Fantastic tip for working with 2 PCS and 2 Monitors

orbita · Post by **orbita** » Sun Jun 01, 2003 9:14 am

I cant believe I havent suggested this yet since Ive been using it for ages and it would be perfect for many of you using 2 pcs.

How to control 2 pcs with only 1 set of keyboard + mouse.

Well you could use a KVM switch to flick between the two, but that can be a pain, especially when you are making music.

The better option - and this requires 2 monitors, one for each PC - is to install VNC server on one of your machines and to install win2vnc on the other machine. With these installed, you will be able to drag your mouse from one computer to the other!

Both machines need to be networked obviously..

Its piss easy to setup and you can have them both start at bootup so you dont need to start them up every time.

Win2vnc
http://www.hubbe.net/~hubbe/win2vnc.html

VNCserver
http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/

ps. It works across win-win or win-linux

doodyrh · Post by **doodyrh** » Sun Jun 01, 2003 12:56 pm

I'll second this.
I was using it for quite a while and it's very reliable and very lite. A single .exe that's about 150kB.
I had the other PC in the next room running Office and Internet (and internet connection sharing) with no monitor, keyboard or mouse. You might need to connect a mouse for XP systems to boot.

I think it also works between PC/Linux and Mac.

[ This Message was edited by: doodyrh on 2003-06-01 13:57 ]

dehuszar · Post by **dehuszar** » Sun Jun 01, 2003 6:01 pm

My god orbita! You are my *@&*%$# hero! I use a wireless trackball to ease my tendenitis, and it looked like I might have to buy something really expensive to do what I want. Question though, can you send a dual-screen setup over the line?

Sam

orbita · Post by **orbita** » Sat Jun 07, 2003 7:03 pm

ill email you one

MCCY · Post by **MCCY** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 8:04 am

Hi!
Thanks for that great tip!!!
I'm not so experienced in networking. I've 2 computers connected but I don't know how to use that program... could you give me some hints, how to get things started?

Thanks

Martin

MCCY · Post by **MCCY** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 8:16 am

WOW!!!
I got it... you're right - it's piss easy ;o)

Thanks

Martin

orbita · Post by **orbita** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 8:36 am

told ya

MCCY · Post by **MCCY** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 1:11 pm

There has to be a possibility to send the password automatically and to recall setting "west" - but I can't get this to work.

any idea? command lines? How to use them?

Martin

orbita · Post by **orbita** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 1:28 pm

on windows I cant work out how to send password. I dont think it support it. On linux you can do -passwdfile=<passwdfile>

You can do the direction though. You just put "win2vnc -west" as i remember. Make a shortcut and just add -west on the command top be run

dehuszar · Post by **dehuszar** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 2:29 pm

Orbita, do you find that you get a lag? I can't tell if it's just the limitations of ethernet or my router, or the capabilities of my laptop (waiting for my 2 512MB SODIMMs to arrive... this 128MB BS is killing me).

Also, I'm having trouble getting to recognize dual screen. Is there a way to get the listening computer to utilize the 2nd monitor?

I think this in conjunction with fxtransport (when it's ready) could be a killer combination!

SAm

Steve-o · Post by **Steve-o** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 3:56 pm

Works great - easy to use! Great tip!
Steve

orbita · Post by **orbita** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 4:15 pm

@dehuszar
you get lag if the pc's cpu gets very busy but the whole idea is to spread the cpu load anyway.

im not quite sure what you mean by your dual screen question.
with my setup, I have my main music PC setup to display as dual screen. The second PC is setup only to display on screen 2 and I have a switch to change screen 2 between the computers. When I switch it to the second pc I move my mouse east 2 screen fulls to reach it. ideally id get a 3rd screen so i dont have to keep switching.

dehuszar · Post by **dehuszar** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 5:03 pm

I'm trying to figure out if there's anything in the VNC software that dictates which screen to display from the VNC Server. Can I route the output from my 2nd monitor on the VNC Server to go to the Listener while displaying my primary screen (with icons, etc.) on my laptop's LCD? I don't see any functions in the VNC package (I haven't excavated it's depths yet) which regulate which screen to view.

Hopefully that makes more sense.

Sam

sym90 · Post by **sym90** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 2:59 am

If you work with Windows XP on both machines, the best solution is to use windowsxp remote desktop , which is included and installed in windows xp package.

It is very useful since you can also use a http page to browse your remote computer and it has not the annoying bug of the screen-not-refreshed of VNC.

I am using it constantly since windows xp was out... 3 PCs here controlled over remote desktop function : it's way more efficient IMHO than VNC or other pc-remote software (like pc an*where for example)

hope this helps

sYm

valis · Post by **valis** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 5:19 am

there's also http://www.realvnc.com

There is a problem with using remote desktop/vnc software, it has a lot of processing overhead and can tax bandwidth on both the serving and recieving machine.

orbita · Post by **orbita** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 9:36 am

sym90,
I am not use the VNC client viewer in this situation, so screen refreshes are not an issue. I am running the VNC server on the second machine and on the first machine I run the VERY thin win2vnc client that simply sends the cursor to the second monitor. This way you can move the cursor between 2 computers. The individual computers are responsible for displaying their own screens so the cpu overhead and network bandwidth of displaying the second screen on the first is not an issue.

But yes, I agree that generally the windows vnc client does not provide a good refresh and can be quite taxing on cpu as you describe.

w_ellis · Post by **w_ellis** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 4:23 am

Just in case anyone is still looking to do this, I think if you want to save the password and setup info for VNC you just need to 'Save Configuration...' from the VNC Client application. Then add -config [file-name] to the path in a shortcut and it should work.

fyi. all command line options are as follows:
-8bit
-swapmouse
-shared
-belldeiconify
-listen [vnc-port]
-fullscreen
-viewonly
-emulate3
-scale [a/b]
-config [configfile]
-server:display

Hope this helps,
Will

[ This Message was edited by: w_ellis on 2003-06-22 05:23 ]

TRMP8R · Post by **TRMP8R** » Mon Jun 23, 2003 7:49 pm

If you want a remote desktop client with a little more speed than VNC, try NetOP.

IMHO, extremely fast at the Guest end with no noticeable load on the Server (my SFP workstation). And everything redraws correctly.

brain1 · Post by **brain1** » Sun Aug 24, 2003 10:16 pm

thanks for the tip- this works great!

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 12:19 am

now you can get a kvm switch that works with 2 monitors/ 1 keyboard/1 mouse

http://www.vpi.us/srvsw-pc-vga-dm.html
(sorry for the spammy looking page..he..i dont work there, i just want to get the product)

while VNC is great and everything, you have added software on your machine, and PCI use from the network card when you might be doing something important, also VNC although it is good is limited in graphics response time..with gigabit lan thats 100 MB/sec in ideal situation. even a matrox millenium can do more than 100 mb sec

. and who knows what other (memory) bandwidth is used when it takes a picture of your desktop, sends it to memory and then takes another one

100 mb/sec will leave 33 for anything else on your PCI bus..you know those pesky creamware cards.

10 mb/sec will leave probably enough on your PCI bus if packets dont get sent at the wrong time diring a critical mix.

KVM switch uses NO PCI bandwidth

i have been using 2 "normal" kvm switches, which i "hacked" so when one switched it would switch the other ones monitor ports..it worked, but there are issues with it, and i will get the dual head kvm instead.

of course if you just need to acess the other PC to get mail and other non music (meters..response etc) apps use VNC. you would still need to xhange your keyboard and mouse manually if there was an issue (like pc failed to boot and gos into bios for no real reason)

[ This Message was edited by: Neutron on 2003-09-04 01:23 ]