VNC FAQ-o-Matic : Troubleshooting Guides : Are you sure the VNC Server is running?
Sometimes, despite the best of intentions, it’s hard to tell if the VNC server is running at all. Here are some ways to check to see if it is: 1. On Windows, look for a VNC icon in the Taskbar tray. Position your mouse cursor over the icon, and it should report what IP address the VNC Server is running on. 2. On Windows, try running the “fport” utility. This will report all of the running servers and what port they are listening to. If you see VNC listening to port “590#” then you know it’s accepting connections on VNC Viewer Display “#”. So, if you see 5905, then the Server is ready to handle “Display 5”. 3. On Linux, check with lsof to see what’s running (run as root): linux-box# lsof -i -n -P | grep -v 127.0.0.1 See #2 above for what it means when you find something. 4. Lastly, try this: from another PC on the same LAN as the VNC server, open a telnet client and connect to the VNC ports: “telnet ip.address.of.server 5900”. If you see a response which looks like “RFB 003.003” then th
