Ticket Options

Question Details

TICKET ARCHIVE -> Osxvnc

macphd - Nov 16, 2005 - 9:25 am

I'm trying to use Chicken of the VNC client to remotely control a powerbook running OS X Tiger. Tried setting up sharing allowing VNC access, then loaded OSXVNC - still won't connect. I've set up ports on my router. set up fixed IP on the mac but nothing seems to work. Every time, COTVNC times out. Any suggestions?

misterplow - Nov 16, 2005 - 9:07 pm

Hi there - have you gotten it to work on the same physical network (without a router or anything in between)? I would first confirm it works in a simple same-LAN environment, then introduce the issue of going across a router or through a firewall.

When you say router, do mean a typical home-office type router/NAT box? Is it just a router or is it act as a firewall as well?

With mine, for example, it is not enough to open ports on the firewall; the (default) VNC port 5900 also would have to be forwarded to the powerbook in a different settings page.

Anyway, please comment on whether you've goten this to connect in ANY environment.

Thanks,
-Adam

macphd - Nov 16, 2005 - 9:18 pm

Adam,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes - it works within the same LAN environment. The router is a pretty simple Linsys router. After I get it going, I'll want to set up the same capability with an Apple airport express. I don't think the Linksys firewall is active - at least I have done nothing with it. I did set up the port forwarding. I did nothing with UPnP forwarding or port triggering.

Any suggestions?

Ed

misterplow - Nov 16, 2005 - 9:30 pm

OK - are both locations on private IP networks? (like 2 offices within your company) or are you going over the internet with address translation behind your Linsys box.

Could you iterate the items in your connection, starting with the powerbook -> Linsys -> (internet) -> (some_other_router) -> COVNC machine. (this is just my guess, so please change the info)

My thinking is that since the VNC connection works on the same LAN, it is not really a VNC or even a Mac-specific problem, but a networking one.

Also - are you familiar with firewall and/or routing concepts? (sorry; not trying to offend - just that it's hard to understand someone's skill level in this type of forum . . . )

-a

macphd - Nov 17, 2005 - 9:57 am

No offense - I'm fairly green on some of this stuff.
At this point, all I'm trying to do is get to the same computer that I'm able to access locally but do it by way of the internet. That is, I am able to establish vnc connection with my wife's powerbook using a bonjour connection, but when I use an ip address port number the attempt times out.

I established a name (xxx.homeip.net) using dyndns. That name points to the IP address of my Linksys router as provided by my isp.

Following the instructions provided by portforward.com I set up port forwarding on my router such that 5500, 5800, and 5900 all forward to the ip address I have assigned my wife's powerbook within my local LAN (192.168.0.111). (do I really need 5500 and 5800 too?)

Using Terminal, I can ping the ip address of the router. I can try to telnet the ipaddress:5900 but the response is "No address associated with nodename"

It sounds like I'm getting to, but not through the router. What's next?

Thanks for your help.
Ed

misterplow - Nov 17, 2005 - 6:46 pm

Yeah - it sounds like you're getting to the front door . . just not being let in.

Do you have any other holes in your Linksys router that work? A web server, for example?

I have only one Mac at home, so I've never used Bonjour. Can you VNC to your wife's powerbook when you directly enter its IP address in COVNC? (sorry - I'm a little fuzzy about Bonjour, it seems . . )

My router/firewall at home is some obscure brand, but it has the option of specifying a "DMZ host". What this means is that it essentially turns OFF firewalling for that host and sends everything to the IP address you specify for it - in this case, your wife's powerbook.

I don't know what model of Linksys router you have, but a quick browse of their support site suggests that the DMZ host option is generally available on their products. (if you could let me know the specific model number I will check more thoroughly).

How about setting your wife's powerbook to be the DMZ host (at least temporarily)? This way we can establish the fact that your two machines can communicate over the internet when there is no filtering going on. Security-wise you probably don't want to leave it exposed like that forever, but at least we can have some kind of milestone.

After that, we can put the firewalling functions back in place and find out where the setup is breaking.

misterplow - Nov 17, 2005 - 6:52 pm

Oh - and you can private mesage me your dynamicDNS hostname if you want me to poke at it from the internet. (please don't put something like that here in a public post, though)

macphd - Nov 18, 2005 - 11:57 am

Thanks Adam.

First of all - I'm new to this site and haven't seen how I could "private message" you. Let me know and I'll try that.

Since your message, I've experimented greatly. Enabled the DMZ - as you suggested - made no difference.

Then I had a flash of brilliance and remembered that there's another component here, an Apple Airport which is providing the wireless connectivity. The Airport is connected to one port in the router. So I thought I should get rid of that, and wired the mac directly to the router bypassing the wireless component. No difference.

Then, I recalled that I have another router I can experiment with - it's a d-link d-604. So I disconnected from the linsys, substituted in the d-link, went through the instructions at portforwarding.com to configure it and even enabled its DMZ. Same results.

So, here I am. seems that I'm not only getting to the router, I appear to be getting through it but no matter how I try to test the connection, telnet tells me "No address associated with nodename" and VNC Network Test tells me "Connecting to port 5900 ... succeeded.

Waiting for server to send version string...

Unknown server ( RFB 003.889 )"

And COTVNC grinds away for some time and tells me that "Operation timed out: connect()"

This seems to be the case whether I try to connect to my wife's PB or to my own.

Except when I'm connecting locally via Bonjour. I'm not sure how to define Bonjour, but I think it's a non-IP protocol which may be related to Appletalk. It does some broadcasting, because as soon as I turn on the Use Bonjour option in the COTVNC menu, the local machine pops up in the server window and I am able to connect that way

Any more thoughts? or should I just forget it?

Ed

nhmac - Nov 20, 2005 - 6:37 am

Just another idea here: I have had the best luck setting up VNC sharing using a program called Share My Desktop, it's by Mike Bombich of Carbon Copy Cloner fame. The remote user starts SMD, I get on with COTVNC. SMD is the only program I have been able to make work easily for this purpose, you might want to try it. http://www.bombich.com/software/smd.html
--------
Beverly Woods
Low End Mac column: http://www.lowendmac.com/woods/index.html

macphd - Nov 20, 2005 - 10:29 am

Thanks Beverly,

I tried it. No luck! I did get an applescript error when trying to start the system VNC, other than that, it looked like it was running, but COTVNC still timed out trying to connect.

Ed

nhmac - Nov 20, 2005 - 5:42 pm

Ed, I am not sure we are looking at the same thing. Applescript error? That does not sound familiar.

Did you get a blue window and have a button to push that said "Share My Desktop"? if not then we're not in the same program.
--------
Beverly Woods

macphd - Nov 20, 2005 - 5:43 pm

Thanks Beverly,

I tried it. No luck! I did get an applescript error when trying to start the system VNC, other than that, it looked like it was running, but COTVNC still timed out trying to connect.

Ed

nhmac - Nov 21, 2005 - 5:53 am

What did you do exactly when "trying to start the system VNC"? Which VNC program were you using and how were you trying to start it?
--------
Beverly Woods