VNC : Remotely Control another PC

Oscar Sodani is a founder of Help2Go and owner of Help2Go Networks, an IT consulting firm in the Washington D.C. area. Oscar holds the CISSP certification as well as industry certifications from Microsoft, Cisco and Novell.

Learn how to remotely control a PC with this FREE program. If you regularly telecommute, or if you provide tech support to your family, then this utility is a MUST!

Editor's Note:

We have an updated version of this article which shows you how to remote control another PC securely (all traffic is encrypted), so hackers can't break in. Read it here: Remote Control Another PC Securely with VNC and Hamachi.

After a murderous commute, you finally arrive at home. You're looking forward to a nice quiet dinner with your family when... your boss calls. Your boss needs the latest sales figures e-mailed to her immediately. The problem is, the sales figures are contained inside a spreadsheet file that you left at work. Cripes! Now you have to get in the car and drive all the way to the office, just to e-mail this file that's on your hard drive...

Or maybe this scenario is more familiar: you are working with your home computer or laptop and you realize that you need access to a file on your company's network. Your home PC has access to the Internet, but no access to your company's internal file servers! How do you get to that file??

Techies have used remote control programs like pcAnywhere for years to solve these very problems. Remote control programs allow you to connect to your work computer over the Internet, and gives you access to everything your work computer has access to! What you see on your screen, at home, is what is normally displayed on your work PC's monitor! It sounds impossible, but it is VERY real.

VNC

A program was released by AT&T research labs this year called VNC (Virtual Network Computing). VNC allows you to remote control another computer over the Internet. It is very easy to use, and best of all, it's FREE. The only prerequisite is that both computers need to have an active connection to the Internet.

There are two components to VNC: the server and the client. The server refers to the computer that you want to control. The client is the computer that you will use to view the screen of the server.

Step 1: Download & Install

VNC is available for most current operating systems, including Windows and Linux.

Perform the following instructions on the computer you want to control (the server):
Click here to go to the VNC download page. Fill out the form, and check the box for the operating system you use under the "Binary Packages" heading.

On the download screen, make sure you download the latest version, and Windows users should make sure they download the .zip version of the archive.

Once it is downloaded, unzip the file to a directory of your choice. Inside, you will find two folders: vncviewer and winvnc. Open the winvnc folder, and double-click on setup.exe -- this will install the VNC server on your computer.

Step 2: Start the Server

To start VNC on your server:
Click on Start, Programs, VNC, Administrative Tools, Install WinVNC Service

The server program will run, and a pop-up box will prompt you for some settings (Figure 1).

First, uncheck the box that says "Auto". You will now be allowed to enter a number in the "Display Number" field. Pick your favorite number between 0 and 99 and enter it here. (I chose the number 50)

Figure 1

Next, you will need to enter a password. Make it something that only you will know -- you certainly don't want unwanted hackers gaining access to your computer!

Click on OK. VNC will be running in the background (you may see a little VNC icon in your system tray, next to the clock).

Step 3: Your IP Address

Now, you will need to know what your IP address is. An IP address is a sequence of numbers that identifies your computer on the Internet. Every Internet-connected computer has a unique Internet address. Use the steps below to figure out what your IP address is, and write it down. We'll need it later when you want to use the remote control software.

Find your IP Address: Windows 95/98

1. Click on Start, and then choose Run.
2. In the box that pops up, type winipcfg
3. An IP Configuration box will pop up. Write down the number next to IP Address -- it should consist of four numbers separated by periods, i.e. 152.16.85.201
4. You may have a drop down listbox of the different adapters on your system. If you have more than one adapter listed, write down the IP Address for each adapter (if you only have one, don't worry about it).

Find your IP Address: Windows NT

1. Click on Start, and then choose Run.
2. In the box that pops up, type cmd
3. A DOS box will appear. At the prompt, type ipconfig
4. Write down the number next to IP Address -- it should consist of four numbers separated by periods, i.e. 152.16.85.201
5. More than one IP address may appear. If this happens, write down all of them (but ignore the one that is 127.0.0.1).

Your computer is now ready to be controlled!

Step 4: Remote Controlling your Computer

These steps must be done on your client computer (that is, the computer that will do the controlling):

You will need to download the VNC program again. Here is the download web page. When you have downloaded the program, unzip the file into a folder of your choice. We will now need the folder called vncviewer -- open it up and you will find a program called vncviewer.exe -- double-click on this program to start it.

VNCViewer

A connection screen will immediately pop-up. Here's where we'll need

• The IP address you wrote down in step 3
• The "favorite number" you used when setting the VNC configuration in step 2

In the connection details box, type in your IP Address, followed by a colon (:), followed by the number you used in Step 2. In my case, my IP Address is 10.131.89.166, and the number I chose was 50, so I will type in 10.131.89.166:50 (see figure 2).

Figure 2

Click on OK -- a password box will soon pop-up. Type in the password you set in step 2. Wait a few seconds, and you should see the screen of your server computer! Go ahead -- try moving the mouse, opening some programs, even checking the company network. Everything you do is being echoed on the computer you are remote-controlling.

If you are having problems connecting, try one of the other IP addresses you wrote down. Otherwise, make sure that both your client and server computers are actively connected to the Internet. If you still have problems, try the VNC Manuals.

Web Browser Control

Now for some real fun -- if you have a Java-capable web browser (i.e. Netscape or Internet Explorer), you can remote control your server using just your web browser! Here's how:

Open up your web browser.
In the Location field, type http:// followed by the IP address of your server, followed by a colon (:) followed by the number 58, and then followed by the number you chose (your favorite number). For instance, I would type in http://10.131.89.166:5850

You should then be prompted for your password -- type it in, and you will see your server's screen, right in the web browser!

Final Thoughts

VNC is a snazzy piece of software that can be very helpful. It is being developed by AT&T Labs, and they have released it for free, which is very nice of them. New and improved versions come out every few months, so check with their web page periodically for upgrades.

If you are planning to control a PC that is connected to your company's network, you may want to check with the company network administrator. We don't want you to get in trouble for using remote control and maybe endangering your company's secret files.

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