eitherprocessor. However, for best performance, we recommend that you usethe correct version for your processor.
For either architecture, you can download an installer package(
.pkg
) containing both the server and viewer, or a diskimage (.dmg
) containing just the viewer.Installing
To install VNC Server Enterprise Edition for Mac OS X,double-click on the downloaded installer and follow the on-screeninstructions. You will need to restart your computer in order to runthe VNC Server in Service-Mode, but you can startusing it in User-Mode immediately. |
Installing a License Key
When you first install the software, you will be prompted to install alicense key. To install a license key at any other time, run theInstall license key program from the VNC Server folderof Applications. You will be asked to enter an administratorpassword before a license key can be entered. |
Enter the license key exactly as it appears in the email you receivedwhen you purchased the software (copy and paste is best). If you wouldlike to try the software before buying a license, then you can get a free 30-day trial. |
The Status Bar Icon
If VNC Server is running, there will be an icon on the right-hand sideof the menu bar. Under normal circumstances, this icon has a whitebackground; however, when someone is connected to your computer, thebackground color of the icon changes to black to inform you ofthis. It is not possible to remove the status bar icon without closingVNC Server and disabling connections to your computer. Note that, inService-Mode, VNC Server continues to run even ifno-one is logged in locally. In this case, the status bar icon willappear when someone logs in. As well as providing a visual indication of whether or not someone iscurrently connected to your computer, most administrative functionsare accessed using the status bar menu. |
Service-Mode and User-Mode
VNC Server supports two modes of operation:
- Service Mode
- Runs when the computer starts up (unless configured otherwise).
- Provides remote access even when no-one is logged in, or when allusers are switched out.
- Only users with administrative privileges can stop or reconfigurethe server.
- User Mode
- Can be stopped and started 'on-demand' by any user when remoteaccess is needed.
- Cannot provide remote access if no-one is logged in, or if allusers are switched out.
- Each user has their own configuration settings and can modifythese freely.
To start VNC Server in either Service- or User-Mode, double-click onthe appropriate icon in the VNC Server folder ofApplications. To stop VNC Server in either Service- orUser-Mode, select Quit from the status bar menu. ForService-Mode, you will be prompted to enter administrative credentialsto stop or start VNC Server, and it will remember whether or not it isrunning across reboots.
Configuring
To configure the server, click on the status bar icon and selectPreferences... If you are configuring VNC Server inService-Mode, then you will be prompted to enter administrativecredentials. It is intentionally the case that, if VNC Server is unconfigured,then no connections will be accepted. This is for securityreasons. |
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You must, at a minumum, configure your VNC Server's authentication andgenerate secure encryption keys before you will be able toconnect. There are three authentication options:
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You can also configure the preferred encryption setting:
- Prefer On—Use encryption unless the VNC Viewerrequests otherwise.
- Prefer Off—Don't use encryption unless the VNC Viewerrequests it.
- Always On— Always use encryption. This optionprovides the highest security but you will not be able use legacy orthird-party VNC Viewers to connect if this option is selected.
Before you can connect to your VNC Server, you must generate secureencryption keys by clicking on the Generate Keys button. If youforget to do this, you will be prompted to generate encryption keyswhen you close the dialog.
You can also configure whether or not the local user can enable the'guest' login, and the level of access that guests are granted. Ifenabled, the local user can enable the 'guest' login from the statusbar menu, even if he or she does not otherwise have permission tomodify the VNC Server settings (for example, if it is running inService-Mode). The 'guest' login differs from other logins in that itdoes not normally have a password, and the local user is alwaysprompted to accept the connection, regardless of the setting ofPrompt local user to accept connections.
Finally, you can configure whether or not the local user will beprompted to accept each incoming connection and whether or not thisapplies even if no-one is logged on. Note that, when MacAuthentication is enabled, the local user will not be prompted if theconnecting user has the Connect without accept/reject promptpermission.
The Connections tab controls the port numbers through which theVNC Server is accessed and, optionally, the IP addresses from whichconnections are accepted. Note that port numbers below 1024 arereserved by the operating system for privileged processes and are notavailable unless you are running in Service-Mode.
It is also possible to configure a list of approved and/or blacklistedIP addresses. The details of this are beyond the scope of this guide;see the section entitled Access control: Allow, deny or queryaddresses in the VNC Server Enterprise forWindows documentation. |
The Sharing tab controls how VNC Server handles multiplesimultaneous connections.
The Non-shared connections replace existing ones optioncontrols the behaviour of non-shared sessions. If checked, then anyexisting connection will be closed when an incoming non-sharedconnection is received. If unchecked, then incoming non-sharedconnections will rejected if there is an existing connection. |
The Misc tab contains various options that are not covered by any of the other tabs.
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Connecting
In order to connect to your computer, you will need to know its IPaddress. To display the current IP address, hover the mouse pointerover the VNC status bar icon. If your server is configured correctly,this will indicate whether the server is running in User- orService-Mode and tell you its IP address (however, see our port forwarding FAQ forfurther information if your computer is connected to the Internetthrough an external firewall or NAT router). If you have changed the Accept connections on port setting,then you will need to specify this when connecting with VNCViewer. For example, if you have configured server snoopy to accept connections on port 80, then you would specifysnoopy::80 when connecting. Note the double-colon syntax;a single colon denotes a desktop number—for examplesnoopy:1 refers to desktop number 1 onsnoopy , which accepts connections on port 5901. |
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If your server is misconfigured and is unable to accept connections,then instead of your IP address, the tool-tip will instead say Notaccepting connections. In this case, check the server error log formore information. |
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File Transfer
Starting with version 4.3, VNC Enterprise Edition for Mac OS Xsupports file transfer. In order to transfer files, you must beconnected using a version of VNC Viewer that supports file transfer,for example VNC Viewer Enterprise or Personal Edition for anyplatform. To transfer files from your VNC Server computer, selectShare Files... from the VNC Server status bar menu and browseto the file or directory that you want to copy. This makes the filesavailable to all connected viewers; to transfer them, use the F8 menuon UNIX and Mac platforms, or the clipboard on Windows platforms. On Mac OS X 10.4 and above, you can copy a group of files ordirectories to the clipboard rather than using the status bar menu. |
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To transfer files to your VNC Server computer, first select thefiles using a connected VNC Viewer, using the F8 menu or clipboard,depending on the platform on which VNC Viewer is running. This makesthe files available to VNC Server; to transfer them, select FetchFiles... from the VNC Server status bar menu and choose thedownload location. |