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View Full Version : Need RealVNC help badly.



jasong
06-08-2005, 06:11 PM
Status: I have RealVNC installed as Server and client on both machines. I am ATTEMPTING to connect them through an Ethernet cable, which may be the reason for my 10060 timeout error. The question is whether or not I should keep attempting this, or should I dig into my incredibly small treasure chest and dig out some money for a networking cable? The client computer is a 1.75GHz Sempron connecting to a server that's a 500MHz AMD "something." I have exactly 1 monitor, 1 mouse, and 1 keyboard that would prefer a minimal amount of switching.

Note: I have about $120 spending money available that needs to cover ALL of my nonessential needs until July 1st, unless I get a job before then

rsbriggs
06-08-2005, 06:16 PM
If you're attempting to connect them directly, you have a couple of problems.

First and foremost, you can't use a regular network cable to directly connect two machines. The cable would need to be what is called a "crossover".

You're really going to need a little hub to connect if you are planning to connect multiple boxes. Even a cross-over cable may not work, depending on the ethernet cards in the machines.

Four port hubs are very cheap, and I suspect that at least a few people here might be willing to part with one for little or nothing....

jasong
06-08-2005, 06:38 PM
Originally posted by rsbriggs
If you're attempting to connect them directly, you have a couple of problems.

First and foremost, you can't use a regular network cable to directly connect two machines. The cable would need to be what is called a "crossover".

You're really going to need a little hub to connect if you are planning to connect multiple boxes. Even a cross-over cable may not work, depending on the ethernet cards in the machines.

Four port hubs are very cheap, and I suspect that at least a few people here might be willing to part with one for little or nothing....
My dad has an extra port on his hub. Assuming he let's me "hook up," what's the next problem?

Btw, I've got no firewall on my headless, but I set it up to only accept input from local clients. Is that enough to prevent internet viruses?

Edit: My dad doesn't get home until 9pm, and then he's probably going straight to bed, so whatever I do won't happen until tomorrow afternoon.(Have to ask permission from the big bear, first)

rsbriggs
06-08-2005, 07:23 PM
Just hooking a network cable to a hub is not going to somehow magically allow viruses to infiltrate the computer, so you don't need to worry about that. If you go off and do a bunch of surfing at "unsafe" sites, or intend to download and install "untrusted" software, then you are going to want to install some sort of virus scanner on all the boxes.

When you say you have no firewall on the box, are you saying that it runs an old copy of windows, like Windows 98? Because if you are running WinXP or something along those lines, you DO have a firewall running, unless you specifically turn it off.

If you do have a firewall on a VNC server machine, you would have to "open up" the firewall to allow TCP connections on port 5900 for VNC to work.

Now, if both boxes both have a static IP address, and they are on the same sub-net, then just hooking them both up to the hub MIGHT be enough to allow VNC to work.

However, if the boxes are set up to use DHCP, then you they have to be configured for networking, and they need to have an IP address assigned by whatever piece of equipment is doing the IP assignments (it could be the cable modem). They get this by being plugged into the network, sending out a request for an IP address, and receiving it from the DHCP server.

In addition, one machine will need to be configured as in internet gateway that allows other machines to connect to the internet through it. (Again, this could possibly be the cable modem itself).

You are going to have to know the IP address of the machine that is acting as the internet connection gateway, and the IP address of the various machines on the network. If it's a DHCP network, those addresses can change from time to time.

Networking can be a little complicated...