# Getting started with Chicken

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# Using Chicken

Use it just like any other VNC client - enter the address of a working VNC server (you can use host:port notation if you wish), the display number and your password and rock'n'roll...

- Servers: You can store commonly used servers in this section. Use the + and - buttons to add and remove servers.
- Host: The host to which you wish to connect. This can be either a DNS name (like myserver.com) or an IP address. You may optionally specify a port number here by appending it with a colon (like myserver.com:5900).
- Display or port: The display number for the connection. Numbers larger than 50 will be treated as a port instead of a display. Thus, 0 has the same effect as 5900. VNC server programs on Windows machines tend to default to display number 0, while older VNC servers on Mac OS X, such as OSXvnc version 0.7, tend to use display number 1. If you can't connect, you can try switching the display number between these two values. If you're having problems connecting, you should make sure that the port that corresponds to your display number is not firewalled on either your computer or on the server machine. The port number is 5900 plus the display number - in other words, display zero is port 5900, display one is port 5901, etc.
- Password: The password needed to connect to the server running at the specified host and display. If Remember Password was checked, this will be fetched from your Mac OS X Keychain after you've entered it initially.
- Remember Password: If checked, the password will be stored in your Mac OS X Keychain and remembered for later use.
- Profile: The connection profile to use when connecting to this server. See the section below for more info about connection profiles.
- View Only: If selected, your connection will not be interactive. You will be able to view the server's screen, but mouse movements, key presses and the like will not be transmitted.
- Allow other clients to connect: If selected, multiple clients can connect to the same server simultaneously. Otherwise, only one client can be connected to a given server at at time.
- Fullscreen Display: If selected, the connection will initially be opened using your entire screen, rather than in a window.
- Tunnel over SSH: If selected, Chicken first connects to the server using the SSH protocol and then establishes the VNC connection through an encrypted SSH tunnel. This is a beta feature and may not work in all circumstances.
- SSH host: The name of the SSH server to connect to, which need not be the same as the VNC server. You can specify a username other than your own by prepending "username@" and a non-standard port by appending ":portnumber".

You can also check RealVNC's web page for additional information on connection and configuring a VNC client.

# A Note About Security

VNC is not a secure protocol. Unless otherwise encrypted, your keypresses and screenshots can be captured by anyone on the same network as you. If you are using VNC over the Internet or other public network, you should tunnel it through an encrypted connection. The easiest way to do this is with SSH, which you can do within Chicken by checking the Tunnel over SSH checkbox, as described above.

In order for this to work, the remote computer needs to be running an SSH server. If the remote computer is a Mac, this can be enabled by going to Sharing in System Preferences and checking the box next to Remote Login.