NoMachine supports H.264 GPU-accelerated (hardware) and software encoding/decoding out-of-the-box (since version 6.6.8).

Please consult the changelog for details about version 6.6.8: https://www.nomachine.com/SU04Q00203

See also https://www.nomachine.com/AR04Q01022

All packages for Windows, Linux, Mac and Raspberry include the AVC/H.264 software codec. When hardware encoding or decoding is not available, NoMachine falls back to software encoding/decoding. No further actions are necessary to enable H.264 support in NoMachine sessions.

For web sessions (from v. 6), H.264 is used when the browser supports WebRTC/HTML5 and H.264 and the support for WebRTC is enabled on the NoMachine Server.

At the moment, H.264 hardware encoding is not available when virtual desktops are running in X11 vector graphics mode (default) and it's not supported in Linux custom sessions. The X11 Vector Graphics mode is a proprietary method which uses a combinations of different techniques to encode each element of the screen in the most convenient way. For example, a video is encoded by H.264 software encoding, static images are encoded by JPEG and textual elements of GUIs are encoded by X graphics primitives by using the NX compression algorithm that is an optimization of the X11 protocol. All these methods are applied at the same time.

NoMachine and H.264 hardware encoding/decoding (GPU)
NoMachine supports H.264 hardware encoding/decoding for these types of sessions:
(i) Connections to the remote physical desktop.
(ii) Linux virtual desktops without activating the X11 vector graphics mode.
(iii) Web sessions with support for WebRTC enabled
 

GPU encoding (server side)
On Windows and Linux, NoMachine supports H.264 hardware encoding via Nvidia's NVENC API, and provided the graphics cards (GPUs) come with Nvidia Kepler or later microarchitecture, ie. the GPUs must be NVENC-enabled. Users can consult the table here for details about GPU nvenc capabilities:
https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new

Support for H.264 HW encoding on Mac computers is available from version 8 onwards.

From v. 6, also Intel Quick Sync video cards on Windows and Linux are supported. On Linux, it's necessary to apply a manual configuration as explained here: https://www.nomachine.com/AR09O00938.

Support for hardware H.264 encoder on AMD cards is supported from version 8, see https://kb.nomachine.com/AR02U01190

On Linux, users who need to use hardware encoding have to belong to the appropriate system group, usually the 'video' group.

GPU decoding (client side)
NoMachine software on the user's computer (i.e. NoMachine used as a client or Enterprise Client) supports the H.264 hardware decoding on Windows and Mac hosts with hardware accelerated video cards (GPUs). On Linux, users have to belong to the same system group such as that of the video card listed under /dev/dri.

We plan to extend support for H.264 HW decoding also to iOS and Android tablets.
 

NoMachine and H.264 software encoding/decoding (MPEG-4 AVC libraries)
H.264 software encoding/decoding is used when the server or client doesn't have the necessary hardware requirements to use HW encoding/decoding.

NoMachine supports H.264 software encoding/decoding for these types of sessions:
(i) Connections to the remote physical desktop.
(ii) Linux virtual desktops without activating X11 vector graphics mode.
(iii) Linux virtual desktops in X11 vector graphics mode.
(iv) Multimedia content in custom sessions.

In the case of virtual desktops in X11 vector graphics mode and custom sessions, video streaming techniques, and therefore H.264 SW encoding, are applied only to multimedia contents.

The X11 vector graphics mode is not available for web sessions.

For older NoMachine versions

1) All server products distributed under a customer's subscription (e.g., NoMachine Workstation, Terminal Server and so on) include the MPEG-LA H.264 software encoding/decoding libraries. H.264 software encoding is therefore fully supported. No further action is necessary.

2) NoMachine server packages for evaluation up to v. 6.6.8 didn't include the H.264 encoder. We recommend to upgrade the installation.

3) The free edition of NoMachine up to v. 6.6.8 was not including the H.264 encoder. If you're still running and older version, please upgrade your installation or refer to instructions for compiling and installing the libx264 library: https://www.nomachine.com/AR10K00695.

4) NoMachine Enterprise Client packages previous than v. 6.6.8 didn't include the H.264 libraries for software encoding. If you're still running and older version, please upgrade your installation or refer to the following instructions to install FFMPEG: https://www.nomachine.com/AR10K00696.

5) The NoMachine AVC Pack (obsolete) was an add-on software for the NoMachine (free) and NoMachine Enterprise Client packages for providing the necessary libraries for H.264 software encoding/decoding. With the release of 6.6.8, the AVC Pack is no longer necessary on either the connecting client or the remote host.

When you access the physical desktop remotely, you are connecting to its physical display. This functionality is provided by both the free to download NoMachine for Win/Mac/Linux and Raspberry packages, and the NoMachine Enterprise Desktop product.

On Linux, when connecting to the physical desktop which doesn't have an X server running (e.g. it's a headless machine), NoMachine is able to use its own display service (which is an embedded X server) to let users connect seamlessly to a physical desktop running in the background on the remote machine. Pre-requisite is having a desktop environment installed. This ability is enabled by default in NoMachine Free Edition, but can be activated also for the other server types. See https://kb.nomachine.com/AR03P00973 for more details, section 'how to enable the creation of NoMachine display service'. If multiple users are supported and they connect, they will all see the same desktop.

However, if you run Linux and you want multiple users to each see their own desktop and you want to be able to leave those desktops running in the background so that users can reconnect and find everything as they left it, you need a product from the NoMachine Terminal Server family. With these products you can connect to a "NoMachine virtual desktop" to run "virtual desktop sessions". The virtual desktop functionality allows individual multiple Linux desktops to run on the same host. Each user can have their own personal 'virtual' Linux desktop according to how the Administrator has configured it.

The virtual desktop functionality is not available on Windows or Mac.

You can run a 'virtual desktop' session, provided you have one of the following installed on a remote Linux host: Workstation, Small Business Terminal Server, Terminal Server, or Enterprise Terminal Server. Use either NoMachine Free Edition (which includes both server and player components) or Enterprise Client (NoMachine player only) to connect. As long as the virtual desktop functionality is enabled, the connection GUI will allow you to run a virtual desktop, or alternatively a 'Custom session' (virtual single applications on Linux). Connections via web are also supported.

Depending on the type of server product installed, you will be able to run from 4 virtual desktops to an unlimited number. User numbers are unlimited in that you can have as many user name accounts as needed. It is the number of concurrent virtual desktops which is considered. For example, in the case of Workstation, only 4 virtual desktops will be allowed at any given time; with Small Business Terminal Server that number is 10, and with the Terminal/Enterprise Terminal Servers that number is unlimited.

Related information:

Differences between NoMachine and NoMachine Workstation
https://www.nomachine.com/AR10K00702

The free NoMachine software edition allows one incoming connection. Free for non-commercial use, it can be installed on any Windows, macOS, Linux or ARM host to let you remotely reach its desktop, enabling access to its files, folders and multi-media material as if you were sitting in front of it.

NoMachine Enterprise Desktop is like the free version but offers more features and targets professionals and organizations. It is installed on the remote computer you want to access and permits unlimited incoming connections, so that multiple users can connect to view and interact with the same physical desktop. Enterprise Desktop is licensed on an annual subscription basis and a subscription is required for each machine you want to remotely access. In addition to the rich feature-list of the free version, it also offers SSH support, web-based access, remote admin capabilities and can be added to any Cloud Server gateway. As with all NoMachine for Enterprise subscriptions, Enterprise Desktop Subscription includes technical assistance.

So how do you connect to a computer where you have installed the free NoMachine version or the Enterprise Desktop? On the device you want to connect from, you can install either the free edition (because it also includes the client component used to start remote desktop sessions), or Enterprise Client which is a scaled-down client application for out-going connections only. There is also a NoMachine app for mobile which enables connections from iOS and Android devices. There is no limit on the number of outgoing "over-IP" connections you can start from any NoMachine client.

The computer you want to access (what we call the "server") can be a physical host or a virtual machine, it makes no difference. Pre-requisite to installing any NoMachine software package is that there is a desktop environment installed and that users remotely accessing the machine have a system account there. Where guest desktop sharing is enabled on the server, connecting users do not require a system account but the owner of the desktop must authorize the connection.

Compare the two products here.

Enterprise Desktop Subscription or Enterprise Desktop Subscription Pack?
For companies looking to enable remote access on multiple computers, it’s also available as a cost-effective bundle of licenses. A Subscription Pack provides a cost-effective bundle of 10 subscription files, one for each remote host being accessed.

Details about Enterprise Desktop for remote access are available here: https://www.nomachine.com/product&p=NoMachine%20Enterprise%20Desktop.

NoMachine's commitment has always been to provide packages for the widest range of most frequently used platforms and operating systems. NoMachine software runs on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux operating systems, the minimum required versions are: 

• Mac OS X Intel 64-bit 10.9/ macOS Apple Silicon 11
• Windows 32-bit/64-bit Vista
• RHEL 6.0
• CentOS 6.0
• SLED/SLES 11
• Open SUSE 11
• Fedora 10
• Debian 5 lenny
• Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron
• Linux ARM v7/ARMv8 (see https://www.nomachine.com/AR03M00842)
• Raspberry Pi 2/3/4 ARMv6/ARMv7/ARMv8 (for which a selection of distributions is supported. Please consult the dedicated article for Raspberry here: https://www.nomachine.com/AR07N00896)

For a complete list of platforms supported by the current version of NoMachine products, please also refer to the download page of each product.

With regards to Linux, there are so many Linux distributions and desktop variations for any possible Linux OS that to support all of them would be an impossible task. We therefore choose to officially support the most popular distros which are those listed above and in the download section of the website.

Rest assured that the NoMachine development team will continue to work hard to add support for further environments and/or processor architectures in the future; and will take into account the latest versions of the supported operating systems as per support policies already in place.

In general NoMachine should work with the latest version of any of the supported Operating Systems, unless major changes in the OS require NoMachine to align its own software. In that case, a period of at least 30 days is generally required to ensure full compatibility.  You might also be interested at NoMachine policies to support pre-release versions of operating systems:www.nomachine.com/AR03E00450.

Regarding earlier versions of Operating Systems, in order to ensure a consistently high quality remote access software across the most popular platforms, as well as because of some technical considerations related to the evolution of NoMachine software, the following OS versions are no longer supported since NoMachine v. 4:

• RedHat 7.2/7.3/8.0/9.0/RHEL 3.0/4.0/4.1/4.2/4.3
• SuSE Linux 7.2/7.3/8.0/8.1/8.2/9.0/9.1/9.2/9.3
• Mandriva Linux 9.0/9.1/9.2/10.0
• Fedora Core 1/2
• Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 Woody/ 3.1 Sarge
• Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary
• Xandros 3.0
• Mac OSX 10.3/10.4
• Solaris SPARC 8/9 or later

Due to the changes introduced by Apple which has dropped support for 10.5 and 10.6 in recent compilers, NoMachine has discontinued support for those OS X versions since v. 6.

Since NoMachine v.8 the following OS versions are no longer supported:

• Mac OS X 10.7/10.8
• Red Hat Enterprise 4.4/5.x
• SLED/SLES 10.x
• Open SUSE 10.x
• Debian GNU Linux 4.0 Etch

If you are using NoMachine in a commercial environment, you need to purchase a subscription. Annual subscriptions are available for any of the enterprise-oriented products from the store. The subscriptions we offer give access to a number of features which are not available in the free edition, and can vary depending on the product you choose.

An active subscription of any of the NoMachine for the Enterprise products includes one year of:

- access to free minor and major upgrades, hot fixes and other patches
- access to technical support and resources you can trust

Our product subscriptions can be compared here:
https://www.nomachine.com/enterprise-desktop-family
https://www.nomachine.com/small-business-terminal-server-family
https://www.nomachine.com/enterprise-terminal-server-family
https://www.nomachine.com/small-business-cloud-server-family
https://www.nomachine.com/enterprise-business-cloud-server-family

Support services vary according to the type of subscription you purchase: Standard or Premium. Support plans cannot be mixed. If one license on a given site is of Premium level, all other licenses on the same time must be of Premium level. Similarly, if activating Enterprise Terminal Server Premium Subscription, all Terminal Server Nodes associated to that Enterprise Terminal Server must be of Premium level.

Please also refer to the following articles:

Is NoMachine for remote desktop free?
https://www.nomachine.com/AR03P00972

How to renew your subscription
https://www.nomachine.com/AR03D00373

NoMachine EULA
https://www.nomachine.com/licensing

NoMachine software products are available for purchase on our web site as Server Subscriptions (ie any of the products of the NoMachine for the Enterprise range) and are downloadable as functional, and try-before-you-buy software. We provide free trial periods to let you fully evaluate our products before you make a purchase decision.

Please use the trial period to make sure that the software meets your needs before purchasing a license. All of our software is functional during the trial period. None of our software requires registration to enable its primary functionality. This purposefully avoids you having to request a refund.

 

Time limit for refund requests and reasons

We firmly believe in and stand behind our products 100%, but we understand that they cannot work perfectly for everyone all of the time. If you have an issue that we are unable to resolve which makes NoMachine unusable, we will make a refund. If you are still not satisfied after having download the evaluation software, successfully tested, and subsequently purchased a subscription, you have 14 days to request a full refund. Before a refund is granted, you must allow us to try and help solve any problem you have by opening a ticket in your customer area. You should accompany your request with detailed reasons why you applying for a refund.

If you purchasd the wrong product, it is possible to swap subscriptions and be issued with a new license. The difference will be charged to your card, or refunded if the price is inferior. However, in this case you will be invited to confirm that the product you want to swap with does indeed fit your requirements.

Processing Refund requests

Once we get your request, we will send you an email to notify you that we have received it and we will also notify you of the approval or rejection of your refund.

Illegitimate refund requests

Refunds will not be granted if you simply decide not to use the purchased software license. We stand behind our software products and will assist you in solving any problem you have, but we also expect you to adequately understand what you are purchasing and why.

Incompatibility with third-party products or software

Our software is tested with hundreds of third party programs to guarantee its compatibility. For obvious reasons we cannot guarantee compatibility with every application or software available on the market, for this reason we allow you to download the evaluation software and test it before deciding whether to purchase a subscription or not. We generally do not satisfy any refund requests based on incompatibility of our products with some third-party software. If you have found an incompatibility or technical issue caused by conflict between NoMachine software and another program, please open a support ticket and allow our support team to investigate for a potential solution.
 

NoMachine Free Edition is free to download and install for anyone who wants a remote desktop software for personal, or individual use. It cannot be installed on those machines you want to access in a business context or an enterprise environment. So, if you are looking for a remote access software to install on your PC or Mac in order to access your personal files and documents, remotely work on your personal projects, play games, view or upload your favorite multimedia, share its desktop with a friend etc, you can install the NoMachine Free Edition.

On the computer you want to access, install NoMachine Free Edition for your OS which you can download from https://www.nomachine.com/download.

On the device you connect from, install the right package for your operating system (available for Windows, Linux, Raspberry, Mac, iOS and Android). You can install any of the following packages: the NoMachine app for mobile devices, NoMachine Free Edition, NoMachine Enterprise Client. The Enterprise Client and the mobile app do not include the server component and can only be used on devices you want to connect from.

If you need to access your office computer, and provided it's not to carry out activities which would be considered "commercial usage" as per the EULA (https://www.nomachine.com/licensing), you can also install the free version.

What is considered private or individual use? The list can be endless and they can't all be clarified here, but some typical scenarios are:

- Accessing your own computer at home or at work to edit and view your personal files or projects.

- Accessing your family's or friend's computer to help them out.

- Sporadic remote administration of a computer.

So, what is considered commercial use?

A commercial user is defined as "an individual or entity, or an individual acting on behalf of an entity, who uses the Software, or causes the Software to be used within or to provide commercial products or services to third parties."

This means that on the host or computer you want to access, one of the NoMachine for the Enterprise products will be required. The alternative to the free NoMachine software package in order to access the physical desktop of the remote machine is NoMachine Enterprise Desktop.

Remember that on the connecting device, clients are free, so choose from Enterprise Client for your OS, or if you are connecting from iOS or Android, proceed to their respective stores to download our mobile app.

Some typical commercial scenarios:
 
- Offering access to a hosted desktop as part of your company's services for employees or customers.This includes academic and research institutions which want to offer hosted desktops to their students and staff.

- Reselling or using NoMachine software as part of a business-related service offering (for example, a service provider of desktops in the cloud, an organization/business offering services to third parties or to process third party data).

- Accessing a computer or multiple computers to carry out regular business-related activity for your organization.

A note on "Academic use": organizations that wish to provide remote access to students off-campus or as a remote learning/teaching tool is considered commercial usage and subscriptions for the remote computers being accessed will be required. An individual student who wishes to work on their projects off-campus independently may install the free version on their own computer provided they limit their usage to their own invidivudal work and are not using it to offer a service or process third party data on behalf of the organization. NoMachine offers special discounts for educational use, so please reach out to us to learn more about this.

Subscriptions to Enterprise Desktop are available to anyone who wants the benefit of technical assistance and unlimited connections on the remote desktop being accessed. See the following article for more details: https://www.nomachine.com/AR07L00808.

Compare NoMachine Free Edition with Enterprise Desktop: https://www.nomachine.com/remote-access-for-everyone

If you're still unsure whether your usage constitutes personal or private use, or have any questions about our commercial products in the Enterprise range, please contact us.

NoMachine, available for Mac, Windows, Linux and ARM, is a remote desktop software, designed for anyone who wants to access a single or multiple computers using one simple tool. It ensures secure and reliable remote desktop connections, regardless of what network you are connecting from, lets you stream multi-media content, edit documents, print and transfer files and more. Installed on the computer you want to access, NoMachine Free Edition permits one connection to let you get access to the physical desktop (including a the desktop of a virtual machine) from remote. Instead, if you require multiple connections to the same desktop, NoMachine Enterprise Desktop is what you need.

NoMachine can also be used to share your desktop on-the-fly. For example, you can let another user connect to your desktop whilst you're working on it so that you can collaborate together. Work on a document together, share your screen whilst watching a film, swap files or simply receive help with troubleshooting a problem.

To access an unattended remote desktop using NoMachine, a user account is required on the remote computer you want to connect to. Alternatively, for attended desktop scenarios you can connect as a guest using Guest Desktop Sharing.

See the online tutorial to get started: https://www.nomachine.com/getting-started-with-nomachine

 

By installing NoMachine Free Edition or NoMachine Enterprise Desktop on the computer you want to access, any number of users can connect to the same physical desktop of that remote computer. This means that all users connecting simultaneously, each with their own account, will see the same physical desktop. It's not possible for each user to connect and see their own individual desktop at the same time. This functionality is available only on Linux in the NoMachine Terminal Server Family.

The following products are offered for Windows:

NoMachine Free Edition - one connection to a Windows desktop

NoMachine Enterprise Desktop - unlimited connections to the same desktop on Windows

NoMachine Cloud Server - centralized access to unlimited NoMachine Servers (all running the Enterprise product range)

NoMachine software currently can be updated in two ways. Either by selecting the automatic updates option in the user interface, or manually by downloading the latest package from our website and then installing according to the standard procedure for your operating system. When installing a NoMachine software update, administrator credentials (admin user and password) will be requested.
 

Using automatic updates:

The NoMachine software by default fetches our repositories every two days but updates are never installed automatically.

To disable the automatic check or change the update frequency, please refer to instructions at:

https://www.nomachine.com/AR05M00847.

Updating manually:

NoMachine on Windows:

- Download and save the EXE file.
- Double click on the NoMachine executable file.
- The Setup Wizard will take you through all steps necessary for updating NoMachine.

NoMachine on Mac:

- Download and save the DMG file.
- Double-click on the Disk Image to open it and double-click on the NoMachine program icon.
- The Installer will take you through through all steps necessary for updating NoMachine.

NoMachine on Linux:

You can use the graphical package manager provided by your Linux distribution or update NoMachine by command line by following instructions below.

If you don't have the sudo utility installed, log on as superuser ("root") and run the commands without sudo

RPM

- Download and save the RPM file.

- Update your NoMachine installation by running:

# rpm -Uvh <pkgName>_<pkgVersion>_<arch>.rpm

DEB

- Download and save the DEB file.

- Update your NoMachine installation by running:

$ sudo dpkg -i <pkgName>_<pkgVersion>_<arch>.deb

TAR.GZ

- Download and save the TAR.GZ file.

- Update your NoMachine installation by running:

$ cd /usr

$ sudo tar xvzf <pkgName>_<pkgVersion>_<arch>.tar.gz

$ sudo /usr/NX/nxserver --update

If you are installing Enterprise Client or Terminal Server Node run respectively:

$ sudo /usr/NX/nxclient --update
$ sudo /usr/NX/nxnode --update

NoMachine Enterprise Client is the software package that you install on the local-side device in order to connect to the remote computer where you have installed either the free NoMachine product or one of the Enterprise-oriented server versions. Enterprise Client will allow you to start a NoMachine connection. It does not allow the computer on which it is installed to receive connections.

Enterprise Client does not expire and it is free to download, install and use.

The free edition of NoMachine allows one connection. If you are working on your local desktop (i.e sitting in front of it) and you would like a colleague or friend to connect to it so that they can collaborate on a document or interact with you, they will be able to connect. This is considered 'one connection'. They must install NoMachine for their operating system on their computer or device. On the other hand, if you are connecting to your desktop remotely, you will not be able to have a friend connect at the same time. This would be considered two connections. If you want two users to connect simultaneously to a remote computer, you should opt for Enterprise Desktop.

To let your friend or colleague connect, you will need to create a user account for them on your computer and send them your IP and port number, so they can access over the Internet. To get your IP and port number, open server settings from the monitor or connection GUI. The IP and port details which must be inserted in the connection GUI on the client side will be indicated there. Upon connecting they will see your desktop and be able to interact with you, or just view.

Browser-based remote access is available in all of the pay-for 'server' products: Enterprise Desktop, Cloud Server and the whole Terminal Server for Linux range. These are all labelled 'Subscriptions' in the store.

If you have installed the free edition of NoMachine on the remote host you want to access, you will need the NoMachine package or Enterprise Client on the connecting device in order to connect. Access via the browser of the connecting client is not supported.

If you are looking for an alternative to the free edition for remote desktop access to your Windows, Linux or Mac computers, we recommend you try Enterprise Desktop. By installing it on the computer you want to access, you will be able to use an HTML-enabled browser on the connecting device to connect to it.

Check out the comparison of NoMachine and NoMachine Enterprise Desktop software products (https://www.nomachine.com/remote-access-for-your-needs).

All Enterprise software is available for evaluation from the website and provides you with a 30-day period of evaluation. This gives you plenty of time to test the software in your environment and decide if it suits your requirements. After which you can decide to purchase a subscription or continue your evaluation. To continue your evaluation you will have to make a fresh installation of the software.

Follow the link http://www.nomachine.com/download-enterprise and download the product you would like to test. All evaluation software can be freely downloaded.

All trial software available on our website comes with the evaluation keys already in place, and is activated upon successful installation.

Technical assistance from the team is not available with evaluation software. The online knowledge base and documents section is a good place to start for questions concerning installation, configuration and eventual troubleshooting. Should you encounter issues that you can't find answers for,  please use the Contact Us link to send us your questions. There are also forums available for the Cloud Server and Terminal Server families which can handle basic configuration and installation questions.

Customers can receive extended evaluation keys in special circumstances. Please contact our sales team for more information.

If you create a support ticket on our website or are seeking help in one of the forums, in most cases our support team will ask you to send them your log files. Within these log files various connection and software problems are being recorded, and they will help us to identify the possible cause of the problem you are encountering.

Submitting logs requires that you create a compressed archive of the NoMachine logs, and then send this archive by e-mail to appropriate email address, specifying the number of the support ticket or a link to the post in the forum. There are specific steps to follow to extract the logs (once you have reproduced the problem you are reporting). At the bottom of this article you will find the link to those instructions.

How to gather server side logs
Since NoMachine v.6 it's possible to create the archive of server side logs automatically by means of server commands.

Instructions are available here:
v. 7 https://www.nomachine.com/DT11R00182
v. 6: https://www.nomachine.com/DT10O00162

How to gather client side logs
When a session is unexpectedly disconnected, the client issues a dialog asking for saving logs. Accept to save these logs.

If the dialog asking for saving log is not available, please refer to instructions here:
v. 7 https://www.nomachine.com/DT11R00181#2
v. 6 https://www.nomachine.com/DT10O00163#2.

No. Starting from version 7, it is now necessary for subscriptions to be renewed in order to continue to use the software, and keep your NoMachine server(s) in a functional state.

This applies to v7 licenses and also v5/v6 licenses activated in version 7 software.

Please also refer to the following articles:

How to renew your subscription
https://www.nomachine.com/AR03D00373

Why renewing your NoMachine Server license is important
https://www.nomachine.com/AR03D00365

Purchasing a subscription from the NoMachine for the Enterprise range
https://www.nomachine.com/AR10K00711

NoMachine EULA
https://www.nomachine.com/licensing

Our subscription policy is server based. This means that you need to install one subscription license on the remote device ("host" or "server") you wish to connect to. Depending on what subscription you purchase will dictate what features and functionalities are made available.

Once the appropriate NoMachine package is installed on the remote host, you can connect to it to access a desktop or application running there. NoMachine connecting clients are completely free to download and install. On the device(s) you are connecting from, you can install Enterprise Client if you prefer only a connection GUI, or the free-to-download NoMachine package which enables remote access to and from the computer on which it is installed.

Alternatively, you can make the connection via web-browser.

Enterprise Client download: https://www.nomachine.com/product&p=NoMachine%20Enterprise%20Client
NoMachine free-to-download: https://www.nomachine.com/download
Web-based access: https://www.nomachine.com/getting-started-with-web-based-access

Please also refer to the following articles:

How to renew your subscription
https://www.nomachine.com/AR03D00373

Why renewing your NoMachine Server license is important
https://www.nomachine.com/AR03D00365

Purchasing a subscription from the NoMachine for the Enterprise range
https://www.nomachine.com/AR10K00711

Is NoMachine for remote desktop free?
https://www.nomachine.com/AR03P00972

NoMachine EULA
https://www.nomachine.com/licensing

Yes, it does.

All NoMachine products support GPU-accelerated encoding and decoding, and from version 6.6.8 all products provide H.264 software acceleration capabilities.

NoMachine always prefers to use hardware encoding to produce the contents of the screen, using the GPU and the tools and methods it makes available. However, there are cases in which the GPU does not provide these tools or hardware encoding is not available.

When the server or client doesn't have the necessary hardware requirements to use GPU-based acceleration, H.264 software acceleration can be used. In these cases, NoMachine "falls back" to software encoding, which is slower and does not allow us to offer the same level of interactivity. Similarly on the client, where a hardware decoder is not available, software decoding is used.

In versions prior to 6.6.8, the software encoder and decoder used were based on the VP8 standard, unless the user had purchased the additional AVC Pack which includes the libraries, protected by an international patent by the MPEG LA consortium, and which therefore require a license fee. The Enterprise server products have always shipped the H.264 software encoder as part of its functionality.

With the release of version 6.6.8, NoMachine decided to include these libraries in all free products, covering the costs of the user license fees at its own expense and thus offering the best performance offered by the AVC/H.264 video encoding standard. When the GPU or HW system in use does not offer an H.264 hardware encoder or decoder, H.264 software encoding will be used.

This decision effectively eliminates the need for the AVC Pack and the open-source libraries, making H.264-enabled video encoding completely seamless for users and guaranteeing a video streaming experience with unparalleled quality.

More details about H.264 support are available here:
https://www.nomachine.com/AR10K00706

You can disable access to your physical desktop in just one click without stopping existing connections by toggling "Accepting connection is disabled/enabled" in the NoMachine monitor.

- Click on the !M icon (the "Monitor") in your system tray.

- Click on ‘Accepting connection is enabled’ to disable access to your desktop. The !M Monitor icon will be greyed out and no further connections will be allowed to the desktop.

To re-enable connections to the local desktop:

- Click on the greyed out !M icon and click on ‘Accepting connection is disabled’

For images check out the tutorial here: https://www.nomachine.com/disabling-access-to-your-local-desktop

Note that if you have installed a product which supports virtual Linux desktops (e.g Workstation) users will still be able to run virtual desktop sessions on the NoMachine server host even though "Accepting connections" is disabled.

TIP: if you want to prevent all users and all connections, select 'Stop the server' in the GUI. This will switch off server access. Further reading: https://www.nomachine.com/AR07M00852.

Yes, it does and on all supported platforms.

You can drag a file from the local file system and drop it on the NoMachine client window, or vice versa drag a file from the remote file system and drop it on the local desktop.

It's also possible to share files between computers by using the menu during a remote desktop session.

https://www.nomachine.com/sharing-files-between-computers

The NoMachine free package, tailored for personal use, never expires. By installing it on the host you want to access, you are allowed one connection to the desktop running there.

Enterprise Desktop, installed on the remote computer you want to access, offers unlimited connections to the remote physical desktop. Multiple users connecting, who must have an account on the remote host, will be able to simultaneously view and interact with the same physical desktop. In addition to the features available in NoMachine, users get:

- simultaneous connections to the desktop
- browser-based access
- connections over SSH

and purchasing an annual subscription also gives you access to technical assistance via the customer area. Enterprise Desktop has a starting price of $44.50.

What the two packages have in common is that they both include the connection user interface (NoMachine player) which lets you connect to another host with NoMachine server-side software installed. If users prefer to install just the NoMachine player component, so remote access to that computer won't be possible, Enterprise Client can be installed instead.

Check out our comparison of the two products for remote desktop access (https://www.nomachine.com/remote-access-for-everyone).

When you purchase a license for any of the NoMachine for the Enterprise products whether it's online via our store or by submitting a PO to one of our sales offices or partners, you will receive an email containing your customer ID and password for your dedicated customer account on the NoMachine website. There will be a license key attached to this email. The license is also made available for you to download from the Customer Area.

To activate your license you must first download and install the corresponding software product in the section "Products Download" (the software is labelled 'Product Version')  from your Customer Area by logging first with the credentials mentioned above.

Log in at http://www.nomachine.com/support#login

For instructions on how to activate the software, please consult the following article:

How to activate subscriptions for NoMachine 6
https://www.nomachine.com/AR11O00942

Your account, which is accessible from the Customer Area, deals with your subscription and purchase history. It's also possible to renew your subscription from the Customer Area, add support contacts and download the software for your purchased subscriptions.You can access it by logging in with your Customer ID and password from:

https://www.nomachine.com/support#login

If you have any problems with accessing your Customer Area, or doubts about your purchase history, you can either contact us directly or the partner from which you purchased.

If access has been turned off to your computer and you want to turn it back on again, follow these steps:

- Open the NoMachine User Interface from your Programs or Applications.

- Click on the 'Settings' icon button to open the Preferences GUI.

- Click on the 'Server status' at the bottom of the panel.

- Click on 'Start the server'.

How to switch off access to the desktop: if you don't want to use the computer where you have installed NoMachine as a server, you can disable access to the desktop by turning off connections. Follow steps here:

- Click on the Monitor (the !M icon) in the system tray to open the menu.

- Click on 'Show the service status'.

- Click on the 'Shutdown the server' button.

- You can select to shutdown the server permanently or re-enable it at reboot.

NoMachine server products take into consideration the number of connections and, in the case of the Terminal Server family for Linux, also the number of concurrent virtual desktops.

The connections limit counter counts all types of connections. These can be connections to the physical desktop, to virtual desktops, custom sessions, sessions which have been reconnected, and also sessions connected to other users' virtual desktops.

The virtual desktops limit counter counts only new virtual sessions (desktop or custom), and as mentioned above, virtual desktops are only available in the Terminal Server for Linux products: Workstation, Small Business Server, Terminal Server and Enterprise Terminal Server.

When a user connects, the connections limit counter is always increased, while the virtual desktops limit counter is increased only when the user creates a new virtual desktop or a new custom session.

When a user disconnects, the connections-limit counter is decreased. The virtual desktops limit counter is decreased only when the user explicitly terminates the virtual desktop or custom session running on the Linux Terminal Server host.


Further references:

Limits on concurrent virtual desktops and concurrent connections explained
https://www.nomachine.com/AR08M00858

Installing NoMachine on an iPhone in order to access that device from another device or computer is not possible. To access a remote host with NoMachine, the supported operating systems are Raspberry, Linux, Windows and macOS.

As a connecting client, NoMachine can be installed on iOS, Android, Raspberry, Linux, Windows and macOS.

The first thing to do is to download and install NoMachine on to the computer you want to be able to access. It's free for personal use and allows one connection. You will need to know the computer's public-facing IP address in order to be able to connect to it over the internet. Then download the NoMachine app for iPad which you will use as the connecting client, it's available in the iTunes app store.

If you want an illustrated guide, check out the tutorials:

https://www.nomachine.com/getting-started-with-nomachine
https://www.nomachine.com/getting-started-with-nomachine-for-ios

This article refers to the freely available 'NoMachine' package - free for personal use. If you are using an Enterprise product from NoMachine, please log in to your Customer Area and proceed to the 'Support Enquiries' section you can find there. The support team will be able to assist you.

Remember that you need two computers to run NoMachine: the one you are connecting from and the one you which to connect to.

NoMachine for Linux

If you are trying to install NoMachine on Linux, bear in mind that we tested the installation on thousands of machines with thousands of different desktop environments and Linux versions, but of course we can't guarantee that it will work on your computer, with your version of Linux. So, if you have a problem, try to post it on the forums, including all the information we list in "What to provide". What we strongly suggest is to be sure you removed all residuals of version 3 you had before, especially if they were NX installations not from NoMachine. We've seen NX installations from products using our open-source software failing to uninstall correctly and interfering every attempt of NoMachine to run on the same computer later.

NoMachine for Windows or Mac

If you are on Windows or Mac, the installation should be even more straightforward.

Most problems people report are connectivity problems due to the firewall or the antivirus installed on the machine accepting the connection, with the firewall or antivirus blocking access from another computer.

If you need further help, ask in the Forums and one of the Forum members will try to help.

Yes, and both ways.

You must connect to the remote desktop to be able to then connect a local disk or a remote disk. By connecting a local disk, you will be exporting its contents to the remote desktop. By connecting a remote disk, you will be importing files to the local desktop, i.e., the client you are connecting from, effectively allowing you to access file system resources as if they were on your local computer. This is done via the session's menu panel (activated by pressing Ctrl-Alt-0) and selecting 'Connect a disk'. NoMachine will show you the disks available for connecting by distinguishing between 'Local disks' and 'Remote disks' ready to be used in the session.

Consult section 4 in 'Guide to the Functionality in the Menu Panel for Linux/Windows/Mac' in the Documents section of the Knowledge Base, or go to the Configuration section of https://www.nomachine.com/all-documents web page.

In order to run a virtual desktop session on Linux, you need to install any of the Linux products from the Enterprise range, with the exception of Enterprise Desktop, on the remote host. NoMachine for the Enterprise products (30 days evaluation version) can be downloaded from here: http://www.nomachine.com/download-enterprise

To connect, you can use the NoMachine or Enterprise Client packages or a browser.

The free to download NoMachine for Linux package doesn't support the 'virtual desktop' functionality. It connects to the physical desktop of the remote host.

Once authenticated to a host with virtual desktop support enabled, you will see a button '+' to let you 'Create a new  virtual desktop', or click on the 'New virtual desktop or custom session' link. Any sessions that you previously ran from the client computer you are connecting from will be listed in the connection list of this panel.

The NoMachine service is not available

When getting this message in v. 6, it's likely you are trying to connect to the remote computer using the SSH protocol but the NoMachine server is not installed there. 

With previous versions, a similar message:

The NoMachine service is not available or the access was disabled on host ---.---.---.---

is issued when trying to connect to a NoMachine server v. 5 or 4 which doesn't support SSH. All enterprise-oriented products (in the NoMachine for the Enterprise) support SSH connections. The free to download NoMachine product doesn't.

In this case you will have to select the NX protocol in connection settings -> Edit connection -> protocol.

Please see the article below for detailed instructions on how to select the NX protocol in the NoMachine connection UI:
https://www.nomachine.com/AR12K00759
 

This same message can be also displayed in other cases, all depending on the fact the server was contacted by the client using the SSH service while the NoMachine server was either stopped or the SSH access was disabled. See also:
https://www.nomachine.com/AR12K00760

Running a single Linux application or an application in rootless/seamless or floating window mode is possible with any of the products that support the virtual desktop functionality like Workstation, Small Business Server, Terminal Server and Enterprise Terminal Server.

To run a Linux application in floating window, the option 'Create a new custom session' must be selected from the panel presented to you once you have logged in.

From there you will then be able to indicate the path to the application on the remote host and select whether to run the application in floating window or as a virtual desktop (see https://www.nomachine.com/DT04O00140#4.2. for more details about running virtual desktops and custom sessions).

Since v. 4, NoMachine implements its own protocol for secure communication over the network. The products targeting commercial use, so both of the Enterprise Server and Terminal Server families, additionally support the SSH protocol out of the box. All products use the NX protocol as default. There are multiple reasons for using our own protocol rather than SSH.

The first is performance. Tunneling over SSH means that our packets have to traverse at least 1 additional process before coming to the destination (at least the SSHD process, if we don’t run a separate SSH client). This is an additional process for each machine traversed, so in a multi-node server there are at least two. Then with SSH we have processes communicating through pipes (like multiple separate commands piped in a shell), so we are adding a further encryption stage at each hop.

With NX we can simply hand over the SSL context from one process to the next (as Apache does) and relay connections by only running encryption end-to-end. We can’t provide the details, but we were in a situation where a display packet, to come to the client, had to traverse 12 processes and be encrypted 3 times. Not so with the NX protocol.

Additionally, when using the NX protocol, audio and video can use UDP. Not that we couldn’t use a UDP side-channel with SSH, but it would have been hard to explain to managers in a company that, yes, we use SSH for the connection but then most data is not going through SSH. There are additional tiny details, like the efficiency of the crypto key used, that adds to the speed, or the fact that SSHD is a single-threaded process while with NX everything is multi-threaded and can run on platforms, like iOS, where multi-process is not an option.

A second reason is that, using SSH, we can’t simply support a number of features we need in NX, like keeping a NX users separate from the system users, supporting guest connections and redirecting users to different machines without having to create system accounts. Unless recurring to workarounds. That is what we did with the use of the “NoMachine login”. These workarounds are perfectly in the spirit of SSH but were judged “questionable” by some, simply because they by-passed PAM and let NoMachine create users and check passwords on its own. With the NX protocol these “questionable” uses of SSHD are gone.

A third reason is Windows. We ported the OpenSSH client and server to native Windows and released it on the same licensing terms of OpenSSH. This was done to offer the same set of features on all platforms, but it's not in our plans to develop further SSH for Windows.

A fourth reason is supportability. It’s hard to support something you have no control over how it is used or configured. SSH is an extremely powerful and configurable tool. When users install NoMachine and NoMachine doesn’t work because the SSH client or server are configured to do something special that we could not foresee, users tend to blame NoMachine. This is well within their rights to do so, but now having two distinct protocol options, enterprise users can still use SSH if they want, but at least we will know if a problem they report is due to SSH or NoMachine.

When trying to connect by using the SSH protocol, sometimes the NoMachine client issues the following message:

The session negotiation failed.

Error: NX access is disabled


Possible reasons for getting this message are:

- The server  has been stopped, i.e. it doesn't accept new connections.

Be sure that the server is up and running, you can start it from the NoMachine monitor in your system tray: select 'Show the service status' and click on 'Start the server'.

- The server  has been shutdown, i.e. all NoMachine services, included the Monitor in the system tray, have been stopped.

Be sure that all NoMachine services are up and running, you can start them from the NoMachine User Interface: click on 'Settings' to open the Preferences GUI and then click on the 'Server status' icon at the bottom of the panel to open the Service Status panel. Click on 'Start the server'.

NoMachine is not AdWare crap. We don't scan your disk, track your location, read your e-mail or sell your browsing habits. For NoMachine software is a product, just like food or clothing. People should choose and buy for its quality,  not because it's free. Even when we give away our software for free (as we do), free-of-cost is just a marketing tactic. We do this to make the software known and used by a larger public, so that we can improve it and  make it more attractive for the paying customers. Just as we wouldn't wear clothing that tracks where we go, or eat food that tells the vendor what other food we have eaten, we don't give our users software in exchange  of some of their liberties. It's an old business model, but we prefer it. Remember that when something is free the product is you.

An invoice will be sent automatically to the e-mail you specified either in your order or during the purchase process online.