Expedition Navigation Software 
1 of 1- voodoomatz
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- Registered: 6/24/2017
- Posts: 59
RealVNC - Direct Connection removed from Business subscription
Just a little heads up to everyone using RealVNC.
I have used RealVNC forever to remote into the Nav PC from my deck screen. We use "Direct Connections" (not via cloud) for speed, bandwidth and reliability.
Initially Direct Connections came with the lower tier subscription.
Lately you needed to purchase "Business premium". Ah well.
Now, Direct Connections will only be available on Enterprise plans. Quote from their accounts team: "The lowest device threshold on our Enterprise plans is 250 devices." The cost per device is 250 EUR.
Conclusion:
- As soon as you update your Business Premium subscription to the newer "Premium" you will loose the Direct Connection feature
- Without Direct Connection RealVNC is pretty much useless for our application
- tomcheney
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- From: UK
- Registered: 9/21/2015
- Posts: 12
Re: RealVNC - Direct Connection removed from Business subscription
There are free open source VNC server alternatives available like TightVNC and TigerVNC. You can still use the RealVNC iOS app for iPhone/iPad clients.
- rvsail
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- Registered: 7/06/2022
- Posts: 50
Re: RealVNC - Direct Connection removed from Business subscription
I have been having some success with Rustdesk and Parsec. Both fast and can be run direct ip to boats laptop.
Lately I have been running boat laptop in slave and streaming data back and forth with UDP to Mesa deck screen with its own copy of EXP. Much less latency particularly in a pre start.
- DarkStar
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- Registered: 10/04/2024
- Posts: 8
Re: RealVNC - Direct Connection removed from Business subscription
Have you considered switching to Windows Remote Desktop (RDP) as an alternative? It's built into Windows, supports direct connections over the local network (so no cloud dependency), and performs quite well—especially from a deck screen. No subscription or per-device fees either.
If you're within the same network and security is locked down, RDP can be a very efficient, cost-effective option without losing performance or reliability. Just something to consider while RealVNC continues its march toward enterprise-only pricing.
The RDP client can be easily installed on both Android and iOS environments.Â
- voodoomatz
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- Registered: 6/24/2017
- Posts: 59
Re: RealVNC - Direct Connection removed from Business subscription
Of course, mate!
RDP has one major drawback - if they haven't removed it yet: The host screen is blocked when a client accesses it. Each time you go downstairs to access the host, you need to unlock the host screen via PIN or password. Better than nothing but still not perfect.
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