Apple

does anyone have any good experience with using a VNC between windows and OSX?

the primary use case will be running the VNC server on a windows 7 HTPC, and doing some basic configuration stuff from a client running on OSX. i don't need the flash or video to get handled. i just need to be able to monkey with the HTPC while someon else is using the TV to watch cable.

so, what's a good VNC that works with this use case?

On the Mac side, I've been very happy with JollysFastVNC ( http://www.jinx.de/JollysFastVNC.html ) as a client. It's not as well known as some of the other clients, like " Chicken of the VNC ," but I've found JollysFastVNC's performance and stability to be excellent.

However, for this particular use case, I think you'd be better off using Microsoft's built in Remote Desktop Connection software on both the Mac and Windows sides. Enable "Remote Assistance" and "Remote Desktop" on the Windows machine, and then download and install the Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac. The Mac client is free, and it can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx . Noticeably faster than VNC, at least in my house.

hrm. i tried the remote desktop thing. on the windows machine i get the remote assistance controls. but there is no remote desktop controls. time to start figuring out the issues... *sigh* nothing is ever straightforward for me.

so, i guess the problem here is that home premium can't have remote desktop functionality. wow, talk about having your balls cut off.

time for plan B

whatever that may be.

back to square one.

Oy. I'm running Win 7 Professional on my machines. That's one thing that I really hate about the Windows family. Way too many SKUs with arcane differences.

I haven't been running any flavor of VNC under Win7. TightVNC was my preferred free VNC server on Windows, but that was under XP. I see that there is a TightVNC beta that supports Win7. http://www.tightvnc.com/download.php

so, the problem is that i can't find a windows server and osx client for the same version of VNC. i didn't want to litter my machines with various versions of each/ i was hoping someone else had been able to solve something basic.

google is no help yet, and all the VNC's i've looked at either don't satisfy the above, or in one case cost money. i don't want to spend money to find out the descriptions were wrong, or i didn't read them correctly.

so, anyone have a windows 7 home premium server/home and a mac osx 10.5 or 10.6 VNC running?

ps, i tried some windows 7 hack to enable it. typically it didn't work. i'm to sure wtf it did to my install though :(

ok, success. on the windows 7 HTPC (connected to TV) i have the tightvnc server. and on the Mac OSX i have Chicken of the Sea client.

so, no matter how i set the server side; i can't get more than 800x600 pumped out of the VNC server. there is no windows setting for it either.


blah...

next total BS result:
i removed tightvnc and loaded realvnc.
it came up displaying the correct screen size on the local client - you could see everything from the server screen. great full screen on both sides.

however, the mouse scaling was wrong. the 1024x600 addressing of the mouse on the local machine didn't scale to the servers 1920x1080, it only addressed 1024x600 of the server screen. the client shows the cursor in the bottom right hand corner, and it was only near 1024x600 coordinate of the server's screen. as you got closer to the top left hand corner the cursors tracked closer together. note: this discrepancy is not show at all on the local machine. it LIES about the cursor position.

why am I having all the fun with this? I believe the general trend toward better software functionality in PC software has resulted directly into more idiotic errors for me. as if everyone's success is intimately linked to my own failure. never has any of this crap actually looked like people claim. only MacOS has excepted me from this torture.

Wish I could help - the only Windows 7 install I have is Ultimate which is via Bootcamp on my Mac Pro. I'd originally installed it for Blu-ray playback support and the occasional PC-only game, but I've since found a method to play Blu-ray under Mac OS X.

the problems, whatever which ever they are seem to be tied to the physical size of the client i'm using vs the server. things are not translating/scaling/noodlating correctly. *Sigh*

sky, did you stick to vnc?

a friend just asked me about mac<->pc vncing, and i was about to ask here as i have no idea what happens on the windowy side

i just found CoRD (based on RDP, config how-to ), sent him the link, waiting for feedback.

jose, is your setup inside a small/home LAN? do you have any experience w/ RDP over ssh?

so, i ended up springing for windows 7 professional that supported Remote Desktop, and an RD app for the mac. works great.

with VNC i had so many crazy screen size translation problems... when they worked at all.

fast + dandy, looks like RDP is working for him too under XP Pro <-> 10.5 inside a small LAN

Hi, fu. Just a home LAN, so I haven't been using ssh. Interesting idea, though -- some quick googling suggests that it's not an uncommon approach.

@skywriter - I ended up springing for a Microsoft Technet Direct Subscription so that I can download any edition of Windows (or Windows editions of Office, etc.) at any point to verify that a particular edition does what I want it to do. Worth the $250 or so a year for a geek like me. (1st year rate is $349, but you can usually find discount codes online to drop the price. Seems MS actually wants developers and testers to use Technet...)

I think SkyWriter did the same thing I did which was buy a new piece of hardware and get the OEM edition of Pro for super cheap ($160?). I don't enjoy windows... I only have 1 windows machine at home so a subscription wouldn't be a very cost effective solution.

he wants to RDP between home<->work so he's looking into it

i've only used vnc outside MacOS w/ my o2, tightvnc never gave me trouble back then, but my needs are usually simplistic

thanks for the pointers gents,

cheerio!

yup, i bought an OEM version w/o having to buy any hardware either. i never considered it before, since i didn't really look into what it was they were actually selling.

as it is i have 4 copies, 2 more than i wanted. one for the HTPC, which i will be trying to hackintosh as soon as i have some time to waste, and the other will end up being virtualized on an OSX netbook.

thanks for all the help guys! i might not have saved some effort but it certainly reinforced my opinions :(