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WinVNC vs. KVM Extender?
systmc asks: "I'm trying to decide between using WinVNC or a KVM extender at a customer's site. I'd like to use WinVNC but I'm concerned about it's CPU usage on a WinNT system (with an inactive client connected CPU usage was at around 8%, even with Raw encoding. PCAnywhere was about 0.5%). Does anyone have experience tweaking VNC? If hardware winds up being necessary, what KVM Extender would you recommend?"
Have you tried TightVNC? I don't know about it's CPU usage, but IMHO it is much better and faster than normal WinVNC. It can also do JPEG-encoding on the picture data, so it is really bandwidth-efficient.
This is the place where you write something that will make you seem like a complete idiot.
You haven't explained why you want to use a remote machine.
If it's to run applications, then the WinVNC/PCAnywhere/etc route is a good one. It's more flexible, because you don't need a cable. You can share the machine between more than one person, and you don't need extra hardware.
Personally, for remote administration, I'd always use the KVM extender solution. If the machine that you're administrating isn't behaving, then the remote control software probably isn't working properly either. Remote software doesn't let you watch bootup screens, or reconfigure the Bios.
So, before you make a decision, I think you need to look carefully at the purpose of the solution.
The old Timbuktu does a decent job. I have a client that's moved a number of their machines over to that to replace pcAnywhere. They feel it's faster and has less impact on the remote machine. I believe it gives you something that pcAnywhere doesn't have: you can have multiple clients connected at once as long as at most one is in Control mode (vs. Observe mode).
Make sure you don't have "poll entire screen" checked. It's a pig.
My personal setup is TightVNC with everything BUT "poll entire screen" checked. It's pretty zippy, even over dialup, so long as you aren't redrawing the entire screen.
Somebody mentioned the trouble with VNC for remote administration, if the PC isn't working then VNC may not be up either. KVM's don't suffer from this. But they're distance limited. Compaq makes a product that gives the best of both worlds. It's a PCI card for the "controlled" PC. It hooks into the video, keyboard, mouse, and power. It has it's own power supply and NIC in it. It gives you a KVM-like control over TCP/IP. You control it via java and a web browser. A company I used to work for deployed these in several hundred servers that were located all over the U.S. It got us out of jams where VNC or a KVM would not.
Anything that isn't made by Belkin. Many people swaer by them, but for me, they've caused no end of trouble. Half the time, they don't switch when you request them to, other times, they'll switch of their own accord. And they suck at handling non-PC hardware. I can't use them with my SPARC, and my Alpha works intermittently at best through them.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
If you happen to have Compaq servers check out their Lights Out Management boards. They are almost a complete PC on a card. Intel i960 CPU, RAM, ATI Vid, and a NIC. They let you completely remote control the system through a web browser. It has its own power supply so you can restart the system and follow it through the POST test and everything.
Pretty slick. They are $499. I put them in all new servers now.
I cannot understand why people talk about WinVNC, Proxy, PcAnywhere etc. Just use the included NetMeeting and enable Remote Desktop. I have it on all my servers and it's fast enough for me. Everywhere I go computers have NetMeeting installed (included in Windows) so you can call the servers. NetMeeting have encryption and uses normal NT accounts for users/password (or Active Directory/domain admins).
Believe me! I've tried them all! (winvnc, tightvnc...)
BTW: Don't forget to lower your colors (256color desktop. it's faster).