VNC Client Display Resolution
Depeding on your VNC use, you may want to have a larger or smaller display than the default or a different number of colors. This often happens if you want to run the display full-screen or want to speed things up by reducing the amount of information moving over your network connection by choosing a smaller color set or resolution. Our VNC server allows you to choose a resolution and color depth by connecting to different ports. The instructions suggest you connect to port 5995, which corresponds to a 1024×768 resolution with 16 bit color, however you can choose any port 5991 to 5999.
Choose a resolution (800×600, 1024×768, or 1280×1024) and a color depth (8 bit, 16 bit, or 24 bit) and find the corresponding port in the following table.
| Resolution | Depth | Port |
|---|---|---|
| 800×600 | 8 bit | 5991 |
| 800×600 | 16 bit | 5992 |
| 800×600 | 24 bit | 5993 |
| 1024×768 | 8 bit | 5994 |
| 1024×768 | 16 bit | 5995 |
| 1024×768 | 24 bit | 5996 |
| 1280×1024 | 8 bit | 5997 |
| 1280×1024 | 16 bit | 5998 |
| 1280×1024 | 24 bit | 5999 |
| 1440×900 | 8 bit | 5988 |
| 1440×900 | 16 bit | 5989 |
| 1440×900 | 24 bit | 5990 |
Notes: 1440×900 is the resolution of the widescreen monitors in the classroom, 1024×768 is the resolution on a typical non-widescreen laptop.
Checking local display settings
It is useful to know your local display's settings for choosing a VNC display. For instance, to make a full screen display you would match the local display resolution with the VNC display resolution. Here are instructions for finding the local display settings on several popular operating systems.
Windows
You can find resolution and color settings by looking at the “Control Panel”, in the “Display” section, under the “Settings” tab.
Mac OS X
To find dispay information, click on the Apple in the upper-left corner of the screen and choose “System Preferences…”. Open the “Displays” preferences. Decipher the color depth as follows: 256 Colors ⇒ 8 bit, “Thousands” ⇒ 16 bit, “Millions” ⇒ 24 bit.
Linux
change to xorg, mention a graphic tool or two…
You can find display information in the XF86Config file (assuming you use XFree86, which is the norm currently for all major distributions). This file is typically located in /etc/X11/ or /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/.