VNC service

When your machine runs a VNC server, you can access its screen without you first needing to establish a VPN connection to your device.

Add a VNC service

The next steps show you how to set up an VNC service.

  • Open the Fleet Manager app, which is accessible from the Apps menu in the top right corner if you are currently in a different X4 Remote app.
  • Open the main menu, go to Devices, and select the concerning device.
  • Click on the Add a service icon in the left menu and select [VNC server].
  • Enter the requested information (details below) and click on [Add].
Field Description
Name Name your VNC service for easy distinction from other services.
IP address The IP address of your machine. 
Port The port number where the VNC server can be reached. By default it’s 5900 (for VNC).
Password If your machine’s VNC server is password protected, enter its password here.
Access category The audience determines who can use this VNC service. More information about audiences and how you can create one can be found here.
Read-only mode Enabling read-only mode will ignore any user input for this VNC service.
Encoding

Leave “automatic” for compatibility with most systems.

Using Lenze hardware? Set the encoding to Hextile instead.

Color depth

Leave “automatic” for compatibility with most systems.

Using B&R hardware? Set the color depth to what is set on your B&R device instead (default is 8-bit).
Using VIPA hardware? Set the color depth to what is set on your VIPA device instead (either 8 or 32-bit).

Machine settings

You may need to adjust your machine settings.

Using Siemens hardware? First, go to “Runtime Settings” for your HMI in your TIA Portal project, ensure that “Start Sm@rtServer” is checked and apply it by downloading the hardware configuration to the PLC. Then open the Sm@rtServer settings on the HMI by stopping the runtime, opening “Settings”, then open “WinCC Internet Settings”, go to the “Remote” tab, click on “Change settings”, and go to the “Server” tab. There, set a password and uncheck “Encrypt communication”.

You have now made the changes in X4 Remote, but these are not yet active in your device. You will need to push your changes to your device for them to take effect.

  • Open [Config control] in the top right corner, verify the changes you’ve made (example below), and click on [Push changes].
Changes (example) Description
lan.forwarded_port=vpn,2000,192.168.140.94,5900 A port forwarding for the VPN connection is added for the VNC service to work.

All set up

Now you're all set up to easily access your machine's screen via VNC.

Use a VNC service

You can use the VNC service once the device is back online.

  • Open the Portal app, which is accessible from the Apps menu in the top right corner if you are currently in a different X4 Remote app.
  • Go to Devices in the left menu, select the concerning device, and click on the name of your VNC service in the remote access section.

 

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