Okay I know there are a ton of threads for VNC. I promise I have looked through them. I've gleaned a lot of useful info there, but I'm still not up and running.

I would like to access two different machines via a VNC client on my n800 (OS2008). I have VNC viewer installed on my n800. I have a desktop running XP, with tightVNC installed. Both are on my home wlan. From what the threads suggest I should be able to take the IP that tightVNC gives me (which is the same as specified by the XP CLI if I run ipconfig), and put that into the VNC server box that pops up when I start VNC Viewer on my n800.

For some reason, it says that it can't connect. I don't believe it is a firewall issue. When I installed tightVNC, XP asked if I wanted to allow tightVNC a firewall exception and of course I said yes. When I first tried connecting through the n800, and the connection did not work, I disabled the XP firewall entirely. Still no love.

So. . .does anyone have an idea what my problem might be?

This is the first machine I want to connect to. I'd also like to connect to my laptop running Ubuntu. I started trying to get VNC to work with it first. Then after reading the threads, it seemes like it might be simple for me (a total linux/ubuntu noob) to work it out on my XP machine first.

If I can get the VNC working between my n800 and the XP box, I'll move on to the Ubuntu machine.

Thanks in advance.

This is a shot in the dark, but I couldn't connect to my PC unless I password-protected the VNC session. Since it is a closed network, my password is a space. Not sure why, but the current VNC app on the N8XX can't seem to connect to a passwordless VNC server.

- Jim

As you using the mirror driver from demoforge with your tightvnc server install? the mirror driver does odd things with the vnc viewer on my n800 (ver 0.6.1). It would connect and just hang for about 30 seconds, and then die. If I reconnected immediately after that, it connects fine.

To solve that problem, I am now using ultravnc's server. Apart from that, i would try mac0t0r's suggestion, and be sure to use some type of password.

Thanks for the replies.

Can you tell me how you set the password for the VNC session? Is this something you do on the client or server side?

I'm really sure what mirror driver I'm using for the server. Unfortunately, I'm not in front of my XP machine right now. But I'll check into that when I get home. But my problem doesn't sound like yours. I can't get any connection at all.

Double click the vnc icon in the system tray in WinXP. There should be feilds where you can enter passwords. Press apply then try connecting.

On the XP machine, do you have any other firewalls running? Norton, Zone Alarm, etc.?
Disable them just to test connectivity.

On the XP box, did you create a password? if so, make sure that the caps lock is not on, the N800 as a default when you type a word it capitalizes the first letter. Did you change the listening port on the XP? the default is 5900, leave it for the time being.

Did you verify that the N800 is running on your home LAN and not your neighbors?

You can test the VNC connection with the Ubuntu box just to rule out that the VNC application you have for your N800 is good... otherwise, then just uninstall it from the N800 and reinstall it again.

As a side note, from the Ubuntu box, try connecting to the XP box via VNC, if it connects fine, then you know that the port/pass is not the issue, so it could be the N800 VNC app.

Let us know if you resolved it.

I really do love this forum. So many helpful folks. So many quick replies. Makes me wish I was at home so I could try some of these recommendations. But alas. . .

I'll check into the password settings when I get home. I don't recall setting a password when I installed tightVNC, but I may have and just don’t remember doing it.

I am running AVG antivirus and an anti-spyware program (whose name escapes me at the moment). I don't know if it is possible that they are interfering, but I disable them as well.

I'll update the thread with my progress when I get home.

Why don't you just VNC into your home box and try it?
I'm using tightVNC here, untrusted network so over SSH of course, and I can confirm issues with passwordlessness. But, IIRC, the trouble was tightVNC server won't run passwordless, even though VNC is not safe for an untrusted network. Go figure!

You can, I think, set up with an empty password vs. passwordless, but the best thing to do is use a non-empty password. Something like space (' ') is sane, as it dodges case-sensitivity.

OK I think you guys were right about the password issue. I've got it connected to the XP machine on my home network, no problem.

Benson (or anyone that knows). Can you tell me how to set up the SSH so I can do this when I'm not using my home network?

I've posted on this before over here. Note that that's discussing using a PC client to control an N800 server; you'll need to reverse those for your case.

As that run-down assumes you have sshd running on the server, you'll need to get a ssh server running on your PC; I use openssh under cygwin, much as described here.

Finally, you need to make sure any routers, firewalls, bridges, NATs, etc. are set up to permit ssh traffic from outside in to your PC.