Expert VNC - An Independent Review After Joel Bomgaars posted his topic advertising Expert VNC to the list, there was quite a bit of controversy over it, weather it legal, secure, the cost, etc. I too posted a reply, asking a few questions regarding these issues, at which point Joel offered to give me a demo copy, to test, and give an independent review. So I did! How did I demo the program? Well I have a friend who at Uni in Portsmouth (UK), her net connection is behind a firewall, which allows outgoing traffic, but blocks incoming. She's always having PC problems, and as she isn't very computer literate herself it usually means a trip down to Portsmouth to fix. I've tried to use VNC, but her firewall blocks the connection. So, the day before hearing about Expert VNC, I got a call from her again, apparently she's managed to uninstall her soundcard, and couldn't get it working again. So I was looking at having to go down and see her, and install the soundcard again. However up on hearing about Expert VNC, and being given the opportunity to demo it, I thought I'd give it a try. I emailed her the server demo (which is only 265k), and ran my viewer demo (126k). When she opened the server demo, I gave her my IP address, which she entered into the connection box. This then goes out through her firewall, and connects to my viewer. This means there is pretty good security, you can't connect to a users PC, with out them running the server, and then entering your IP address. Once she's done that, I can control her PC, which is what I did, after 5 minutes, I'd loaded the soundcard drivers back on and had it all working again. So I'll try and clear up some of the questions that were being asked. Is it insecure? Not as far as I can see, although I'm not really an expert in those fields, but the fact the application has to be launched by the end user, who then has to enter your IP address before you can connect makes it as secure as any other remote admin program. Is it legal? Again I'm no expert, but VNC is open source, and distributed under the GNU General Public License and none of the original VNC files have been modified, so as far as I can see, yes! What is the cost? At first I thought the cost was $495 per license, meaning if I wanted to support all 200 workstation on our site, it would cost $99,000. But after running this past Joel, I found that you only need 1 license for every PC that's going to SUPPORT the other workstations, they don't actually need a license, as the software is only installed while your supporting them. A better way of doing this maybe by saying the 'Server' is free, but you need to buy a license for the 'Host'. So, my verdict! Is it useful, yes, for supporting users who are behind a firewall its excellent, and as far as I can see there are no security or legal issues. However, I think the cost per license ($495) is maybe a little on the steep side, I'm sure more people would be interested, if the cost were halved or something, or the pricing scheme re-worked/re-worded, so you get the server for free, but host you pay for.
Hope this clears up some of the questions! Ben Blackmore ========================================================== Triumph International Ltd Arkwright Road, Groundwell, Swindon, SN25 5BE Ben Blackmore I.T. Department Phone: +44 (0) 1793 720126 Fax: +44 (0) 1793 720179 Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit us at: http://www.triumph-international.co.uk ========================================================== This message is for the designated recipient only and may contain privileged, proprietary, or otherwise private information. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the original. Any other use of the email by you is prohibited. ========================================================== _______________________________________________ VNC-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To remove yourself from the list visit: http://www.realvnc.com/mailman/listinfo/vnc-list
