Guest jcostantino Posted September 26, 2005 Report Posted September 26, 2005 Note: I'm not employeed by ParysTech and probably won't get anything from doing this. My phone is a SMT5600 with almost zero customizations right now due to a recent reset because I did something dumb with a font. The two VNC servers are Mac OS 10.3 Server w/ OSXVNC 1.4 and Windows XP Pro with RealVNC Free 4.1. I'm going to post a little roundup of VNC client software that I've used but I'll concentrate on PTvncS, since it actually works as advertised. SmartVNC Alpha 0.2 - this thing taunted me with its nice interface and various options for connections but the sad truth is that it just didn't work. It would connect, show the terminal screen and then would either kick me back to the today screen or not actually allow me to type anything. This happened on both my Mac and Windows machine. It LOOKS nice but it just doesn't run at all. .NET VNC Viewer 1.0.1.16 - This worked far better with the Mac but for some reason I couldn't log into the XP machine, I could enter my password but I couldn't click on the green login arrow. This program is sooooo slooooooooow! It worked nicely but it was slow and the text input box was a little difficult to figure out. Parys Tech PTvncS 1.2 - I'm not going to lie, this program has the worst main menu I've ever seen. It is very unintuitive, the fonts are way smaller than they need to be because they are cramped by the clutter on the screen so it's hard to enter login information without squinting. When I finally connected (with the demo) I found that it was by far the fastest VNC viewer in the bunch! And then the demo ended.. It seems to give you a 5 second read-only VNC session before it kicks you out. I paid out the $15 to smartphone.net, installed the registered version and found that while it works great with OSXVNC it doesn't work worth a damn with RealVNC. Fortunately, they provide a VNC server that does server-scaling and the client-server pair is perfect. Using the lowest-quality session options gave me a very passable connection speed. My only gripes are the main menu screen is very cluttered and the text entry is a pain. I will say that smartphone text entry is a pain in the first place so it's probably not Parys Tech's fault. They have a quick entry mode that is good for letters and numbers and a very detailed entry mode that provides all special keys, arrows, etc.. I'd like to see a "middle" mode that lets you do T9 or ABC into a text box that is then injected into the curser because both input methods make it hard to type a proper sentence. Over all, this was totally worth the $15. Like I said above, the only things I would change would be the text entry and main menu, otherwise the program is fast, rock solid reliable and easy to use.
Guest Lobojpm Posted September 26, 2005 Report Posted September 26, 2005 I also tried PTvncS and once I figured out the interface (not the easiest), I agree, the experience was pretty good! I was scrolling around on my desktop with my mpx220, and was opening applications, checking e-mails, etc. Pretty amazing stuff... My main problem, though, was security- I was afraid to leave a VNC host running on my PC that wasn't secure... I was looking into ways to secure it (SSH?), but I don't know if the PTvncS client for smartphones supports that... If we can figure out a way to securely connect, I think I'd use it in tight situations where I needed to forward an e-mail from my PC or something, but am out on the road. Pretty cool stuff....
Guest jcostantino Posted September 27, 2005 Report Posted September 27, 2005 (edited) A couple things I noticed afterwards: The VNC server that PTvncS comes with isn't compatible with my Mac VNC client (Chicken of the VNC) and gives me a "triangle error" when I connect. The PTvncS manual suggests some other server software to try and I'll experiment with that in the future. I can just work around it by assigning the PTvnc server to screen 1 and RealVNC server to screen 0. Also, RealVNC has more robust security options. You can set it to allow logins from a user within the NT domain if you need to but PTvncS doesn't support (that I can tell, at least) user & password logins - it's password only. That seems to be true of all the other VNC clients for Smartphone though. The PTvnc server somehow corrupted its login password and I had to remove and reinstall it on my PC but after that it was fine. That might have been related to me removing the RealVNC server and not rebooting before installing PTvnc. Extended use of the Smartphone client will drain your battery but I doubt that would be different with any other VNC client. Edit: ------ I installed Ultr@VNC (ultravnc.sourceforge.net) on my PC at home and it works fine with PTvncS! I can use my OSX VNC client and PTvncS to connect, it supports the server-side scaling and it seems to be all around a better VNC server. Probably right on par with RealVNC. I only wish there was a Smartphone version of Terminal Services Client but I suppose VNC is more universally supported. ------ I also tried PTvncS and once I figured out the interface (not the easiest), I agree, the experience was pretty good! I was scrolling around on my desktop with my mpx220, and was opening applications, checking e-mails, etc. Pretty amazing stuff... My main problem, though, was security- I was afraid to leave a VNC host running on my PC that wasn't secure... I was looking into ways to secure it (SSH?), but I don't know if the PTvncS client for smartphones supports that... If we can figure out a way to securely connect, I think I'd use it in tight situations where I needed to forward an e-mail from my PC or something, but am out on the road. Pretty cool stuff.... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Edited September 27, 2005 by jcostantino
Guest Dr_StrangeTrick Posted September 27, 2005 Report Posted September 27, 2005 Hey guys don't get me wrong here, but with VNC being open source and generally speaking free why do we have to pay so much for PTvncS :??: When it comes to PC - 2 PC I always use UltraVNC as I find it the fastest and the file transfer is a lifesaver.
Guest jcostantino Posted September 27, 2005 Report Posted September 27, 2005 I'm willing to pay $15 for a program that works correctly. The only reason I paid for this VNC client is because I've not been able to make the two free ones work either correctly or reliably. Hey guys don't get me wrong here, but with VNC being open source and generally speaking free why do we have to pay so much for PTvncS :??: When it comes to PC - 2 PC I always use UltraVNC as I find it the fastest and the file transfer is a lifesaver. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
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