#Vnc viewer download for windows 8 software

The VNC protocol ( RFB protocol) is very simple, based on transmitting one graphic primitive from server to client ('Put a rectangle of pixel data at the specified X,Y position') and event messages from client to server.

The VNC client (or viewer) is the program that represents the screen data originating from the server, receives updates from it, and presumably controls it by informing the server of collected local input.

The VNC server is the program on the machine that shares some screen (and may not be related to a physical display – the server can be 'headless'), and allows the client to share control of it.

At the time, network computer was commonly used as a synonym for a thin client VNC is essentially a software-only (i.e. The Videotile had an LCD display with pen input and a fast ATM connection to the network. The name Virtual Network Computer/Computing (VNC) originated with ORL's work on a thin client called the Videotile, which also used the RFB protocol.

VNC clients and servers negotiate their capabilities with handshaking in order to use the most appropriate options supported at both ends.Īs of 2013, RealVNC Ltd claims the term 'VNC' as a registered trademark in the United States and in other countries. Such forking has not led to compatibility problems because the RFB protocol is designed to be extensible. The original GPLed source code has fed into several other versions of VNC.

#Vnc viewer download for windows 8 software

In 1999, AT&T acquired the lab, and in 2002 closed down the lab's research efforts.ĭevelopers who worked on VNC while still at the AT&T Research Lab include: įollowing the closure of ORL in 2002, several members of the development team (including Richardson, Harter, Weatherall and Hopper) formed RealVNC in order to continue working on open-source and commercial VNC software under that name. The Olivetti & Oracle Research Lab (ORL) at Cambridge in the UK developed VNC at a time when Olivetti and Oracle Corporation owned the lab.