There are a few common causes for a VNC deployment profile failing to deploy.  I will cover a few of the main causes and their resolutions here.

Error 53:  The network path was not found

This can happen if the remote registry service is not running on the remote computer or there is a firewall blocking TCP port 39.

Windows XP SP2 disables the remote registry by default.  The easiest way to turn it back on is to download remoreregistry.exe and run it on the computers where you are getting this error.

Access Denied

The most common cause for this is that you are running the deployment script as a user that does not have administrative access to the system on the other end.  The last page of the deployment wizard allows you to enter alternate login credentials.

The second most common cause is simple file sharing in Windows XP.  Just like the remote registry service mentioned above, this is set in Windows XP SP2 by default and it prevents remote computers from authenticating properly.

Here is a video showing how to turn off simple filesharing in Windows XP.

Here is a download that will disable simple filesharing on any XP computer.  You need Administrative privileges on the computer for it to take affect.

Firewalls

Any time that you run into any problem with VNC deployment, you can probably save yourself a lot of time by double-checking the firewall settings.  Windows XP SP2 turns it on by default.

If you must have a firewall between your workstation and the ones that you are deploying VNC to, be sure to open the following ports:

• TCP Port 139 (file and printer sharing)

• TCP port 443 (file and printer sharing)

• TCP port 5900 (VNC main port)

• TCP port 5800 (VNC Java Port)

• Allow ICMP replies