Remote Adminstration Help & Suggestions

pablo21

I currently provide support for x amount of companies. Each company has on average about 10pc's on a network usually fed by broadband but not always. As more and more of them are now able to get broadband I want to look at getting myself setup with remote access to their machines similar to remote desktop where I have full control of the user's desktop to resolve any issues etc. I have setup remote desktop on each machine in such a way that I can access any machine on a particular network via remote desktop addressed by a static ip.
I want to be able to do this from a rather large comfy armchair in my own house where I'm installing a 4mb synchronous BB connection. My vision is that I only leave the house for hardware failures/repairs or installs/upgrades etc! Alot of them use servers but not all, obviously the smaller ones are just a couple of pc's.
What I'm looking for is suggestions as to what direction ye guys would recommend me going in and what kind of solutions I should investigate!
I look forward to your inputs as always!! I'll add to this as I think of more details!!

ednwireland

i actually use vpn cisco for one site ms pptp for two other sites most broadband routers allow you to do this anyway i use vnc to see the actual desktop nlso looking at logmein.com

ntlbell

VPN/Dameware

fatherdougalmag

Look at www.logmein.com. You can try out their various offerings for free.

Static M.e.

I've found Net Support very good, its a paid for solution but the product itself has little flaws. In the last year I've had to contact Customer Support twice and both times the issue was a setup error rather than anything wrong with Net Support.

If you have the cash I highly recommend it. Its highly intuitive and allows you group each PC under a Group name, you can log on to any PC by double clicking it, it can resolve PCs by host name or you can manually enter an IP address.

Its also very easily deployable and can allows you full control over any PC / Server or to share your control or whatever.

Bottom line for me is its reliable its doesnt fail. I suggest you try it out

pablo21

Static M.e. wrote:

I've found Net Support very good, its a paid for solution but the product itself has little flaws. In the last year I've had to contact Customer Support twice and both times the issue was a setup error rather than anything wrong with Net Support.

If you have the cash I highly recommend it. Its highly intuitive and allows you group each PC under a Group name, you can log on to any PC by double clicking it, it can resolve PCs by host name or you can manually enter an IP address.

Its also very easily deployable and can allows you full control over any PC / Server or to share your control or whatever.

Bottom line for me is its reliable its doesnt fail. I suggest you try it out

How much and where would I pick it up? ( I'll google in the meantime!!)

Sponge Bob

beamyourscreen.com !

pablo21

All good suggestion's but I need something that will also allow me log in to work on machines without having to have a user on the other end but also secure, like administrator access or something similar?

CiaranC

VPN and then RDP. Secure and easy.

pablo21

Is it difficult to setup? What do I need to do?

Capt'n Midnight

Free
I've always been a fan of VNC on the clients. It is not secure, and you would need a vpn too. But it seems to respond after terminal services and netsupport have keeled over.

PSTOOLS are good , especially psexec , the number of times I've used psexec \\host cmd and then worked away at the command prompt of the machine, handy when the user is still on the machine and you don't need a GUI.

setup the clients PC's to wake up on wan - you can then put a wake up program on their server so you can do out of hours work, of course you would need a way in, would a modem line do ? - you can then establish a BB connection back in and hang up. If you really want to be ambitious you could use the serial cable to reboot a UPS (and any equipment on it too)

Oh for a remote control finger - "press any key to continue" or the reset button


Non Free
netsupport does have options to "call control" so they would not need to open their firewalls if you provide a tunnel for then to connect in.

webex is another thing to look at - no idea of price

nialler

One solution I use is remote desktop and VPN, it's handy for accessing the domain controller, I haven't used it to access the other PC on the net.

Another company I've gone the realVNC route, 128bit encryption, easily modifable port numbers, works a treat. The only problem I'm running into is the friggin eircom branded firmware in the netopia router and opening up pinholes, going to install the natural firmware and take it from there.

tech

I use sonicwall VPN connection to all the remote sites I deal with , Also the MS PPTP conenction is quite good,

Other options are VNC, Cisco, Checkpoint Zyxel

NutJob

Worksport released patches for VNC that used FIPS compliant AES encryption which eliminated the panic over crap vnc security.

Been a while since I looked at these.
http://www.workspot.org/



Ultra Vnc is good also.




There is no real need for a vpn if all you want is a remote desktop access an SSh server will let you tunnel in with minimal fuss.
http://www.ssh.com/support/documentation/online/ssh/adminguide/32/Port_Forwarding.html

azzeretti

I've used them all!
VPN is the best but there would most likely be a need for standardised hardware. That is, not all IPSEC comliant boxes are built equally!! (I recently spent two non-chargeable days on a site trying to get a Zyxel box to handshake with an MS ISA2004 server - good luck to you) Anyway, if you can get the sites to pay, I would get a Cisco PIX (605e maybe) on each site and one at your place, then set up some tunnelling. If this is impractical, expensive or just riduclous you could try getting some cheaper off the self boxes, Sonicwall springs to mind.

If you deceded to go away from the VPN route you can't get much better than Webex. Its a subscription service but they have an app called Access Anywhere. This is a remote client that once installed on the client PC can be accessed from any PC with an internet connetion. There is no firewall issues at the client either, as the AA client uses https (which would most likely be opened) to initate the connection, thus bypassing any firewall ports issues. It is quite pricy though, but with this amount of PC's you could add a little to there yearly maintainence amount!! It is certainly the best way to go. (BTW, you can file tran, chat, record etc within the client)

azzeretti

ntlbell wrote:

VPN/Dameware

There would be port issues with Dameware

EDIT: Unless you meant VPN / Then Dameware, in which case ignore this :rolleyes:

tech

sonicwall Tz170 with security suite are a great firewall