Introduction VNC software is designed to work out-of-the-box over local networks or VPNs. Connecting over the Internet will require co...
Introduction
VNC software is designed to work out-of-the-box over local networks or VPNs. Connecting over the Internet will require configuration of the host computer’s firewall and router. This guide will show you how to establish a connection between VNC Server and VNC Viewer when you're away from your host computer.
Steps (6 total)
The host computer has two IP addresses: a private IP address assigned to the computer and a public IP address assigned to the router. When you connect to VNC Server over the Internet, you are actually connecting to the router, which must then forward this connection to the host computer.
Note that this guide assumes you have already installed and licensed VNC Server on the host computer and VNC Viewer on the client computer or device.
You must configure your firewall to allow VNC connections on port 5900. VNC Server should have done this for you during installation if you are using your computer’s default firewall software (click the link below if you need to allow these connections manually on this software).
If you have installed a third party firewall (such as Kaspersky or AVG), you need to manually configure it to allow connections on port 5900. This process changes depending on which firewall you have installed. Search for ‘how do I open a port on <your-firewall-software>’ for instructions.
Access your router’s settings through a web browser (try inputting 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1, or search ‘<your-router-name> IP address’) and navigate to your port forwarding settings. These may be under a different name (search ‘forward ports on <your-router-name>’ if you can’t find them). Here, select the ‘VNC’ service and forward it to port 5900, then click on the name of the computer you plan to control.
Note that many older routers may lack the ability to select a computer by name. If this is the case, you will need to set up a static private IP address for your computer, and assign this address to the port forward rule instead of the computer name. Search ‘assign static IP address to <Mac|Windows|Linux>’.
You can use VNC Server’s ‘Test Internet Connection’ service to check if steps one and two were successful. This lets you know if your firewall and router have been correctly configured without needing to leave your desk.
Open VNC Server on your host computer and click More > Information Center > Diagnostics > Test Internet Connection. If the test fails, carefully repeat steps one through three until it succeeds.
You should now be able to connect your client device to VNC Server over the Internet. However, your router’s public IP address is likely to change every time it reboots, at which point you will no longer be able to connect using the original IP address.
A permanent solution is to register a hostname for your router with a DDNS service such as No-IP or Dyn, and use VNC Viewer to connect to the hostname instead. Now, even if your ISP changes your IP address, your hostname will always remain the same.
Open VNC Viewer and input your computer’s new hostname. You should now be controlling your computer over the Internet.
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