If you have never used VNC before you must set a VNC password before you start vncserver for the first time (see below). SSH does not have any special support for VNC so encryption must be accomplished manually using SSH port forwarding. Because secure connections are required in the Stanford FarmShare environment, SSH must be used to encrypt the VNC connection. The university maintains the necessary server application for use with Stanford FarmShare, but users must download and install a suitable client application see below for recommendations.
You can disconnect from a VNC session and reconnect to it later as long as the terminal session used to start the VNC server application is still running. It is useful when certain applications fail to run properly under X-windows, or when a persistent connection to the remote display is required. VNC is a protocol and associated software that supports remote display on a variety of computer platforms. See Using X-windows for information about X-windows. Two methods are currently supported: X-windows and VNC. UNIX/Linux applications with a graphical user interface require the use of special display software when connecting from a remote location.
