How to Access Remote VNC Desktop from Web Browser Using TightVNC Java Viewer

VNC stands for (Virtual Network Computing) is an open source graphical desktop sharing tool for managing and control machines remotely using a VNC client called VNC Viewer. You must install a VNC client on your machine to access remote desktops, but if you don’t want to install a VNC client on your machine and want to access it remotely. How?

In such scenario, what you will do. Well, you can still access VNC using a modern web browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Netscape etc. But How? let me tell you.

TightVNC a modern and much enhanced desktop sharing program that provides a standard web browser program called TightVNC Java Viewer.

TightVNC Java Viewer a remote control program that written in Java programming language. It connects to any remote VNC enabled box where Java is installed and lets you control and manage with your mouse and keyboard right from the web browser, just like you sitting in front of the computer. It’s an easy and friendly solution for system administrators to manage their remote desktops directly from the web browser without installing any additional software’s.

It requires that the remote machine, must have running VNC Compatible server such as VNC, UltraVNC, TightVNC, etc. But, I recommend you to install a TightVNC Server. Please use the following article that shows how to install TightVNC Server on RHEL, CentOS and Fedora systems.

1. Install TightVNC Server to Access Remote Desktops

Apart this, you also have running Apache web server along with Java installed on it. Follow the below guide that show you how to install Java in Linux systems.

1. Install Java in Linux

After installing TightVNC Server and Java, lets proceed further to install web server on it. Use the following “yum command” to install Apache server.

# yum install httpd httpd-devel

Now we have all the needed software’s installed on the system. Let’s move ahead to download and install TightVNC Java Viewer.

Install TightVNC Java Viewer to Access Remote Desktops

Go to TightVNC Download page, to grab the latest code or you may use the following “wget command” to download it.

Go to Apache web root directory (i.e. /var/www/html), create a empty directory “vncweb“. Use “wget” to download the files inside the folder. Extract the files using unzip command and rename viewer-applet-example.html file to index.html as shown.

# cd /var/www/html
# mkdir vncweb
# cd vncweb
# wget http://www.tightvnc.com/download/2.7.2/tvnjviewer-2.7.2-bin.zip
# unzip tvnjviewer-2.7.2-bin.zip 
# mv viewer-applet-example.html index.html

Open index.html file using any editor or nano editor as suggested.

# nano index.html

Next define IP address of Server, VNC Port Number and Password of VNC User that you want to connect. For example, my server IP address is “172.16.25.126“, Port as “5901” and Password as “abc123” for my VNC user called “tecmint“.

<param name="Host" value="172.16.25.126" /> <!-- Host to connect. -->
<param name="Port" value="5901" /> <!-- Port number to connect. -->
<!--param name="Password" value="abc123" /--> <!-- Password to the server. -->

Access VNC Desktop of user “tecmint” from the browser by going to.

http://172.16.25.126/vncweb

You will get a “Security Warning” message says that unsigned application requesting permission to run. Just accept and run the application as described below.

Enter Password to access “tecmint” Desktop.

Again Enter Password.

That’s it, you successfully connected to Remote Desktop.

If you’re accessing from any other computer, you might get an “missing plugin” error, just install plugin and access it. You can grab the latest Java plugin at Download Java page.