How in the Tech

Monitor your network of computers with VNC Thumbnail Viewer

By Adam Myers ⋅ July 28, 2009 ⋅ Tags: System Administration

Virtual Network Computing, or VNC, is an extremely handy software used for remote viewing of a computer screen. It’s both useful as a support and a teaching tool, either in the workplace or a computer lab. There are many implementations of the VNC technology but the general premise is always the same. The VNC server service is installed on the remote computer and is connected to by the VNC client software – typically protected with a password. The experience is much like looking over the remote user’s shoulder; you can use the mouse and keyboard just as if you were sitting in front of the computer locally.

It’s not hard to see the practical purposes here if you haven’t used VNC before, but there is a drawback if you are using VNC in a monitoring capacity – it’s cumbersome to monitor more than one system at a time. That’s where a second piece of software, VNC Thumbnail Viewer, comes into play. Written in Java, the cross-platform free software connects to as many remote VNC servers as you provide and relays a thumbnail screen capture of the current computer display over the network. This type of invasion of privacy has it’s role in certain professions – the author of the software developed it in order to facilitate his teaching in a computer lab.