University of Florida :: Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE)

Vnc Setup

Basic Setup

  1. Download and install a VNC client, I would recommend RealVNC (http://www.realvnc.com/products/free/4.1/download.html).
  2. The first time you set up a vnc session, you should run the vncpasswd program before starting vncserver, this makes sure only you can connect to the server. (Note: this password should probably be different than your CISE password)

Secure VNC (Tunneled through SSH)

  1. Ssh to the desired destination server and start vncserver, note the display number (the number after the colon after the hostname, ex: storm:10 -- the display number is 10). You can disconnect this session now.
  2. Configure Putty/ssh to tunnel port 5900+<display_number> on your local machine to port 5900+<display_number> on the remote machine (ex. display number = 10, ssh -L 5910:storm.cise.ufl.edu:5910 amt@storm.cise.ufl.edu). See http://www.cs.uu.nl/technical/services/ssh/putty/puttyfw.html for more information about port forwarding in putty. Leave this session running for the duration of your VNC session.
  3. Connect your local vnc client to 127.0.0.1:<display_number> (ex 127.0.0.1:10 for display number 10.

Unsecured VNC, for use over vpn, or from a machine local to CISE

  1. Ssh to the desired destination server and start vncserver, note the display number (the number after the colon after the hostname, ex: storm:10 -- the display number is 10). You can disconnect this session now.
  2. Connect your local vnc client to <remote_hostname>:<display_number> (ex storm.cise.ufl.edu:10 for display number 10 on storm.
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