Using ARD 3 to control XP machine

rrz · #1 January 9th, 2007, 10:00 PM

I'm currently using Windows Remote Desktop Connection on my main osx machine to manage an XP server, but it would be nice to manage my mixed environment using only ARD 3 which I like using for the Mac side of things. Is there anyone who has successfully pulled this off?

I have VNC Server running on the XP, and ARD can see it, but anytime I try to control (or even send a message) the connections seems to get lost. I have port 5900 open on the XP machine (at least Norton Firewall tells me its open) and on the mac as well.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Raymond

supanatral · #2 February 7th, 2007, 10:22 AM

I connect to a windows fileserver on my network using vnc and I've been able to successfully get it to work. The only difference is that I havn't tried ARD 3, because I decided to go for a free alternative. I used winvnc on my PC and use Chicken of VNC on my mac and it connects perfectly.

My first plan of attack would be to disable any firewalls you have enabled and try it then, if it works then you know its the firewall. Does it ask you for a password? If not, then its either your firewall not allowing it to enter into the computer or the service isn't running. If so then you probably have the wrong password.

Let me know if that helps

atroon · #3 April 2nd, 2008, 02:56 PM

I am able to use ARD to control a PC running the free version of RealVNC, which apparently uses a silent username of 'Admin' along with the password you set in the default install. Does anyone know the silent username for UltraVNC? I know it's not blank or Admin. ARD asks for a username and password for login, while the PC VNC servers generally only use a password. Chicken of the VNC also just uses a password, and will deal with UltraVNC servers on PC hosts very well except for the lack of screen scaling. Interestingly, CotVNC will not connect to a RealVNC server on a PC with just a password.

eric2006 · #4 April 2nd, 2008, 05:44 PM

I have had bad experiences with Norton Firewall, so you might want to disable that for troubleshooting purposes. Windows XP has a built-in firewall as well; make sure it's disabled. You will also need to have your network configured correctly, if applicable.

atroon · #5 April 2nd, 2008, 07:15 PM

Thanks for the quick reply, eric2006. I should have explained better, this is a remote client site that I want to use ARD at in addition to my home network, where ARD works flawlessly. The network consists of 12 PC's running Windows XP, and is configured correctly, all PC's can see each other in NN, also I can see each PC from my MacBook Pro. There are no software firewalls enabled, and I can connect to every computer's UltraVNC server with CotVNC, which is a decent tool, but I would like to standardize on one tool for both remote client locations as well as my home network. It seems like RealVNC and UltraVNC use different authentication mechanisms, I guess that's the root of things.

eric2006 · #6 April 2nd, 2008, 07:40 PM

As far as I can tell, UltraVNC doesn't need anything in the username field if there isn't a username enabled. Because this seems to be an UltraVNC issue, you may want to post your problem here as well:
http://forum.ultravnc.info/

atroon · #7 April 4th, 2008, 02:36 PM

I was down an update that I had skipped a while back without realizing it. Once that went in, ARD immediately started opening my UltraVNC servers.