: "dkumpozr" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
: What the heck is a listening viewer? I've beeing using computers for
: quite a while, and I can't figure this one out. I just installed VNC.
: - I understand what a server is. The VNCServer allows connections to my
: PC from computers using the VNC Viewer.
: - I understand what the viewer is. This application is used to connect
: to computers that are running the VNCServer.
"It's not what we know that hurts us,
it's all them things we know that just ain't so."
--- Will Rodgers
In this case, conflating the notion of server with incoming
connection, and client with outgoing connection. That the two are the
same thing is something you "know". And indeed, that's nigh-universally
true. But it ain't necessarily so. The client is the one that's
requesting things be done, and the server is the one doing them.
But who connected to whom to get started is independent of that.
: - BUT WHAT THE HECK IS A LISTENING VIEWER? This is confusing
: terminology to me, and I don't understand what it's for. If I'm running
: the server - what is the Listening View for?
A "listening viewer" is a viewer (which is to say, client) which waits
for a server to contact it, rather than contacting the server. It still
makes requests along this connection once it is established, and the
server still answers these requests.
There are several reasons this is useful. If you don't know where your
server is, you can simply listen, and let somebody else figure it out.
Or, if there's a firewall that blocks connections incoming to the
server, but doesn't block outgoing connections, having the server
initiate an outgoing connection avoids this problem. Or suppose the
server is being run on a laptop with a cryptic DHCP-served IP address,
yet the viewer's machine has a nice mnemonic static IP address. Then
having the ability to have the server connect to the client makes things
easier.
This kind of reverse connection is rare-ish, but not unheard of.
Consider FTP. When you do a "get" command, the client listens
for the server to send the file.
So, if you are running a listening server, a listening viewer is useless
to you. But if you are running a listening viewer, having somebody
arrange for a server to connect to it (ie, by vncconnect on linux, or
"add new client" on MSWindows) can be very useful indeed.
Wayne Throop [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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