VNC software for hardwired Ethernet computers

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I am building a small network of PC’s that are modified for machine vision applications. The “appliances” have 4 dedicated Ethernet ports for the cameras and 2 for network connections. These machines do not connect to anything other than a peer to peer automation network. The trouble is that the appliances will be located on the machines scattered throughout the manufacturing department. I would like to be able to use my laptop to take over the desktop of any of the appliances and modify the programs as needed. The appliances run XP and right now, I am as well. In January I will be getting a new Win7 64bit laptop. What would I need in terms of software for a remote desktop peer to peer network?

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You can always use the built-in Remote Desktop – Start > Run > mstsc.
Alternatively you can use VNC or TeamViewer to remote control the existing logged in session.

cheers, Paul

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As per Paul’s suggestion, I would use RDP if the machines support it (XP Pro, Win7 Pro etc), but if they do not, or if access to the the currently logged in session is important, then I would opt for VNC. TeamViewer would take you out over the Internet before returning onsite, which may be wasteful of bandwidth and present a security question.

Another thought occurred to me however: you will have 4 ethernet ports for the cameras and 2 ports for networking per machine. You would need to ensure a high speed peer to peer network was available to prevent any latency issues on the RDP/VNC or perhaps more importantly to the camera ports. The machines themselves may also need attention to sure they have sufficient resources to handle the network traffic.

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Hi Controls Guy:

I use UltraVNC for supporting all the PCs at my wife’s business, and even use it here at my home office for the other PCs. Works great, and has an outstanding function added to “standard” VNC that allows file transfers from the “viewer” PC (yours) to the “server” PC (one of your machine “appliance”) PCs — which might be useful for updating the “appliances”. I’ve used a couple of different versions of VNC and really like UVNC the best. Check it out at: http://www.uvnc.com/

Best wishes.

Rob

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TightVNC. Works good, been using it for years, the developers still refresh it frequently. The other guy Rob mentioned an outstanding freature in UltraVNC as being file transfer… well TightVNC had that at least 5 years ago, I think TightVNC is way ahead. Give it a look.

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