[NOTE: OUTDATED PAGE. GO HERE INSTEAD.]

Getting started with VNC:

Once you set it up, VNC is a virtual X desktop running on a particular machine here in the math department (on whichever machine you set it up), and then you can "connect" to this desktop from anywhere in the world you can reach the internet. Thus you can connect from here, from a Windows box in your office, from a laptop plugged in to the internet here or elsewhere, from your grandmother's computer, wherever.

To get started, you must once and for all create your virtual X desktop.

  • Pick a computer. This computer will permanently hold your virtual X desktop. Some people use lehi.math.arizona.edu. Others use one of the grad lab machines, such as kino.math.arizona.edu. The system administration has specifically reserved the computer named vnc.math.arizona.edu for this purpose, so unless you know what you're doing, use that one!
  • Connect to that computer and create a new VNC server: 
    telnet vnc.math.arizona.edu
vncserver
    It will tell you the number of your new desktop. It might be ":7", or ":13". You must remember that number! All examples below will use ":7".

    • If ever you need to kill your virtual X desktop, this is how you would do it, substituting your own desktop number for the sample number shown below. 

    telnet vnc.math.arizona.edu
vncserver -kill :7

    To connect to (that is: view) your virtual desktop, you can use a web browser (see below), or you can install/run a special viewer program called vncviewer.

  • On our Unix systems, the viewer is already installed, so simply use the command vncviewer vnc.math.arizona.edu:7, substituting your desktop number for ":7".
  • On a Windows system, you need to once-and-for-all download the viewer program. (Go to google.com, search for "tightvnc", find the download area, and get the Windows client program. Should be less than 150K. You don't need the server, or the source package, or anything else. Just the client/viewer.) To connect, double-click the viewer, and type in vnc.math.arizona.edu:7, substituting your desktop number for ":7".
  • You can also access your virtual desktop using a java-enabled web browser. For example, if you are visiting a friend and want to briefly access your desktop, instead of installing the viewer on their computer, just use their web browser. (Or at an Internet Cafe, you can't install software, but you can use a browser!) This is slightly slower and mildly quirky (depending on how well the browser supports java), but in a pinch is the way to go. You simply point the web browser to http://vnc.math.arizona.edu:58xx, where 58xx will be 5807 or 5813 or whatever, depending on the number of your virtual desktop.

    • To disconnect (stop viewing) your virtual X desktop, simply close the viewer (the outermost window).

    Important cautions (to prevent people yelling at you):

  • The first time you connect to your virtual desktop, be sure to disable your X screensaver (go to Start/Programs/Settings/Desktop/Screensaver). Otherwise your virtual desktop will eat up lots of CPU cycles "saving" a non-existent screen, and other users will yell at you for hogging up the machine vnc.math.arizona.edu.
  • The machine vnc.math.arizona.edu is like lehi.math.arizona.edu: lots of people are connected through it. You should not run heavy-duty computations on this machine. From within your virtual desktop you can create a terminal window and telnet to a different machine, such as chivo or chivo2, and do your heavy-duty computations over there!
  • If you click inside your virtual X desktop to log out (by right-clicking, or using Start/Logout), you will permanently disable that particular virtual desktop, even though it will continue running forever as an empty screen. If you have done this, then follow the steps above for killing this virtual desktop, then follow the other steps above for creating a new one.
  • When you are permanently done using VNC (not just for today, but for always), follow the above steps to kill your virtual desktop.