| |
Tight VNC Review
- Tight VNC is a free product which can be downloaded from the web site.
- Free remote desktop control tool with full source code available
- Control a remote PC as if you were sitting in front of it
- Run the client application from a USB drive
- Easy to use viewer application
- Transfer files from the remote computer easily
- Cross platform support
- Different settings to save bandwidth on poor connections
- Password protection on connections
- No integrated encryption, but compatible with SSH tunneling
- Active development community
- Compatible with other VNC products
- Constantly developed and revised
- Completely free tool!
- Compatible with Windows or Unix based PCs
Tight VNC is a very basic, but completely free remote access tool. It only provides the most simple of functionality and can be prone to bugs, but it is constantly worked on by an active community of volunteer developers. Business users will probably want a more reliable application with more features, but home users might find that Tight VNC does everything they need in a remote access tool.
Tight VNC allows you to access the full functionality of the remote PC through a desktop client application. All the files and applications on the PC can be used just as easily as if you were sitting in front of the computer. You can also transfer files between computers, but the interface for doing this isn't quite as simple as the standard Windows drag and drop functionality. Although the application worked well for the most part, we did encounter a few bugs here and there, but this is to be expected from a community developed project. The application also lacks any of the extra features that many of the paid for products add into their software.
Although installing the host and client applications for Tight VNC is a simple process, it can be slightly trickier to set the application up to work properly with your firewall and router. Since it relies on making a direct connection to the remote computer based on the IP address, you have to open certain ports on your firewall and set up port forwarding if you connect to the internet using a router. If you aren't familiar with doing these things it can be a bit difficult for novice users first time - although Tight VNC do provide a useful guide on how to do it.
Tight VNC does not yet include much in the way of security in its software so is really not suitable for any kind of connections where sensitive data is involved. Users must authenticate themselves with a username and password, but there is no encryption provided on communications between computers. The makers of Tight VNC recommend using SSH tunnelling for secure connections, but setting this up will probably be beyond most average computer users.
If you are a reasonably confident computer user and familiar with setting up things like port forwarding then Tight VNC may come in very useful to you. However, most people are probably better off paying a few dollars a month for a product which takes the hassle out of setting up connections by using a server in the middle. The best of these products are reviewed in our top 10 list so we recommend having a look there for the best deal.
>> Click here to visit TightVNC.com
or
<< Back to the rest of our Remote PC Access Reviews
|
|
|
