Classroom VNC

[adamyoung]

We have VNC installed on all our classroom comps, is it possible to have a preview of all these screens at the same.

 

As VNC can work in the web browser has anyone managed to create a set up where a thumbnail of all the comps in the class are shown?

 

I'm looking for a free way to do it, we have netop in some rooms but the budget wont stretch to all rooms at the min.

 

Thanks all!

[Geoff]

http://vncon.chronetal.co.uk/index.php?page=main

[adamyoung]

http://vncon.chronetal.co.uk/index.php?page=main

 

Is there anything that is more flexible that would allow you to see all screens at the same time is a net op esq fashion?

[ChrisH]

Yes just increase how many remote screens appear on screen at once.

[Geoff]

VNcon does..

[adamyoung]

I'm slighty concerned about this progs sp2 issues, and the fact that I had it working on a W2K but then the next day it couldnt detect any comps.

[ajbritton]

For VNC to work on XP SP2, you need to open TCP port 5900. This can easily be done using Group Policy to affect all required computers.

[ChrisH]

Hes refering to the fact that it has trouble detecting computers through a discover method the program uses. I found that is a problem but you just have to make up a list of your rooms and computers and let DNS do the rest finding them.

[ajbritton]

Ah, the XP connection limit...?

[ChrisH]

Yes its something along those lines

 

But anyway, to the point, Microsoft have recently imposed limitations to the amount of half opened outbound connections a program can make in their latest service pack for Windows XP: SP2. If you are interested in the details then look here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2netwk.mspx then scroll to the TCP/IP section and read the section titled "Limited number of simultaneous incomplete outbound TCP connection attempts".

 

If you manually make your lists though it works fine. Bit of a pain but you only need do it once and you can use a script or some excel trickery to help you build your lists if you ahve a sensible naming scheme.

[MkII]

DHCP screws up VNCon - it messes with the comp names etc. To solve that you need static or reserved IP's.

[ajbritton]

@mark - Why on earth is that? Is your DHCP scope applying DNS suffixes? You should not need that under 2K/XP as the domain suffixe is configured automatically when the domain membership changes. I only ever hand out IP lease, gateway and DNS servers nowadays. Even DNS can be overridden by GP, but I suppose you need an initial setting so PC can connect to DC.

[ChrisH]

were not painting a very good picture of VNCon here really are we

[MkII]

@ajb - it's something I saw in a forum and it does work for me. maybe VNCon caches the DNS names so causing the problem. You can't search by name I think. And computers are listable/ groupable by IP address. Not much use in a DHCP environment.

[Rozzer]

I having troublewith authenticing with machines which i do a remote install to

 

Anyone had this problem?

 

Ross

[browolf]

i have a problem with vnccon where half the time it doesnt display red dots next to computers with vnc active. repeated scanning works sometimes.

clicking on the computers still loads the window but its a bit useless otherwise.

[ChrisH]

MST had said lanview was going to get muliple screens for their VNC bit might be worth having a look or asking if its been done yet.

[tarquel]

VNcon hasnt been updated in ages - hope the guy finds time to do it soon

 

I've had no luck at all with lanview - was wondering whether to roll out the client msi of lanview via GP and see what happens

 

[any firewall settings that need to be opened here? the lanview server didnt see anything when I tried it before]

 

Cheers

Nath

[RobC]

Tarq, you need to add the LanView client as an exception on each machine with the Windows Firewall running. You can either do this manually on each station, or you can do it using a batch file and the "netsh firewall" command.

[Geoff]

You can do it directly with group policies too.

[tarquel]

You can either do this manually on each station, or you can do it using a batch file and the "netsh firewall" command.

 

You can do it directly with group policies too

 

I thought I had hehe

 

I'll check it now

 

Cheers

Nath

[RobC]

You can do it directly with group policies too.

 

Grrr. I keep forgetting about GPOs since bloody Fujitsu won't let me alter them at all!

[tarquel]

Remind them that you are paying them, not them paying you Rob hehe

 

Nath

[Maladict]

Simple solution I've used for this: (we started using LanView last week)

 

* Get an old machine setup with Lanview installed. (I had an old P3 600, 128 Mb RAM, olllld ATI graphics card)

* Shift and select all the machine in the group and go for 'view in VNC viewer'.

* Minimize the main Lanview window.

* Right click the startbar and tile the windows horizontally or vertically.

 

Displays the entire group on the screen =D

 

of course I had to go one better and dig an old projector out too (we now have our very own 'wall of doom')

 

Okay, it's not as posh as finding some way of displaying all screens as a single bitmap, but it does the job =)

[StewartKnight]

I know you're all going to laugh, but the only "old" machines we have are...... acorns!!!!!!

 

Yup, thats how behind we are!