Tight VNC question

[wpshooter]

I highly suspect that our IT department at work is monitoring our computer useage by using the viewer only mode of Tight VNC to see what activity is taking place on our office workstations.

One reason I think so, is that occasionally my mouse cursor will make an unexpected jump/movement, to say, the top of the screen. Is this a tell tell sign that they are doing this ?

If not, is there a way to know if and when they are doing this ?

Thanks.

P. S. - Also, is there any possibility that the monitoring of a workstation via a VNC program could cause problems of any kind in the applications that are running on the workstation be monitored ?

Thanks again.

 

[Continuity28]

The mouse can jump for other reasons.

Typically, companies that use TightVNC will have it set up so that your background doesn't get sent over the network - because it slows the control down. Therefore, when someone takes control, you'll usually see your background disappear and turn blue. The icon will also become black instead of white as the primary color.

I don't think any strange errors can/do occur by using VNC.

 

[Hersh]

Originally posted by: wpshooter
I highly suspect that our IT department at work is monitoring our computer useage by using the viewer only mode of Tight VNC to see what activity is taking place on our office workstations.

One reason I think so, is that occasionally my mouse cursor will make an unexpected jump/movement, to say, the top of the screen. Is this a tell tell sign that they are doing this ?

If a VNC client is set on viewer only mode, it shouldn't be affecting your workstation's inputs at all. Also, for any of the popular VNC server/clients (ultra, tight, etc), the icon on the workstation is always shown so you know by the color of the tray icon whether or not a client is connected.

From RealVNC FAQ: http://www.realvnc.com/faq.html#hide

So I guess unless your IT department has taken the source and edited it so that the tray icon does not show then recompiled it, it's not VNC.

I am not saying they are not monitoring workstations but probably not with VNC if they are monitoring the workstations because there are corporate monitoring software out there.

I guess one way to prevent it would be to install a firewall and see what ports (or applications) show network activity during the workstation's use and shut the ports down that are non-essential. (If you have admin rights.)

Originally posted by: wpshooter
P. S. - Also, is there any possibility that the monitoring of a workstation via a VNC program could cause problems of any kind in the applications that are running on the workstation be monitored ?

Umm, sure. If VNC client has input enabled then they do stuff like Alt-F4 to close applications the server is running etc. Standard VNC client/servers usually don't have any further ability to cause issues with the server...

Since it sounds like you are having issues with your workstation, why don't you go tell them of the problem and see if they can pinpoint it?

 

[Slicedbread]

Im pretty sure you can disable the vnc tray icon and run it silently as a service (my setup) it shows up it still shows up in the task manager however. So they could be monitoring you, (which they are most likely allowed to), but if you are using an optical mouse on a rough surface or something that is the most likely cause.