VNC Problems

GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
edited June 2011 in Science & Tech
I'm having a hell of a time connecting to VNC servers on my machines. It should really not be this hard. The facts:
  • I'm unable to connect to servers on either my home or work desktop.
  • My work desktop is on campus, my home one, at home. At home, I have a cable modem and a WRT54G. My work computer has a real, external IP address.
  • I've tried using RealVNC and TightVNC servers.
  • All connections through VNC clients or HTTP clients (for the Java web server) time out, rather than being refused.
  • The RealVNC test page says that it could connect to the port, but that the connection was refused.
  • I can't connect either on the local network or across the Internet. This seems to suggest that the server is not actually running. However:
  1. Connections are allowed through Windows firewall.
  2. On my home router that I have access to port forwarding, the ports are correctly forwarded. However, I still can't connect on a local network, so this shouldn't have anything to do with it. It may be another problem to deal with later (see ping issue below)
  3. When I run netstat -an, it says that it is listening on the proper VNC ports for all IP addresses.
  • The TightVNC server system tray popup text says "TightVNC Server - not listening." I am not sure this actually means what it appears to mean. There is no command to tell it to start listening, netstat shows that something is indeed listening, and the service is running when I check Task Manager.
  • Passwords have been set. I've read that when there is not a password set for TightVNC, it will refuse connections.
  • I cannot ping either server from across the Internet.
  • I can ping them on their respective local networks.

If you've got ideas, please respond pronto. I leave on a jet plane at 6am tomorrow :D

If I can get connected to either of them via VNC, I'd be golden. All of them run the why-isn't-everything-this-easy Windows Live Mesh, which works perfectly for remote connections. But, I'll only have my Linux Pandora with me while I'm traveling, so I need to be able to VNC into one of them, and from there, I would be able to get to the rest of them.

update: Apparently RealVNC Server (free) isn't supported on Win7, but TightVNC (which I've been trying most of the time), is.

update2: My work machine can connect to itself on the java web server, but the machine right next to it cannot, even though it can ping it.

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2011
    I say bypass this whole nonsense and use TeamViewer.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited June 2011
    Forgot to mention that my client machine for the next couple weeks not only runs Linux, but it has an ARM chip. Sadly, TeamViewer and LogMeIn won't work. I could maybe compile FreeNX and get it to work, but I won't have enough time to figure that out and get that set up tonight.
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