[lug] OT: vnc fixed

[Hugh Brown]

On Wed, 2003-08-13 at 20:05, Hugh Brown wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-08-13 at 19:08, Tkil wrote:
> > >>>>> "Hugh" == Hugh Brown <hugh at math.byu.edu> writes:
> > 
> > Hugh> Walk back to my linux box, test the connection and everything is
> > Hugh> happy.  I then walk back to the Windows box and log it out.  I
> > Hugh> try to connect to Windows box again with vncviewer and I get the
> > Hugh> Authentication Failed error message again.
> > 
> > Hugh> I have tried both TightVNC and RealVNC and have gotten the same
> > Hugh> results in both cases.
> > 
> > I don't know if this will fix it, but at least RealVNC has a user
> > password (used when the service is running by / for that user) and a
> > "default" password.  The properties reachable from the systray icon
> > are typicall those for the current user; to change the default (again,
> > under RealVNC) you have to use Start -> Programs -> RealVNC -> VNC
> > Server -> Show Default Properties (or similar).
> > 
> > Changing the default password should allow you to access the login
> > screen.
> > 
> 
> I've done some more testing and found that if a user is logged in under
> WinXP, I can connect and all is normal.  If no one is logged in and I
> try to start a new session, I get authentication failed.  Is this
> peculiar to WinXP or just to my machine, i.e. has anyone used VNC
> successfully with WinXP Home?
> 


Tkil had the solution.  I needed to RTM.  I searched the web, I tried
some troubleshooting, but didn't read the manual.  Here's what
happened.  In previous versions of VNC there was only one password to be
set and it applied to all sessions regardless of which windows user was
logged in.  You used to be able to double click the icon in the system
tray and set the password and be done with it.  Now, when you do that,
it only sets the password for the user that is logged in.  Once I set
the default password, I was able to get VNC to behave as expected,
mostly.  What I discovered was that if Windows is logged in as a user
and that user has a different vnc password than the default vnc user you
can't log in with the default vnc user password (sounds obvious doesn't
it).  If the user isn't logged in, you can vnc as default user and then
do a windows login and vnc will still work.  Limited user accounts in
WinXP make vnc quit.

Ultimately, what it means is that you can't annoy co-workers in the same
way.  If user A is logged in and they are clueful enough to change their
vnc password, you can't log in and play with the mouse and make them
wonder what is going on (of course if they wondered what was going on,
they wouldn't have been clueful enough to change the password).

So, things are fixed and I have a better appreciation of how VNC works
these days.  Thanks to all.

Hugh