VNC on thin client

[_Bob_]

Had a question from an ex-colleague. She has moved to a school which has a few thin clients and apparently they can't use their usual pupil monitoring software (http://www.abconsulting.com/html/tutor_control.html) on the thin clients. She is looking for somthing similar to VNC to spy on/take control of kid's machines. Anybody run into any problems with VNC on thin client setups or should it be ok?

[Geoff]

VNC works fine. Remote Desktop doesn't work.

[mark]

Citrix has it's own shadow system which is what I use on the thin client network, and I use vnc on the fat client network.

As vnc works by IP and effectively all users on a thin client system use the application server IP, it wouldn't work, unless you know different!

[_Bob_]

all users on a thin client system use the application server IP

I'm speaking as someone with 0 experience of thin clients but that don't sound right to me. How could the server communicate with clients if they share an IP? To the rest of the network they may appear to be using the same IP but surely they are really operating on their own pool of addresses with NAT occurring on the server?

[mark]

My sclients run as a complete desktop, so the host IP is irrelevant.

[Geoff]

As vnc works by IP and effectively all users on a thin client system use the application server IP, it wouldn't work, unless you know different!

You can access multiple VNC instances on the same IP by affixing the screen number, eg:

1.2.3.4:0 is the default and the same as just using the IP.
1.2.3.4:1 session 2
1.2.3.4:2 session 3.

etc, by default VNC allocates 10 screens but you can alter that on the settings.

BTW, this is how thin clients with VNC is done.

[CyberNerd]

I'm speaking as someone with 0 experience of thin clients but that don't sound right to me. How could the server communicate with clients if they share an IP? To the rest of the network they may appear to be using the same IP but surely they are really operating on their own pool of addresses with NAT occurring on the server?

The clients do have their own IP and this is used to communicate with the Terminal Server. Any application that the user runs will use the (single) IP address of the Terminal Server, ie. the Thin Client only sees 'screenshots' of the Terminal Server

[Ric_]

Never tried VNC myself but if you use something like NetSupport which allows you to change the listening port you can simply run an instance for each session on a different port - NetSupport have details on their website.

Of course you could just shadow the sessions - this works for Citrix and RDP.

[_Bob_]

Thanks for the input guys. This was a teacher so i didn't get many details out of her when she posed the question but I'll try and find out what sort of setup they have and pass on this info.

[ico2]

You will need to either have vnc running on all the desktops on the server, or run it locally on the clients, shouldnt be too hard to do.

[Phillip1983]

hi all,

i have tested the above at lenght and vnc'ing to my terminal server and putting 1 after the ip does not let you on to the users session....

if i do 1.2.3.4 i get the console
if i do 1.2.3.4:1 i get failed to connect
if i do 1.2.3.4:01 i get failed to connect

the above test is on a fresh win 2003 server with terminal services and ultravnc installed... and 3 users loggs on console, user A, and user B.

i can conclude from this test that it does not work and the only way to provide remote support is via Right click remote support in TS and shadow in citrix....

please feel free to correct me if im wrong.......

[instant000]

Hi.

I'm feeling free today.

It is possible to VNC to a thin client.

I know that with Wyse thin clients, you edit the wnos.ini.

With regards to any other manufacturers, I am not sure.

[kmount]

i can conclude from this test that it does not work and the only way to provide remote support is via Right click remote support in TS and shadow in citrix....

As this thread died nearly 4 years ago I would imagine things have changed since the original discussion.

You can use AB Tutor, Net Support, etc on a Terminal Services environment. (We have many customers doing this).

Some thin clients will allow you to monitor them directly via THEIR IP via VNC or such like.

Hope this helps.