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Real vs Ultra VNC

viningvining Posts: 4,368
in AMX Control Products
I've been having intermittent luck with VNC connections (computer control) from my TPs. Now, if I recall we're suppose to use Real VNC but I prefer the Ultra for file transfers and other stuff, so I tend to install that on the customers PCs.

The problem is I only connect a franction of the time and I believe when I've tried the Real VNC I had much better luck. I can connect from Real to Ultra or Ultra to Real PC to PC, no problems but TP to PC while running the Ultra server on the PC is hit or miss but I Real VNC was better. On PCs where I enable the Firewall setting I do allow the VNC port to pass.

Does anyone have similar issues or insight into this? Does it have to be REAL!

I realaize the pratical application of Computer Control is more a novelty than a viable means to acces the internet but for a novelty to be affective its much more impressive if it actual works, all the time.

Comments

  • ericmedleyericmedley Posts: 4,177
    This is one of those cases fo sticking with the prescribed solution suggested by AMX. I too have tried a couple other flavors of VNC and found the same results. It's a matter of choosing your battles. If the TP control of the computers is more important than the other uses you have for the other flavors of VNC then ditch the latter and go with RealVNC. Or visa-versa if the other uses outwiegh the TP>computer control.

    As you have discovered, they are (in a practical sense) somewhat mutually exclusive.
  • DHawthorneDHawthorne Posts: 4,584
    I've only used RealVNC, and have never had a problem with it.
  • gary_cumminsgary_cummins Posts: 52
    I always use Ultra. As you've mentioned, the only problem I've ever had was not remembering to poke a hole in the PC's firewall. :-)

    Other than that, I have never had an issue with Ultra. In fact I switched to it because of the scaling issues I had with Real. Ultra seems to do a much better job of shrinking to fit when connecting to those 17" TP's.
  • NMarkRobertsNMarkRoberts Posts: 455
    What's it for?

    OK so I went and Googled VNC and thought "that's interesting but what's it for?"

    Could you guys please give some examples of how you have used it in an AMX context?
  • viningvining Posts: 4,368
    Its similar to remote desktop. From a PC you can bring up your TP with full control. From your TP you can bring up your PC with full control. From PC you can bring up another PC with full control. Ultra allows file transfer between connected PC. It allow you to virtual be at one TP or PC when you are actually at another. It a very useful tool for managing cutsomer configuration. From your office you can walk a customer through TP operations or just take complete control for testing through their TP while their system is in Debug on NS2 but you and your PC are at the office or home.

    Its free to download and use, takes two minutes install and set up and is indispensable.
  • DHawthorneDHawthorne Posts: 4,584
    I most commonly use VNC to connect to a customer's touch panel. The G4 panels have a VNC server built in. It gives you full control of the panel on your PC as if you were using the panel itself. Extremely useful for troubleshooting a problem remotely; you can even ask the customer to repeat the sequence that caused and error while you watch it on screen.
  • ericmedleyericmedley Posts: 4,177
    NMarkRoberts wrote:
    OK so I went and Googled VNC and thought "that's interesting but what's it for?"

    Could you guys please give some examples of how you have used it in an AMX context?

    I can site an example for you. Let's say you're building a conference room where asthetics are a concern. The client doesn't want a bunch of 17" displays on the conference table. But you need a touch panel for control and a computer monitor for the rooms computer.

    solution: Put in a 17" AMX touch panel and use the PC control functionality. So, the AMX touch panel becomes the computer monitor/mouse/keyboard for you, thus eliminating the need for two monitors.

    Now, this is a gross oversimplification of the overall uses of the PC control/VNC stuff.

    This function essentially make the AMX system a KVM extendor for a computer but has a ton of other functionallity associated with it.

    Hope that helps
    ejm
  • gregrgregr Posts: 54
    vining,

    I implemented my first computer control in a job last week. I installed RealVNC v.4, and it worked, but took a long time to connect, and was slow. According to tech note 655 the G4 panels do not work with v.4. After we imported the v3.3 settings the connection was almost instantaneous, and the update speed was increased also.
  • DHawthorneDHawthorne Posts: 4,584
    gregr wrote:
    vining,

    I implemented my first computer control in a job last week. I installed RealVNC v.4, and it worked, but took a long time to connect, and was slow. According to tech note 655 the G4 panels do not work with v.4. After we imported the v3.3 settings the connection was almost instantaneous, and the update speed was increased also.

    I've had no such issues with v. 4; I wonder what might have caused your experience. I literally use it every day and have never had a problem.
  • GregGreg Posts: 13
    I've been using TightVNC for years and never had a problem. I found it to be faster than RealVNC.
  • dthorsondthorson Posts: 103
    You could also use the G4 computer control to create a VNC connection to another AMX touch panel. I have tested this and it works. So imagine a 17" panel with the ability to control numerous TP's on the network. Works kind of like a master panel but you don't have to do any programming at all.

    Of course you are limited by the number of G4 VNC connections a panel can have.
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