Can't resolve hostname.

[nomadscot]

Hi,

From reading through the forum it appears that my problem is quite a common one, but I can't seem to find a solution - either here on the forum or by my own efforts.

After installation of the Remoter app on the iPad and UltraVNC on the desktop, I get an error message on the iPad when trying to connect the two - 'Can't resolve hostname...(etc)...' when using the hostname in VNC basic settings, or 'Unable to connect to the server...(etc)...' when I try with the IP address.

My setup is:

(But please note that so far this query applies only to the desktop and the iPad), as I haven't installed on the other computers yet.)

Home Network, with Linksys WAG320n router.
I desktop Windows 7 64 bit
1 Laptop Windows 7 64 bit
1 Laptop Windows Vista
1 iPad 2 and 1 iPhone 4 both updated to iOS5

I have downloaded and installed Remoter 3.0.1 onto the iPad and UltraVNC Win32 Server 1.0.9.6 onto the desktop. All instructions carefully, and I believe correctly, followed.

The router has the latest firmware version 1.00.12.

All components of the network are working fine.

I have another app - 'Remote' for iTunes - installed on both the iPad and the iPhone, both of them perfectly control iTunes on all networks computers.

From reading other threads here I believe I understand the password issues and have configured both the VNC program and the Remoter app correctly by leaving the username blank and entering the same password in both VNC on the computer and Remoter on the iPad.

I don't use an MS logon password, so haven't touched this setting in VNC (boxes unchecked).

But still I'm unable to connect!

This has taken me a few minutes to write, but many, many hours to experience!

Help me! Sob. ;(

[raf]

Hi Nomadscot,

Sorry to hear you're having so much trouble connecting to your windows machines using Remoter. I'm going to try to help you as best I can.

1-When you add your session, do you pick a computer from the discovery list, or do you choose "Manual Setup". Why?
2-Please verify you don't have a firewall active on your computer
3-Make sure your iOS device is on the same Wi-Fi network as your windows machines.

Raf.

[nomadscot]

Hi there.

Done! Thanks.

It was the Firewall.

I had previously checked the Firewall, but your comment prompted me to look again.

This time I noticed that for some reason the installation 'allows' the VNC Viewer, but not the VNC Server, which I had to add manually to the 'allowed' list.

After I did so Remoter connected immediately, and I have now connected to the remaining two computers.

However, sir, I still have one other problem which I would be grateful for your assistance with, which is that on two of the three machines, while the 'Remoter' commands are successfully executed on the computer, the iPAd screen doesn't change.

Laptop running 64 bit Windows 7 - no problem, iPad screen updates promptly - it's a joy to watch.
Laptop running Windows Vista - iPad screen doesn't reflect changes.
Desktop running 64 bit Windows 7 - iPad screen doesn't reflect changes.

Thanks again.

[raf]

Hi nomadscot!,

Great to hear you were able to fix the main problem by making some adjustments to your firewall!

About the no updating ultraVNC. A handful of other users have complained about the same. This seems to be a problem with UltraVNC not correctly detecting changes in the screen. You could try making changes to the polling options in UltraVNC's properties.
If this doesn't help, please try reverting to version 1.0.8.2 (http://www.uvnc.com/download/1082/1082full.html) which seems to work better than the latest for some people.
I'm also going to look into this in detail, and I'll let you know what I find out.

Thanks!,
Raf.

[pantompi]

I'm getting this when I turn off wi-fi on my iphone. I just now downloaded it and am testing to see how well it connects. Via wi-fi all is well. Via 3g, it stops after a very short time and comes up with this error. There should at least be a timeout setting. It's definitely giving up much too fast.

[raf]

pantompi,

OK, here's the work-around if you can't get ultraVNC to send screen updates:

-Go into Remoter Config (in Remoter VNC), scroll down to "Other Settings"
-The second option there is "Connection Heartbeat": turn it ON.


The connection heartbeat will poll periodically the server to send screen updates. They're going to be slow but it should work, until we figure out why ultraVNC is not updating for you.

Hope this helps!,

Raf.

[pantompi]

Support! Whee!
To be clear, I had Wyse Pocket Cloud, which gave me no end of trouble, and finally just plain stopped working. So last night I downloaded yours, and it worked as I said fine via wi-fi, but then gave me this error on 3g. I was out of patience when I wrote that last night, since Wyse support is somewhere between thin and non-existent.
I tried your suggestion, but it didn't work. I'm actually connecting to a Macbook Air running Lion, so I don't think (I could be wrong here) I'm using Ultra VNC.
I've looked around here since last night, and from what I can see this software isn't configured out of the box to run on 3g. Looks like I would have to forward my port and do some other finagling. I see you have something called Remoter Fusion or something along those lines to help with this, but it seems to want to use a protocol that may be more modern than my router can handle, as mine is pretty old. It's a Belkin Pre N something or other, and doing a search for that comes up with this:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... CE0Q8wIwBA

The date on this is Oct 2004, which seems about right. If you think Fusion will work with it, I'll give that a try.

[raf]

Hi pantompi!,

I usually try to respond to users on the forum as fast as possible. I tend to be very responsive via email as well. This is one of the "features" of the product: a responsive developer

Remoter does indeed support connections from 3G or from foreign WiFi networks, but this support is provided via an in-app purchase (RemoterFusion). You will need to download the client that installs on your Mac from here http://remoterfusion.rafsoftware.com first. Note that this only works on Macs (and Snow Leopard / Lion are required) at the moment.
I recommend you try it before you buy it. You can use it for 24 hours before having to purchase the add-on. Keep in mind this add-on not only "enables" a function in the app, it's also a service (to work, a server in the sky is part of the equation), and it's included for-life with the one time add-on purchase. The only reason I stress this, is that other companies provide similar services for a monthly charge. This makes RemoterFusion insanely cheap at the moment.
To use it, simply install the client on your mac, and register it. Then in Remoter, create a new session and choose "RemoterFusion", there you can enter the registration information you used on the mac.

An alternative to RemoterFusion is to set up port forwarding in your router, and to have a dyndns account or similar, to map your public IP address to a non-changing name. There are guides and more information on this kind of setup here in the forum.

Raf.

PS: Your belkin should support UPnP, but you might have to enable it in the configuration website. You should also try installing the latest firmware available for your router.

[pantompi]

Updated the firmware and actually managed to find where to enable upnp all by myself. Wow.
It works. Considering I have version 1 of this router, I'm very surprised. Thanks very much!

[raf]

Updated the firmware and actually managed to find where to enable upnp all by myself. Wow.
It works. Considering I have version 1 of this router, I'm very surprised. Thanks very much!

You're very welcome. And happy to hear it's working for you!

Raf.