Virtual Network Computing

VNC Screenshot

R ScreenshotVirtual Network Computing (VNC) nodes that allow users to connect remotely to a graphical desktop environment running on our systems.

Using VNC, you can run applications and scripting languages like Matlab, Mathematica, Maple, python, perl, or the R statistical package (shown on the left) on our high-performance and large-memory systems. Plus, enjoy fast access to CCV's Research Data Storage system so that you can access and analyze large data files without having to copy them to your own system.

Download the client

To make it easier to connect securely to our VNC service, we have packaged and are distributing a pre-configured version of the TightVNC Java Viewer. This viewer runs on all major operating systems and natively supports tunneling over SSH for additional security.

Mac OS X [CCV-TightVNC-1.5.1c-Mac.zip]

To install, unzip and copy the "CCV-TightVNC" application to your Applications folder. Double-click to run.

Windows [CCV-TightVNC-1.5.1c-Win.zip]

To install, unzip and copy the self-contained "CCV-TightVNC.exe" executable to a convenient location, such as your Desktop. To run, double-click the "CVC-TightVNC.exe" executable.

Linux [CCV-TightVNC-1.5.1c-Linux.zip]

NOTE: you must download and install the Oracle Java JRE! The client will not work with default Java packages in most Linux distributions.

To run, unzip and type

cd CCV-TightVNC-1.5.1c-Linux
./CCV-TightVNC

Instructions

After starting the client, follow these steps to login:

  1. Enter your Oscar username for the SSH connection
  2. Select 'Yes' when prompted to establish the authenticity of the "ssh.ccv.brown.edu" host
  3. Enter your Oscar password
  4. You've now established a secure connection to CCV and should see the graphical login screen shown above
  5. Enter your Oscar username and password again to login to a GNOME session on the VNC node

Using your own client

If you prefer to use another VNC client, you can connect to CCV's VNC service by first establishing an SSH tunnel with:

ssh -L 5900:vnc:5900 <username>@ssh.ccv.brown.edu

Leave that connection open, then connect to 127.0.01:5900 in your VNC client. When you are finished with the VNC session, you can close the SSH connection.