Oops!! Frustrated with VNC the connection was refused by the computer error?

One of the main reasons for the VNC connection refused by the computer error is, VNC server not running on the specified port.

At Bobcares, we get requests on VNC  errors, as a part of our Server Management Services.

Today, we’ll see how our Support Engineers fix this.

Scenarios where VNC the connection refused by the computer error occurrs

VNC is a graphical desktop-sharing system in order to control another computer remotely. But there are scenarios where an error like VNC connection refused by the computer to occur while trying to connect.

The two main causes handled by our Engineers are:

• VNC Server not running
• VNC not running on the specified range of port.

The sample error message looks like

Today we are going to discuss how our Support Engineers fix it for our customers.

How we fix VNC the connection refused by the computer error

Recently one of our customers approached us saying that he is getting a connection refused by computer error when he tried to start vnc. Let us discuss how our Support Engineers resolve the error for our customers.

1. VNC server not running

On analyzing the server our Engineers found that the VNC server was not running.

And we found that the problem was that he tried to get in as the user newuser after installing the server and setting the password. But found that he logged in as root when he ran the command vncserver for starting a VNC server.

So we ran the vncserver command as newuser and set the password and then restarted the service using :

service vncserver start

This fixed the problem.

2. VNC not running on the specified range of port

Also, we recently handled a situation when a customer approached us with the same error. When checked, we found that he established a direct connection and specified a port other than the default for VNC (5900) but didn’t configure VNC Server to use that port. So, our Engineers configured the VNC server to the specified port. We edited the port in:

/usr/bin/vncserver

This fixed the issue.

Note: Ports 5901 and upwards can be used if you have multiple displays and the next consecutive port number for each display. Fixes may vary depending on the OS and VNC (TightVNCTigerVNC, UltraVNC, etc).

Here we discussed only a few scenarios handled by our Support Engineers.

Other Common Causes and Solutions

1. First, verify that the firewall allows VNC connections. We may have to create firewall rules to permit inbound and outbound VNC traffic.
2. Also, check if there’s a stable network connection between the two computers. Try pinging the remote computer to check network reachability.
3. Then, verify that the router is not blocking VNC traffic. We can configure port forwarding if we are connecting from outside your local network.
4. Furthermore, check if we are using the correct username and password for the VNC connection.
5. Make sure the VNC server is configured to accept the credentials.
6. Some VNC servers let us restrict access to specific IP addresses. So, verify that the IP address is allowed.
7. Also, explore the VNC server’s configuration options to see if any other settings might be causing the issue.
8. If possible, use a different VNC viewer to see if the issue persists.

[Have trouble fixing VNC errors? – Our Experts are available 24/7.]

Conclusion

In short, the VNC connection refused error may occur due to different reasons depending on OS, VNC, etc. In today’s write-up, we discussed this topic in detail and saw how our Support Engineers find the fix for different scenarios.