I don't have any war stories but I regularly use both Remote Desktop and VNC so I think I can respond to Mark's request:
First to put them in perspective let me just describe both in general. VNC is strictly a remote implementation of the server desktop (the client sees the desktop as it appears on the server monitor); Microsoft's Remote Desktop is an single terminal implementation of their Terminal Services product. Terminal Services implements remote terminal sessions on an NT class machine. You can have multiple remote sessions going at the same time, totally independent of each other (and none of then are a remote incarnation of the console (ala VNC). I said "Microsoft's Remote Desktop is an single terminal implementation of their Terminal Services product". The other limitation they put on it (besides limiting it to one session) is that you cannot log on locally and use Remote Desktop at the same time. I haven't tried it but just judging from the architecture I imagine you can do that with VNC (the local keyboard/mouse and the remote keyboard/mouse can both be used simulatneously). As you can see you can use then to accomplish the same goal (remote control of a system) but the implementation is quite different. In terms of pros and cons, the main ones that come to mind are: VNC is implemented on a lot more platforms (all Windows, MAC) whereas MS Remote Desktop is limited to Windows XP (and Windows XP Pro at that!); MS Remote Desktop allows you to remote printers (I have not done this with Remote Desktop only with Terminal Services so I cannot vouch for it from first hand experience) - you can do that with VNC but it is complicated (share a printer on the client, add the device as a remote printer to the server, then print to that remote printer - I've done it but it seemed slow!); VNC is a lot better (subjective) for remote assistance because the remote user can see what you are doing (see limitation of Remote Desktop above) and they don't have to have Windows XP. (MS also have a feature called Remote Assistance (it is in both XP Home and XP Pro) which is more like VNC when you are talking about remote support but a comparison of VNC and Remote Assistance - not Remote Desktop - is a whole other discussion). Alan. Alan Watchorn [EMAIL PROTECTED] (760) 692-4300 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Mark Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 8:01 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: vnc connects but blank screen (in black) How about a short comparison of RDC vs. VNC from the more learned members of this community? Pro & Cons, etc. War stories (good and bad) welcome! Thx, Mark -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: February 03, 2005 1:03 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: vnc connects but blank screen (in black) At 06:53 AM 2/3/2005, B. Scott Smith wrote: 1,000,000 Thanks, that worked. eric >Until 4.1 comes out (I'm patiently waiting), the only way to recover >your >VNC session usage is to RDP into the XP box, bring up a prompt, and enter >"TSCON 0 /DEST:console", This will kick you out of your RDP Session, and >now you can VNC again... > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >>I have been using vnc for a couple of years with no problems. (With >>WinXP) Recently I decided to experiment with Remote Desktop connection >>using winxp native remote terminal service. I made the connection and >>since then, when I connect with VNC, I get a connection, but the screen >>is completely black and I can't access the desktop and no mouse arrow but >>a little white square that moves around. Must be some cause and effect >>relationship here. Can anyone give me a clue to recover my use of VNC? >> >>thanks eric _______________________________________________ >>VNC-List mailing list >>[email protected] >>To remove yourself from the list visit: >>http://www.realvnc.com/mailman/listinfo/vnc-list >> > > >http://www.bardoworks.org _______________________________________________ VNC-List mailing list [email protected] To remove yourself from the list visit: http://www.realvnc.com/mailman/listinfo/vnc-list _______________________________________________ VNC-List mailing list [email protected] To remove yourself from the list visit: http://www.realvnc.com/mailman/listinfo/vnc-list _______________________________________________ VNC-List mailing list [email protected] To remove yourself from the list visit: http://www.realvnc.com/mailman/listinfo/vnc-list
