What is UltraVNC SC? It’s a solution for fast remote-access to a client’s system. It’s free, too.

What’s the difference between UltraVNC and UltraVNC SC? UltraVNC SC takes all of the complexities of setting up a VNC server, and puts the burden on the admin, rather than the client side. Forwarding ports, installing services, setting up passwords, configuring firewalls — all of that is transparent to the client. All the client has to do is double-click a custom *.exe that you set up ahead of time by following this guide.

So, let’s get started.

First, the prep work. You’re the admin, so you need to lock down your local IP and get your ports forwarded appropriately.

1. Determine your local IP. Start > Run > cmd > ipconfig — write down your local IP. Mine is 192.168.1.6. What’s your default gateway? Mine is 192.168.1.1, yours will likely be similar.

2. Log into your router administration panel by navigating to your default gateway address using your browser. (Note: more complex routers may have other methods of getting into the admin panel, check your documentation).

3. Forward port 5500 on your local IP address. (Not to be confused with 5900, the default VNC port — make sure you do 5500).

4. Configure your firewall to allow connections over port 5500 (this is really important, don’t forget!)

Now that you’ve got that all set up, you have a choice to make. You can compile the .exe with your current WAN IP, or you can lock it down using something like DynDNS, similar to the way you normally do with UltraVNC. I strongly recommend you lock it down using DynDNS, and use the DynDNS Updater on your system. So, with that in mind, let’s continue:

5. Head over to the UltraVNC SC “Create” section of their website and download custom.zip.

6. Inside custom.zip, you’ll find 6 files. These files are there for you to customize and then have UltraVNC SC compile them for you in the cloud. You can customize quite a bit with this, but for this tutorial we’re just gonna get the remote access up and running as fast as possible. Once you master this, you can then go back and tweak with all the settings and options and make a very “pretty” UI for your client.

7. Extract custom.zip and open up helpdesk.txt. Inside, you will see a *.ini-like file which contains defaults for all the settings you need to instruct UltraVNC SC what to compile in the final .exe.

8. Under the first [HOST] section (“Internet support”), change the default IP to be your DynDNS (or WAN IP) and be sure to leave the :5500 (port) at the end. Then delete the second [HOST] entry “Internet support encryption” because we won’t be using encryption in this guide. Save the helpdesk.txt file and close.

9. Go ahead and delete the rc4.key file, because we aren’t using encryption right now.

10. Highlight all the files and create a *.zip file. Call it whatever you want (do not have a folder inside of the *.zip, just the data).

11. Now, we need to “compile” the .exe with the UltraVNC SC website. So, head on over to the “Online Creator” section of their site. For reasons unbeknown to me, they require you to use the username: foo, password: foobar. Then upload your newly minted *.zip file.

12. Download the resulting *.exe, which will be named whatever you called your *.zip file.

Now you’re ready to give the *.exe to your client, right? Not just yet — now we have to set up your host computer to “listen” for clients which are going to try to connect to you via port 5500. To get the UltraVNC viewer, you’ll need to have the regular UltraVNC installed, and just choose Viewer if you don’t want the server as well during install.

13. With the UltraVNC viewer installed, go to your start menu and find UltraVNC > UltraVNC Viewer (Listen Mode). Run it. When you do, you’ll see a green eye appear in your system tray.

Curiously, this icon is the same color as previous versions of UltraVNC server which would change from blue when idle, to green when connected. Nonetheless, you know it’s in listening mode by just hovering over it. Again, make sure your firewall isn’t blocking anything. If you want to “verify” that the port is listening, open up a command prompt and type netstat -a and check for port 5500 and a status of “Listening.”

14. With all the aforementioned in place, your clients are ready to connect! Send them your *.exe and it will look like this by default:

Most aspects of this awkward looking client executable are changeable. You’ll obviously want to change this if you plan to use this seriously. Your client simply has to double click “Internet support” to initiate the connection. When they do, you’ll be presented with a popup that looks something like this:

15. Click Yes and you will be able to see their desktop, and your client will be presented with this default, incorrectly spelled message:

Your client can close the connection by right clicking on the VNC icon on his/her system tray, and choosing close. Or you can close it at any time by just closing the UltraVNC Viewer window.

Important: My tests conclude that when doing an UltraVNC SC connection with a client running Windows Vista or 7 with Aero enabled, there is a 15-21 second delay even over lightning-fast connections. This is unacceptable. If you believe your client is running a system with Aero enabled, you must disable it or UltraVNC SC will be nearly unusable! Because your client is in dire need of remote assistance, they probably have no idea what Aero is — so make it easy for them and disable it via a simple batch script on their system which runs the following commands:

net stop uxsms (to disable Aero), and a pause with a message then, net start uxsms (to enable Aero). All you have to do is hit any key in the command prompt window before closing your session!

Download >>

You will find that with Aero off, the speed is super quick. It seems a lot more complex than it really is with all the steps laid out like this — but it’s really not that bad. Once you’ve got it set up, it’s easy to deploy to all your clients. Good luck!

admin@variableghz.com

I was compelled to set up a file server because my clients maxed out their Dropbox. Originally, they were only sharing about 100MB worth of documents, so, I figured Dropbox was the ideal solution for them. Of course as they got real comfortable, they started sharing folders and moving enormous PDFs, .wav files and videos into the Dropbox. Needless to say, they maxed it out pretty quickly. I could upgrade their Dropbox, but then I’d have to upgrade everybody’s Dropbox and at this point there are at least ten different clients accessing the data at any given time. So, a dedicated file server seemed like the logical choice.

After reading Paul Thurrott’s review on the SuperSite a number of years ago, I had high hopes for Windows Home Server (WHS) but never had a reason to set one up until now. I was excited to try out a new Microsoft OS and have an always-on dedicated FTP file server to support the needs of my clients in a scalable way. So I did, I grabbed an old Compaq desktop PC that was given to me by a client who called it a “boat anchor” (a 2007 “vista capable” computer that came with Vista pre-SP1 installed on it) and told me to just get rid of it — obviously, I can’t do that — so now it is a file server.

I burned the MSDN ISO of WHS to a DVD/RW and began installing it. The installation screen had a strange mix of new and old; it has the same Windows XP installer look, but with some sleeker Windows Vista style informative tidbits. Half way through the installation it displays this oldschool looking DOS installer whereby it installs additional components, on the top of the screen it indicates Windows Server 2003, which WHS is based on. I’m told the stability is amazing.

WHS boots up and makes you do that Control-Alt-Delete thing to get in. I’m told that this is for security reasons, but I can’t exactly recall why. VNC lets you execute controls like C-A-D so I’m at a loss. Maybe it’s a dated security feature. Once you get to the desktop, you’re greeted with a local webpage indicating to you that you shouldn’t be using WHS directly, but rather via the Windows Home Console on another computer. Okay, fine, but I have to set all that up first. So, thanks for the premature warning I guess, Microsoft.

So, I close the awkward local html file warning page. Looking around, it looks like Windows XP, except a little off. The start menu is missing a bunch of stuff like on those heavily restricted public computers. All of the visual niceties have been disabled, so when you drag windows around there is that oldschool outline, Windows Classic theme, no fading/sliding on right-click, shadows, etc. It looks like Windows 98, XP and Vista all at the same time. And since it’s a server, that’s fine, however I thought that this OS was meant for somewhat novice home users to configure on their own? If that’s the case, then this whole thing definitely falls short in the ease of use/configuration category.

So, to begin, I click Windows Home Server Console and a wizard takes you through the steps of setting up the Console. It was simpler than I expected, considering the awkward and unfriendly UI experience it started with. Once it got to the remote access and Internet accessibility of the Console, however, things came to a halt. Cleverly, WHS tries to enable UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) in your router to make things easy. However, just like with ActiveX, UPnP was/is the cause of many security exploits and malware so by default, many routers have UPnP disabled — including the one I am using. So, I enabled UPnP on this Netgear router and then the wizard was able to proceed, however, it still briefly flashed  that orange exclamation mark icon before stating that everything was A-OK and later on down the line it would tell me periodically that remote access functionality wasn’t working. To fix it, I would click repair and it would show me a spinny wheel for a while, then, somehow, it would be fine… for a while. Fortunately, I don’t rely on gimmicky “remote access” hubs/add-ins, I use the real deal: UltraVNC.

So, having read a great deal about WHS, I know what it’s meant to do and I elected to use it because I’ve heard such great things about the stability of Server 2003/2008, and since WHS is based on Server 2003, I figure that’s as stable as it’s gonna get. Also, the Console has a terrific quasi-RAID feature called “Folder Duplication” which will automatically make extra copies of whatever folders you select to a second drive installed on the server. That’s pretty awesome, especially since the “server” I am using is just a plain Compaq desktop with no onboard RAID.

After trying to set up my FTP server using FileZilla, I decided I wanted anti-virus protection because I don’t necessarily trust that my clients are going to always be using updated anti-virus software themselves. So, I went to download Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) only to learn that Microsoft doesn’t support their own operating system, Windows Server 2003/Windows Home Server! So, I started looking around for other choices and was surprised to find a very limited selection. Still wary about WHS, I elected to go with a free a/v, ClamWin and see how that goes.

The Console has an “add-ins” section where you can extend the functionality of the Console with all sorts of third party extensions like audio-streamers, sync tools and anti-virus utilities. Installing ClamWin was, in a word, awkward. That’s fine, since it’s free and clearly stated as a work in progress by the author. Nevertheless, the fact that Microsoft doesn’t support their own MSE on their own operating system is very odd. WHS shares so many similarities to XP and I can’t imagine it would take much to make it work on there.

So I performed a virus scan with ClamWin. I didn’t have a very reassured feeling about the whole thing. In the terminal-like window it told me that my version was out of date, but not to panic (?). I went looking for a newer version and was unable to find it. Awkward.

Setting up FTP was difficult. I kept getting inconsistent results. It would connect fine on some connections and not others. VNC also presented an issue, it suddenly stopped working at one point providing me with a vague error message: “End of stream.” In six years of near-daily VNC use, on dozens of computers, I’ve never gotten that error message. I wasn’t using any of the Console features, anti-virus was awkward, FTP was inconsistent, VNC no longer functional — I reformatted & installed a standard Windows XP installation to see if it would better suit my needs.

Maybe not so surprisingly, after I disabled a bunch of unnecessary services, installed a hundred updates, and stripped everything down — my standard XP installation was more reliable and I was able to get everything (FTP, VNC, A/V) working and stable in about twenty minutes. To keep overhead as minimal as possible, I didn’t install any graphics drivers and disabled everything that wasn’t being used such as serial ports, audio drivers, etc. 800×600 resolution. Very easy to administer. Note the locked LAN IP “.45″ and custom port 8888 to make room for other systems on the same network to use VNC:

You cannot easily split an Ethernet jack the same way you can split a phone jack. So, I was at a loss for where to physically place the server. I decided to place it inside a box designed to house the modem/router and switch for the whole floor:

Problem is, since there’s no ventilation in the box, the server slowly started to bake. Not as hot as I was expecting, but when I saw the little flame icon on SpeedFan I decided it was time to move the server.

So, because each area of the floor only has one Ethernet jack, and they are all being used, I used a spare 16-slot rack-mounted switch & used that to split the Ethernet between the copier & server. The switch seems like overkill, but I didn’t have anything simpler or smaller to use. The temps are now stable at ~44°c.

So, WHS would be fine for other purposes I suppose. It’s designed to be this all-in-one hub for your LAN so that users can have auto-backups and easily accessible media. I can’t help but feel like it’s a stretch to expect the average user to set up something like this. I almost found it easier to set up the FTP server than to configure the WHS Console to be stable. Because it relies on UPnP as the default configuration method, it provides very little information on which ports to forward and doesn’t stress any importance on anti-virus protection. I’m betting that the UPnP will fail on 19/20 routers unless UPnP is explicitly enabled. Moreover, because everything is configured via the Console, why is the underlying OS Windows Server 2003? That Console application I’m sure could easily be ported to run on Windows XP, Vista or 7. It seems all seems very basic, yet overly complex for the average user — which it seems to be designed for. I think Microsoft can do better. I gotta wonder who is taking notes at their focus groups.

If you’re curious to try out Windows Home Server, and I know you are, Microsoft offers a 30-day trial of it.

Enough. I want you to stop emailing yourself files, telling somebody over the phone where your stuff is, driving back home to turn on your PC to retrieve a file you forgot… Enough is enough. It’s time for a real solution. Rather, a combination of solutions to ensure this problem is eradicated for good — and I mean it!

VNC to the rescue? Yes, provided it is properly configured and secured. In this How-To, you’ll learn how to set up VNC to be your primary, secure, stable and immediately accessible remote data solution. In addition, you’ll also learn how DropBox can make for a fantastic alternative in the event VNC cannot connect or you need more realtime connectivity. Okay, let’s jump right in.

What is VNC, and which “flavor” should I be running?

VNC (Virtual Network Connection) is a powerful tool that enables you to access your remote PC or laptop from a another device anywhere you can get an Internet connection. The benefits are enormous — you can access your data from virtually anywhere! Controlling a remote computer over VNC is generally quite simple, you use your mouse and keyboard just as though you were right in front of that PC. VNC is not simple to set up for everyone, not even for so-called experts.

In addition to its remote computer-to-computer capabilities, some versions of VNC run so quickly that when used over a LAN (Local Area Connection) you can even use a spare laptop or computer as an extra monitor. More on that later.

There are a few “flavors” of VNC — RealVNC, TightVNC and my favorite, UltraVNC. Each has their advantages and disadvantages but in my opinion, UltraVNC has the least disadvantages and has proven to be the most stable and has the most robust feature set of any that I’ve ever used. It’s free and you should consider donating if you find it of great value, as I do. The primary reasons why you should go with UltraVNC over the others are: (1) VNC hook driver, this makes your connection with the remote computer (or LAN) incredibly fast and the display looks amazing; (2) file-transfer utility, this incredible feature is built right into the UltraVNC viewer; (3) ability to send custom keys (and CTRL + ALT + DEL); and (4) extras such as VNC chat and lots more.

Where VNC gets complicated.

Alright. You want VNC at home. VNC needs a few planets to align correctly before it can work: (1) it needs an IP address of the computer you are trying to connect to, known as the “VNC Server”; (2) the VNC Server needs a port to be “forwarded” from your router in order to accept the incoming connection, the defaults for this are 5800 (web, more on that later) and 5900; (3) the VNC Server must be running or the connection will not be accepted; and (4) your firewall must not be blocking the incoming connection.

Seems like a lot? Well, it gets worse. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) most likely has a dynamic IP (Internet Protocol) set up for you. This means that your IP address changes, (and it eventually will sooner or later) your VNC connection will no longer work if you haven’t taken note of your new WAN (Wide Area Network, or “Public”) IP address. The solution for this is to link your IP address to something that won’t change sporadically. I use the fine folks over at Dynamic Network Services, Inc. They have an amazing array of services, but for the purposes of this How-To I am only focusing on making your dynamic IP “static.” Once you register an account (free or paid, your choice), you then install the DynDNS client, here (permanent archive).

Once you link the DynDNS service to your DynDNS account. It should look something like this on the website:

In my instance, I used the *.getmyip.com url, easy to memorize. There are dozens to choose from. Your system tray should look like this:

(note: the DynDNS icon may vary, depending on what version you have installed).

Alright. So now we have your IP staticized. Now we can get to installing VNC. As I mentioned earlier, I recommend UltraVNC for the aforementioned reasons. Download their latest version and install it (make sure you get the latest version and the correct one for your operating system).

When you install UltraVNC, you want to be sure to select that it installs as a service. By installing it as a service, you will be able to lock your screen in Windows thereby allowing for another layer of security. Moreover, having the UltraVNC server as a service enables you to use extra features like being able to send Control Alt Delete to the host machine, chat, file transfer, and the ability to kill Explorer.exe in the event a problem arises. Don’t forget this crucial step.

(UltraVNC Server running as a service. To access services, hold down the Windows Key and press R for Run, then type services.msc)

Once UltraVNC is installed properly you will see the blue eye in your system tray. Set a password, preferably one that differs from your Windows password so that when you walk away from your computer, you can lock your PC for added security. (You can “lock” your PC by holding down the Windows Key on your keyboard, and tapping L simultaneously.)

So, we got UltraVNC ready to rock; we got DynDNS up and runnin’; now, we need to check out your port situation. We know that the VNC defaults use port 5900, so that port needs to be open and ready to accept connections. I cannot walk you through specific firewall issues because I have no idea what kind of firewall you are using — so, read you manual, ask your tech, do somethin’ but make sure it isn’t messing with your VNC connection. (note: you can check open ports by going to the command line, and typing netstat -a)

Next, if you are using a router (and you likely are), your port needs to be “forwarded.” If you are not familiar with this terminology, listen up. A router in your home allows multiple users to connect to one Internet connection. This is made possible by local IP addresses. On linksys routers, the default local IPs are usually something like this: 192.168.1.2. The first computer you plug into the router will be automatically configured to the “lowest” local IP address. So, the next computer would then be 192.168.1.3, for example. If you turn off your computer from time to time (you’ll have to restart once in a while for updates, etc.) then your local IP may change, thereby disrupting your local IP “forwarding” — major problem for consistency.

Every Internet connection on the Internet has an IP address, you can think of this is a license plate on a car. Each “person in the car” is a computer connected to the router with a local IP address.

Still confused? Stay with me. We’re first gonna lock down your local IP address to something that doesn’t move. But in order to do that, we need to gather some information first. We need to know your DNS servers, and your default gateway (router IP address).

Hold down the Windows Key on your keyboard, and press R to bring up the Run dialog box. Type cmd and press enter. CMD is, as far as I know, short for “command,” since the command prompt is where you, well, type commands. For a while (in XP I believe) you can type cmd or command to execute the command prompt. In Vista, you can only type cmd.

At the command prompt, type IPConfig /all and press Enter. Make sure you use a forward-slash. Know the difference, this is a forward slash /, and this is a backslash \. Don’t confuse the two. In this particular case it doesn’t matter, but other times it will.

Take note of the following information:

- Default Gateway

- Both DNS Servers

- Your current Local IP address

So now we have that information written down. Notice how my local IP address is 192.168.1.2? As I mentioned before, that’s a problem — so let’s dive in and change that. You’ll need to get to the “Properties” of your Network connection. This is tricky to explain, because it varies depending on what OS you’re using. In Vista Ultimate x64 which I happen to use, you get to it by going into the Control Panel and navigating to the Network Connections, right click on your Network Connection, select Properties, double-click on Internet Protocol Version 4 and then you’ll see the IPV4 Properties dialog box which should look like this:

So, notice how I typed in my own local IP address? I chose 192.168.1.8, this decreases my chances of running into an IP address conflict with another computer or mobile device connected to my router. My Default Gateway is the IP address of my router, and the DNS Servers match the data we got from the IPConfig /all. Still with me? Terrific. Let’s move on.

Now with our local IP address in place, we can connect to our router and forward our local IP to the WAN IP. Remember, the WAN IP is the IP address that is available to the public (I use www.whatismyip.com to find out what my WAN IP address is, simply because that domain name is incredibly easy to memorize). The DynDNS takes care of updating your local IP to the static web address (whatever.getmyip.com, for example) and the forwarding enables the incoming connection from port 5900 to “pierce” through the local IP and get straight to your computer. So we need to tell the router “when something tries to access computer 192.168.1.8 on port 5900, please let go through.” Make sense?

Since all versions, makes and models of routers vary, I cannot give you specific instructions on how to go about doing this. I will show you what my Linksys router looks like when forwarded properly as an example:

So now my router knows how to deal with my local IP correctly. Now, when I boot up the UltraVNC viewer from anywhere, I can connect to the static web url that I chose from the DynDNS and connect through to my computer 99% of the time without any problems.

Remember, VNC isn’t foolproof. A power outage, system failure, bluescreen, a change in DNS servers, or any other kind of problem can cause your VNC connection to fail. In the event this happens and you cannot connect to VNC, you need a backup plan. DropBox is that backup plan and so much more.

Enter Dropbox. In a nutshell, Dropbox is a piece of software that runs on your computer, it links itself to a folder entitled, “My Dropbox” which automatically syncs any data you put into that folder with other computers that you “link.” Some of you might be thinking “so? I use livemesh” or whatever other cloud based storage solution. Well, I am here to tell you to forget about the rest, Dropbox is the one to beat — performance is incredible, the whole process is very well considered, seamless and stable.

My advice to you is simple. Install Dropbox. Get your account sync’d up. Make a shortcut to Dropbox on your desktop like so:

When you make changes to any files inside of the Dropbox folder, the changes are replicated to the Dropbox servers and then when any other computers which are linked to your Dropbox account are turned on, immediately sync as well. Since the files are actually downloaded, you can access them even if your Internet connection is down at a later time:

Dropbox notifications are non-intrusive and informative. With Dropbox and VNC configured properly, your files are always at hand. VNC can be used on a variety of clients, including mobile phones, this can be very handy if you need to do something while you’re not at a computer. If you have a modern smartphone you should look and see if there is a VNC client for it.

admin@variableghz.com