in computing, Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop sharing system which uses the RFB protocol to remotely control another computer. It transmits the keyboard and mouse events from one computer to another, relaying the graphical screen updates back in the other direction, over a network.
VNC is platform-independent — a VNC viewer on any operating system usually connects to a VNC server on any other operating system. There are clients and servers for almost all GUI operating systems and for Java. Multiple clients may connect to a VNC server at the same time. Popular uses for this technology include remote technical support and accessing files on one's work computer from one's home computer, or vice versa.
VNC was originally developed at the Olivetti Research Laboratory in
VNC was created at the Olivetti & Oracle Research Lab (ORL), which was then owned by Olivetti and Oracle Corporation. In 1999 AT&T acquired the lab, and in 2002 closed down the lab's research efforts.
Developers who worked on VNC while still at the AT&T Research Lab are:
- Tristan Richardson (inventor)
- Andy Harter (project leader)
- Quentin Stafford-Fraser
- James Weatherall
- Ken Wood
- Andy Hopper
- Charles McLachlan
- Paul Webster
- Hendrik Ekkelenkamp, Ekkelenkamp IT, advisor
Following the closure of ORL in 2002, several members of the development team (including Richardson, Harter, Weatherall and Hopper) formed RealVNC in order to continue working on open source and commercial VNC software under that name.
Several other versions of VNC have been developed from the original GPled source code. Such forking has not led to compatibility problems because the RFB protocol is designed to be extensible. VNC clients and servers negotiate their capabilities when handshaking in order to use the most appropriate options supported at both ends.
A VNC system consists of a client, a server, and a communication protocol.
- The VNC server is the program on the machine that shares its screen.
- The VNC client (or viewer) is the program that watches and interacts with the server.
- The VNC protocol (RFB) is very simple, based on one graphic primitive from server to client ("Put a rectangle of pixel data at the specified X,Y position") and event messages from client to server.
The server sends small rectangles of the frame buffer to the client. In its simplest form, the VNC protocol can use a lot of bandwidth, so various methods have been devised to reduce the communication overhead. For example, there are various encodings (methods to determine the most efficient way to transfer these rectangles). The VNC protocol allows the client and server to negotiate which encoding will be used. The simplest encoding, which is supported by all clients and servers, is the raw encoding where pixel data is sent in left-to-right scan line order, and after the original full screen has been transmitted, only transfers rectangles that change. This encoding works very well if only a small portion of the screen changes from one frame to the next (like a mouse pointer moving across a desktop, or text being written at the cursor), but bandwidth demands get very high if a lot of pixels change at the same time, such as when scrolling a window or viewing full-screen video.
VNC by default uses TCP ports 5900 through 5906, each port corresponding to a separate screen (:0 to :6). A Java viewer is available in many implementations such as Real VNC on ports 5800 through 5806, allowing clients to interact through, among other things, a Java-enabled web browser. Other ports can be used as long as both client and server are configured accordingly.
Using VNC over the Internet works well if the user has a broadband connection at both ends. However, it may require advanced NAT, firewall and router configuration such as port forwarding in order for the connection to go through. Some users may choose to use instant private networking applications such as Remo Bo or VPN applications such as
Note that on some machines, the server does not necessarily have to have a physical display. Xvnc is the Unix VNC server, which is based on a standard X server. Xvnc can be considered to be two servers in one; to applications it is an X server, and to remote VNC users it is a VNC server. Applications can display themselves on Xvnc as if it were a normal X display, but they will appear on any connected VNC viewers rather than on a physical screen.
In addition, the display that is served by VNC is not necessarily the same display seen by a user on the server. On Unix/Linux computers that support multiple simultaneous X11 sessions, VNC may be set to serve a particular existing X11 session, or to start one of its own. It is also possible to run multiple VNC sessions from the same computer. On Microsoft Windows the VNC session served is always the current user session.
VNC is commonly used as a cross-platform remote desktop system. For example, Apple Remote Desktop for Mac OS X (and more recently, "Back to My Mac" in 'Leopard' - Mac OS X 10.5) interoperates with VNC and will connect to a Linux user's current desktop if it is served with x11vnc, or to a separate X11 session if one is served with Tight VNC. From Linux, TightVNC will connect to an OS X session served by Apple Remote Desktop if the VNC option is enabled, or to a VNC server running on Microsoft Windows.
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