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VNC Central (Freeware Utility To Manage Remote Computers)

This forum is for VNC related products | This means not only UltraVNC | It even is allowed to announce or describe commercial (and of course non-commercial) programs here (but not anywhere else in the forum)
OhMyGoat
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VNC Central (Freeware Utility To Manage Remote Computers)

Post by OhMyGoat »

VNC Central is a server/client application that simplifies a lot management of remote computers. Pratically it allows you to launch applications, locally or remotely, replacing automatically the ip in the application parameters with the one belonging to the local pc (if you ask vnc central to launch the application on a remote computer) or with the one belonging to the remote pc (if you ask vnc central to launch an application on your local computer).

Here are some examples of how you can use VNC Central:
- you can initiate a reverse-connection from a remote vnc server to your local pc
- you can launch any application you want on multiple computers at the same time
- you can see all of your customers that are currently connected to internet, and do remote assistance whenever you want without asking them to do anything
- you can launch maintenance applications on the remote computers

You may ask yourself: there are many utilities to do server-initiated vnc connections, what makes VNC Central so special? The thing that makes vnc central so special is that it allows you to create a “virtual network”, by linking vnc centrals together. You can see all the connected computers (all grouped in a nice tree) and run applications/vnc/whatever on any pc (or on multiple pcs at the same time). This makes VNC Central perfect for schools (you can have a group of computers to do all the same thing at once (for example shutdown))

Here's a VNC Central "in action" screenshot:

Image

As you can see from the screenshot once the VNC Centrals are linked together you can see the "virtual network structure" of the connected centrals' computers. You can then right click on any of the computers showed in the list, (even many of them at once if you want!) and then select the action you want to perform, for example you can start a server-initiated ultravnc session, have a local vnc viewer to connect to the local server etc.

Also VNC central is useful in those situations where you want to avoid user intervention, because you don't want to have customers lose time or you don't want to waste time telling them every time what to do to start the remote assistance. Who hasn’t ever met those people that can’t even manage to open an email attachment? In those situations you can just install a self-executing vnc central on their pcs: every time they connect on internet that vnc central will connect on your local pc, so when they will ask you for assistance you can request a server-initiated vnc connection in seconds: just restore your local vnc central window from tray, right click their computer name, select the application you want to run and you’re done.

VNC Central is perfect for deployment on large computers: all the settings are stored in a xml file that you can include with the application, it’s very quiet since it can just sit in the tray or run in hidden mode (you can restore the main window with a special keystroke) and it also has a low memory footprint (less than 1mb when minimized).

VNC Central is freeware, you can install it where you want without restrictions, at home or at work: the important thing (as written in the license) is that vnc central and vnc central sources (or applications derived from vnc central sources) CANNOT be included with commercial applications without the author’s written permission.

In the VNC Central’s website there are vnc central binaries, sources and 2 setups:
- a plain VNC Central setup, that installs VNC Central and nothing else
- a VNC Central+UltraVNC setup, that contains ultravnc and a preconfigured vnc central to work with it: this is the perfect choice for those that want vnc central just for remote assistance and don’t want to mess with all the configuration. Just run the setup, change the incoming connections and remote requests password with one that you like, add an automatic connection from one pc to another and you’re done.

Here's VNC Central website:
http://vnccentral.sourceforge.net

If you have problems, bug reports or just questions feel free to ask on the forum on that website: it's there for you.
Last edited by OhMyGoat on 2007-06-18 23:51, edited 22 times in total.
OhMyGoat
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VNC Central v0.018

Post by OhMyGoat »

Version 0.018 is now available on VNC Central's website

As promised before the new version stores all the configuration in a xml file, so finally it will be possible to keep multiple vnc centrals in different folders each with its own configuration. Also i've reduced the executable size by moving all the settings dialogs stuff to an external dll: this dll however is not essential for vnc central execution and can be deleted if you want to disable the settings dialogs to prevent users to tamper with the settings.

Now from the Advanced settings tab it's possible to enable VNC Central's hidden mode that hides the tray icon when vnc central is minimized: when in such state a global hotkey is made available to restore the main vnc central dialog.

The standard setup has been updated: now if you place a "VNC Central.xml" settings file in the same dir where the setup is stored, the setup will automatically copy that file to the vnc central install directory. Also if you add a deploy.exe file, that file will be copied in the vnc central install directory and executed automatically when the setup completes. So you can finally use the vnc central setup to deploy vnc central: just add the configuration file you want and a self-extracting archive (deploy.exe) with all the applications vnc central will launch inside and setup will do the rest.
OhMyGoat
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Post by OhMyGoat »

Another version is out, 0.019 with some bug fixes and an updates ultravnc version in the "VNC Central+UltraVNC" setup.

In the last few days i've been restructuring user guide on the website, adding a section explaining how to deploy and connect vnc centrals, tomorrow i'll put it online. I hope that it will explain how to use vnc central better than the actual user guide that maybe is too much "advanced".
Last edited by OhMyGoat on 2005-10-15 00:54, edited 1 time in total.
OhMyGoat
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Post by OhMyGoat »

Next major version (0.020) as promised will have connection tunnelling. The tunnelling development seems to be fine for now, pratically vnc central will wait for new local connections on the tunnelled ports: as soon as one of them is received vnc central will ask to chose a remote vnc central and once chosen will automatically establish a tunnel through the actual vnc central connection with the remote vnc central. I can't say right now what will the performance impact be with applications like vnc however as long as everything gets working i'll post some news here.

I'm also changing the vnc central+ultravnc setup to it asking the user for a password instead of setting the default one that, if left unchanged, is extremely insecure.
Last edited by OhMyGoat on 2005-10-17 06:55, edited 1 time in total.
OhMyGoat
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Post by OhMyGoat »

it looks like everything is starting to work...

Image[/img]
OhMyGoat
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Post by OhMyGoat »

Here are some updated screenshots on how is the vnc central deployer development going on:

Image

Image

Image

Image

For those that may wonder why did I suddently stop the tunnelling status as it was planned on the vnc central website it's because I saw that a lot of people visit the deployment guide section of the site (at least 1 person over 2 that visit the website goes in that section). Since making a deployment package takes a lot of time I decided to write an utility to make a selfinstalling executable that can be sent to customers. Those selfinstalling executables can be used to install vnc central permanently or run it just once.

On the website it will be made available a UltraVNC version that works with INI files, and that will have another instance name (the instance name will be loaded from the INI file), so it can run even if some other winvnc is running.


The deployed VNC Central will have NO plugins support since it will be a static build and the settings window probably will not be enabled for the first releases because I need to add static linking support for that dll too.

The static VNC Central build should be about 200kb big (maybe a little more).
Last edited by OhMyGoat on 2005-10-28 07:47, edited 1 time in total.
bevtech
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Post by bevtech »

Nice Application, however it doest seem to support the MSRC4 Plugin unless I misssed something (very possible) I use Encryption on all my connections so I do not think this program will work for me. Excellent job on whoever created it.. :D
Bevtech

Windows XP Home, Pro SP2, Windows 2003 SBS server SP2(EN), Windows Media Center Editon 2005,Windows Vista Home Prem.,Fedora Core 6,Win9X, PChelpware Rel 1.0,
UVNC V 1.0.8.2

User not developer..;)
OhMyGoat
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Post by OhMyGoat »

yes it doesn't support connection encryption yet however it's one of the features that will be surely added in future
bevtech
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Post by bevtech »

OhMyGoat,

That would be awesome.. :D
Bevtech

Windows XP Home, Pro SP2, Windows 2003 SBS server SP2(EN), Windows Media Center Editon 2005,Windows Vista Home Prem.,Fedora Core 6,Win9X, PChelpware Rel 1.0,
UVNC V 1.0.8.2

User not developer..;)
OhMyGoat
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Stretchy news from vnc central!

Post by OhMyGoat »

I changed the main dialog so it can finally be resized
I also made plugins to shutdown/reboot/logoff/blank monitor/standby/suspend remote machines.
Last edited by OhMyGoat on 2007-06-17 22:36, edited 5 times in total.
bevtech
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Post by bevtech »

OhMyGoat,
Does it support the MSRC4 Plugin yet??
Bevtech

Windows XP Home, Pro SP2, Windows 2003 SBS server SP2(EN), Windows Media Center Editon 2005,Windows Vista Home Prem.,Fedora Core 6,Win9X, PChelpware Rel 1.0,
UVNC V 1.0.8.2

User not developer..;)
OhMyGoat
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Post by OhMyGoat »

No it doesn't support ultravnc encryption plugin but if you really need encryption i can add it in the next version using Rijndael algorythm (aes) that should be much better than rc4.
Last edited by OhMyGoat on 2005-11-06 14:13, edited 1 time in total.
bevtech
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Post by bevtech »

Well I know that I use encryption for all my connections, maybe some others do as well.. :D

Let me know when encryption is an option..:D
Bevtech

Windows XP Home, Pro SP2, Windows 2003 SBS server SP2(EN), Windows Media Center Editon 2005,Windows Vista Home Prem.,Fedora Core 6,Win9X, PChelpware Rel 1.0,
UVNC V 1.0.8.2

User not developer..;)
OhMyGoat
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i'm back!

Post by OhMyGoat »

sorry for the long absence I had some problems with my stupid via mb drivers that were continuosly disabling udma making my computer so slow it was impossible to develop on it. Now i've finally dumped that piece of crap and hoping that I won't ever buy another via product I'll resume vnc central development as soon as possible (hoping that I still remember what needs to be finished) :P
omega41
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Post by omega41 »

For those wanting secure connection with this software use Hamachi. It is a very secure vpn tunnel.

http://www.hamachi.cc/

Review from Steve Gibson(GRC) & Leo ipodcast

http://thisweekintech.com/sn18
OhMyGoat
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Post by OhMyGoat »

You're right i'd better write that on the website.
maxlaw
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Re: i'm back!

Post by maxlaw »

OhMyGoat wrote:sorry for the long absence I had some problems with my stupid via mb drivers that were continuosly disabling udma making my computer so slow it was impossible to develop on it. Now i've finally dumped that piece of crap and hoping that I won't ever buy another via product I'll resume vnc central development as soon as possible (hoping that I still remember what needs to be finished) :P
Is that possible that you could release the source code of the version 0.19b in your website? I've found that the connection between the client and the server aren't so stable under the lan protection of my department, I wanna solve it and at least contribute something to the development of the vnccentral.
OhMyGoat
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Re: i'm back!

Post by OhMyGoat »

maxlaw wrote:
OhMyGoat wrote:sorry for the long absence I had some problems with my stupid via mb drivers that were continuosly disabling udma making my computer so slow it was impossible to develop on it. Now i've finally dumped that piece of crap and hoping that I won't ever buy another via product I'll resume vnc central development as soon as possible (hoping that I still remember what needs to be finished) :P
Is that possible that you could release the source code of the version 0.19b in your website? I've found that the connection between the client and the server aren't so stable under the lan protection of my department, I wanna solve it and at least contribute something to the development of the vnccentral.
Unfortunately (my fault) after I compiled the working versions and while some of my friends were testing it I started working on the newer version that is a major overhaul so the sources I have aren't much usable. I am still working on the newer version (not much in these days because I have to attend courses at the university) however I'll see if I can find copies of the old versions sources (because I think I made some backups before starting working on the new version).

There are some problems however: CreateInstall has completely changed their installer they removed the internet updater, so even if I release the sources/binaries I won't be able to release an updated setup because it won't be ad much deployable as the last one I created.
Last edited by OhMyGoat on 2007-01-03 11:30, edited 1 time in total.
maxlaw
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Re: VNC Central (freeware utility to manage remote computers

Post by maxlaw »

Thanks for your reply~~ Actually, I've found that the client side is not regularly checking whether the server side is still alive. There are many situation that the client does not notice the accidental disconnection of the server. The result is the client would not attempt to reconnect the server after server disconnection and I lost the control of the remote client.... until I manually restart the client side. Is that possible to be solved?
OhMyGoat
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Re: VNC Central (freeware utility to manage remote computers

Post by OhMyGoat »

maxlaw wrote:Thanks for your reply~~ Actually, I've found that the client side is not regularly checking whether the server side is still alive. There are many situation that the client does not notice the accidental disconnection of the server. The result is the client would not attempt to reconnect the server after server disconnection and I lost the control of the remote client.... until I manually restart the client side. Is that possible to be solved?
I think this can be solved by automatically sending a ping to the other connected centrals. As soon as I find out the old sources I'll get this fixed.
maxlaw
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Re: VNC Central (freeware utility to manage remote computers

Post by maxlaw »

OhMyGoat wrote:
maxlaw wrote:Thanks for your reply~~ Actually, I've found that the client side is not regularly checking whether the server side is still alive. There are many situation that the client does not notice the accidental disconnection of the server. The result is the client would not attempt to reconnect the server after server disconnection and I lost the control of the remote client.... until I manually restart the client side. Is that possible to be solved?
I think this can be solved by automatically sending a ping to the other connected centrals. As soon as I find out the old sources I'll get this fixed.
Actually I have written a small JAVA port-forwarding-like tool to bridge the client and server and run in the client machine. This tool aims to undergo preiodical checking of the connection status and perform a complete disconnection procedure (socket.close()) to suitably shutdown the connection between the server and client sides of vnccentral. Thus, it could notify the client that the dissconnection of server and let the client attempts to reconnect. This tool also displays all messages between the server and client so that I could observe any unexpected behaviour.

However, I've just found that, after dozens of reconnection, the client side start too be unresponding to all messages, and giving up to conduct reconnection, until I restart the client vnccentral. It would be no problem that I restart the server but I have to gain control of the remote client in order to restart the vnccentral client while the vnccentral client is unresponding......

Hope the above information would be helpful for the development/debugging processes of vnccentral.

I REALLY LOVE VNCCENTRAL!!! SO I WANT TO BE CONTRUBUTIVE TO IT^_^!!
OhMyGoat
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Re: VNC Central (freeware utility to manage remote computers

Post by OhMyGoat »

maxlaw wrote:
Actually I have written a small JAVA port-forwarding-like tool to bridge the client and server and run in the client machine. This tool aims to undergo preiodical checking of the connection status and perform a complete disconnection procedure (socket.close()) to suitably shutdown the connection between the server and client sides of vnccentral. Thus, it could notify the client that the dissconnection of server and let the client attempts to reconnect. This tool also displays all messages between the server and client so that I could observe any unexpected behaviour.

However, I've just found that, after dozens of reconnection, the client side start too be unresponding to all messages, and giving up to conduct reconnection, until I restart the client vnccentral. It would be no problem that I restart the server but I have to gain control of the remote client in order to restart the vnccentral client while the vnccentral client is unresponding......

Hope the above information would be helpful for the development/debugging processes of vnccentral.

I REALLY LOVE VNCCENTRAL!!! SO I WANT TO BE CONTRUBUTIVE TO IT^_^!!
I think I've fixed those problems. Unfortunately I've checked out and I don't have any backup of the 0.019 sources. The version I have now is completely different because I separated the vnc central core from the dialog so that it could be possible (in the future) to run vnc central as a service and connecting to the central using the main dialog.

The problem is that while the dialog and the core actually work (and have worked for a long time) I have plenty of problems in separating the plugins in 2 parts (one for the service and another one for the dialog interface) so it will still take me a long time to get it working.

Even if I release now the core and the dialog there will still be a problem, because the "Actions" stuff has been moved to a plugin (and because of that core&dialog alone would be worthless). I'll see if I can get only the actions plugin working and release a new vnc central ASAP (but that means no connections forwarding, dyndns, etc).
Last edited by OhMyGoat on 2007-06-17 22:35, edited 5 times in total.
TheEditor
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Re: VNC Central (freeware utility to manage remote computers

Post by TheEditor »

Is this program still in development?
Posh Boy
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Re: VNC Central (freeware utility to manage remote computers

Post by Posh Boy »

I very much hope this is still in development - it's an excellent program.

There are a couple of features I would love. MSRC plugin compatibility would be excellent. Also, it would be great if you could make it so that the Server has an option to accept or reject a "passive" UltraVNC connection. Currently, if you set the server to "Query on incoming connection", then it works for an "active" connection but not for a "passive" one.

That way, I could tell users that "You will have to click yes before I can access your PC".

Like I said, I love this program so thank you and I hope you keep it up :)
Last edited by Posh Boy on 2007-05-29 22:08, edited 1 time in total.
OhMyGoat
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Re: VNC Central (freeware utility to manage remote computers

Post by OhMyGoat »

Yes it's still in development.

Here's the latest development snapshot:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/vnccen ... irror=osdn

This version should fix the problem maxlaw had with centrals not detecting disconnections (there's a timeout monitor now)

What's new in v0.020 (19/06/07)
  • Now VNC Central has been splitted in 2 parts: dialog and core. In the next versions core that now is just a separed dll will support being launched as service.

    VNC Central settings are now saved also when the settings window is closed

    Now it's possible to use custom listening ports

    Fixed treectrl font changing to fixedsys under certain circumstances

    Added power management support, it allows all the most common operations like shutdown, reboot, standby, suspend, logoff etc.

    Now VNC Central automatically detects and disconnects dead connections (timeout monitor)

    When VNC Central is disconnected its icon becomes gray

    Now VNC Central window is resizable (and also maximizable)

    It's now possible to copy lines and empty the VNC Central log
Known bugs
  • double-click on centrals (that triggers default action) doesn't work (this is actually not a bug, it's actually not implemented)
Last edited by OhMyGoat on 2007-06-19 19:42, edited 7 times in total.
OhMyGoat
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Re: VNC Central (freeware utility to manage remote computers

Post by OhMyGoat »

Posh Boy wrote: Also, it would be great if you could make it so that the Server has an option to accept or reject a "passive" UltraVNC connection. Currently, if you set the server to "Query on incoming connection", then it works for an "active" connection but not for a "passive" one.

That way, I could tell users that "You will have to click yes before I can access your PC".
I actually can't implement the feature you asked (that would require a very large code rewriting) however you can still rely on an external application that asks for user confirmation before invoking winvnc.
Last edited by OhMyGoat on 2007-06-18 23:39, edited 2 times in total.
OhMyGoat
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Re: VNC Central (Freeware Utility To Manage Remote Computers

Post by OhMyGoat »

VNC Central 0.20alpha3 is now out with DynDNS and early tunnelling support

What's new in v0.020 alpha 3 (27/06/07)
  • Integrated DynDNS Update Plugin

    Implemented connections tunnelling (BEWARE: tunnels haven't been completely written yet so use them only for testing purposes)

    Many small bugfixes
Here's the download URL:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/vnccen ... irror=osdn

BTW If I'll have enough time I'll try to release early releases too of Automatic Maintenance and Power Saver plugins (2 plugins that I have been planning for a long time) in the next version.

Automatic Maintenance automatically defrags the Hard Drives while the PC idles (it relies on windows defrag tool so you don't need anything else to get it running).

Power Saver instead changes the power profiles when the computer idles so you can say goodbye to compromises like speedstep and cool&quiet especially on Vista. When you use your computer power saving could be turned off or minimum while when you're away it could be turned to the max values (this could save a lot of money if you keep your PCs turned always on all the day).

Stay tuned :wink:

P.S. for those that don't want to wait for those 2 plugins there are some third-party solutions that do similar jobs (for example JkDefrag's screensaver).
Last edited by OhMyGoat on 2007-06-29 20:19, edited 6 times in total.
MrJohnBravo
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Re: VNC Central (Freeware Utility To Manage Remote Computers

Post by MrJohnBravo »

Ok
I am a fan of this software and am currently using version .19 . However when I try to run version .20 I get the following error. "This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Re-installing the application may fix the problem".
Obviously I am doing something wrong. Does anyone know what it is?

Mr John Bravo
--ohhh MAMA!!!--
Mr Johnathan Bravo

--ohh MAMA!!--
OhMyGoat
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Re: VNC Central (Freeware Utility To Manage Remote Computers

Post by OhMyGoat »

MrJohnBravo wrote:Ok
I am a fan of this software and am currently using version .19 . However when I try to run version .20 I get the following error. "This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Re-installing the application may fix the problem".
Obviously I am doing something wrong. Does anyone know what it is?

Mr John Bravo
--ohhh MAMA!!!--
Have you installed the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable package?

You can find it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

Also are you running the application on XP or Vista? I saw that on Vista there were some problems with the manifest and side-by-side MFC libraries (that will be fixed in the next version).
Last edited by OhMyGoat on 2007-07-27 22:35, edited 3 times in total.
MrJohnBravo
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Re: VNC Central (Freeware Utility To Manage Remote Computers

Post by MrJohnBravo »

Also are you running the application on XP or Vista? I saw that on Vista there were some problems with the manifest and side-by-side MFC libraries (that will be fixed in the next version).

Actually running it on SBS 2003. I haven't been able to get .20 Rc3 loaded on my server so I haven't tried it on any other machine. Also I haven;t dl'd that dist so I will do so now and let you know how it goes.

I have 1 other question. Are you going to release the Code changes since .14. .14 is the only source code I can find on SF.

Thanks for your reply
Mr Johnathan Bravo

--ohh MAMA!!--
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