I want to use the VNC viewer to access another PC in the house from my notebook.
It is a PC without monitor where my flatmates have put their music, and they use VNC to access it from their notebooks and reproduce the music in the living room where the PC is.
I would like to do the same, but it does not work while CIS is on.
I have read three threads here but I do not understand much.
ALso, what are the robots? I read that it is better to change the default port to avoid robots with VNC???
There’s really not a great deal to do from a user perspective:
Obtain the server IP address or name and the port VNC is using
Obtain an account to access the server via VNC
Make sure the computer you connect from is allowed to connect to the VNC server
Once you have that information you can install and configure the vncviewer component. As far as CIS is concerned, you’ll need a firewall application rule that allows vncviewer.exe to make outbound connections:
Application name - vncviewer.exe
Action - Allow
Protocol - TCP
Direction - Out
Source Address - Any
Destination Address - The IP address of the server
Source Port - Any
Destination Port - The port being used by VNC on the server.
Ok, I had constant problems with Comodo and this application. I was not able to access the server.
Finally I discovered the problem: it is the DNS of Comodo, I had choosen to change my DNS with the ones of Comodo (Secure DNS I thing they are called. Comodo propose them during its installation), so when I was telling to the viewer to look for server by the “servername” the viewer was not able to access.
Now I tell the viewer to look for the IP address of the server, and I can access.
I hope this can help someone who will have the same problem.
I also hope that this will be solved in future releases of Comodo because it is really difficult to use for someone who does not know a lot about firewalls and internet.
I mean, it took me LOT of time to figure out the solution…
Unfortunately, this is not a Comodo DNS specific issue - this is just how internet based DNS services work. You would find the same issue with ALL internet DNS services. The DNS service you set up for your network connection know about systems on the internet but know nothing about the systems on your local network.
There is simple way around this - add the IP address of the system you want to VNC to to your HOSTS. file. This file is found at C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC. To add the IP address of your system to this file do the following;
WINDOWS XP
Click START → RUN, type “notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.”
NOTE : THE DOT AFTER “HOSTS” IS CRITICAL
Add the IP address and a relevant “name” after the entry starting 127.0.0.1
Save the file and exit NOTEPAD
You can now use the “name” instead of the IP address in VNC
WINDOWS 7
Click START, type “notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.”
NOTE : THE DOT AFTER “HOSTS” IS CRITICAL
Add the IP address and a relevant “name” after the entry starting 127.0.0.1
Save the file and exit NOTEPAD
You can now use the “name” instead of the IP address in VNC
Example HOSTS. file (additions are bold and in blue)
[i]# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
space.
Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
Mmm, that’s what I meant, it is a bit complicated to figure out all this for the average user.
In my case the frustrating aspect was that I was going crazy disabling the firewall, creating rules, putting VNC as trusted app, turning off Comodo, and I had no chance to find a solution alone because I would have never guessed that the problem was that the DNS of Comodo have no idea of where to find “servername”…
Now you tell me that the problem was not the DNS of Comodo, but I do not understand you well. I think that with the default DNS configuration the router automatically lookups in the right place for the “servername” (or at least in a case like mine, where the server is inside the homenetwork).
And actually all my flatmates can access the server from their computer with no problems with the servername.
Anyway, I guess that maybe a firewall must be a bit complicated to be effective.
Thanks for the other tip, but now that I know how to connect, it doesn’t change much for me to put the IP address or the server name.
Have you made any changes to the NetBIOS settings on the PC? Typically Windows uses a series of different methods for name resolution. The default order for host names:
The client checks to see if the name queried is its own.
The client then searches a local Hosts file
Domain Name System (DNS) servers are queried.
If the name is still not resolved, NetBIOS name resolution sequence is used as a backup.
This order can be changed and it also doesn’t include other name resolution methods, such as WINS that can also be used.
Nope.
The only change I have made to the PC is installing Comodo with the secureDNS option enabled.
Well, before deciding if using VNC or not, I tried to see if the windows homegroup configurations could be better for me.
But I don’t think this may be the cause: I wanted to try something now so I configured the DNS as automatic, and the VNC finds the server with the servername. I went back to the Comodo DNS and the VNC cannot find the server with servername but only with the server IP…
I think this means that when I use Comodo DNS the VNC looks for the servername somewhere there in the internet where these DNS have no idea about where to find this servername. While when I use the automatic DNS, the router knows which one of the connected devices in the networks has got that name.
How do I see other computers on the network?
I can ping the server by name in CMD (with the Comodo DNS on) but for example I cannot open the config of our network in a web browser by writing the name of the network in the address bar. I must write the IP address. My flatmate can enter the config of the network by writing the network name in the address bar.
I can ping the server by name in CMD (with the Comodo DNS on) but for example I cannot open the config of our network in a web browser by writing the name of the network in the address bar. I must write the IP address. My flatmate can enter the config of the network by writing the network name in the address bar.
I’m not quite sure what you’re referring to when you say “I cannot open the config of our network in a web browser” is this accessing a web server?
