cpjitservices Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 Hi all, Having switched from LogMeIn to another paid for product (due to cost mainly), I'm wondering if there is something out there that is open source that would serve a similar purpose. Let me explain, I've tried many opensource products....They mainly run on VNC or RDP clients which is fine but when I have a possible 50-60 clients to access at a company to open that many ports open on the router A) massive lists of ports open on routers and B) large attack surface. Really, I need something that would use it's own client like LogMeIn or TeamViewer. So far the best product I've come across is Guacamole, however needs RDP opening as far as I can tell for it to connect... and MeshCentral... couldn't get that working / functioning properly on Server 2012 R2. Anyone any Ideas ? Thanks all in Advance !
r0cketbev Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 Teamviewer host on the server or client unit. i have found that this works best for me.
SYNACK Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 You are trying to find a paid solution for something that already exists for free, it's just not open source. Terminal services gateway is a nice little feature that has been around as a server role since Server 2008, it allows you to offer out RDP over SSL to whatever internal servers you choose, kind of like a reverse proxy. You set up the RDP gateway and then tell it what server you want to connect to and it will pipe the whole thing over SSL for you. Nice, clean and only requires one port opening, you can even stack the service with other SSL if you have ISA/TMG as the firewall. You need to make an SSL cert but you can do that for free with any number of solutions or just install the self signed one on your device. MS Remote Desktop supports this great and a handful of the weirdy OSS ones make a decent attempt. 1
win Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 +1 for built-in windows server feature (see ^ post by synack)
cpjitservices Posted November 13, 2014 Author Posted November 13, 2014 (edited) TeamViewer is good but I'd need to pay for it... Problem with Terminal Services is not all of our clients have Servers that will run TS either the version of Server (Generally SBS) or licensing... And with TS wouldn't I need to be opening up ports ? Its not just servers I Need access to but PC's too. Edited November 13, 2014 by cpjitservices
sparkeh Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 You are trying to find a paid solution for something that already exists for free, it's just not open source. Terminal services gateway is a nice little feature that has been around as a server role since Server 2008, it allows you to offer out RDP over SSL to whatever internal servers you choose, kind of like a reverse proxy. You set up the RDP gateway and then tell it what server you want to connect to and it will pipe the whole thing over SSL for you. Nice, clean and only requires one port opening, you can even stack the service with other SSL if you have ISA/TMG as the firewall. You need to make an SSL cert but you can do that for free with any number of solutions or just install the self signed one on your device. MS Remote Desktop supports this great and a handful of the weirdy OSS ones make a decent attempt. But that requires purchasing CALs right?
Norphy Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 And with TS wouldn't I need to be opening up ports ? Not if you use a terminal services gateway. It tunnels the traffic across an SSL connection so assuming you have 443 open already, you're golden
cpjitservices Posted November 13, 2014 Author Posted November 13, 2014 (edited) Not if you use a terminal services gateway. It tunnels the traffic across an SSL connection so assuming you have 443 open already, you're golden OK but is this for servers ? - I need to access Internal PC's too. Mainly for supporting users. Interesting...... Liking the look of TSG... Edited November 13, 2014 by cpjitservices
cpjitservices Posted November 13, 2014 Author Posted November 13, 2014 (edited) Hows it managed ? Can other Admins login and see what we can Remote into ? Great Idea, but I think I may need a central console to easily manage clients by group or company name. Edited November 13, 2014 by cpjitservices
Norphy Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 Terminal Services Gateway is literally that. It's a gateway that you use to connect to internal services from an external connection. You can use it to connect to any machine that can be connected to through RDP so any version of Server and the Pro and Enterprise versions of Windows. You can't use it for remote control as such, i.e. you can't use it like VNC and have a user demonstrate their problem but you can use Remote Assistance for that instead and use something like Lync to initiate the session. RDP can be used to connect to remote machines to run admin tasks though.
plexer Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 For access to client machines you could use the server as the way in and then use remote assistance to connect to them, otherwise get your employer to stop being a cheapskate and pay for a remote access tool that will work across your whole estate of clients. Ben
cpjitservices Posted November 13, 2014 Author Posted November 13, 2014 Terminal Services Gateway is literally that. It's a gateway that you use to connect to internal services from an external connection. You can use it to connect to any machine that can be connected to through RDP so any version of Server and the Pro and Enterprise versions of Windows. You can't use it for remote control as such, i.e. you can't use it like VNC and have a user demonstrate their problem but you can use Remote Assistance for that instead and use something like Lync to initiate the session. RDP can be used to connect to remote machines to run admin tasks though. Ahhhhh thats the problem, would need it to be able to interact with the user.... Our usual scenario is a user demonstrating nay problems to us that they might be having. TSG or RDG does look good though.. handy but not for this im afraid! Good info though.
cpjitservices Posted November 13, 2014 Author Posted November 13, 2014 For access to client machines you could use the server as the way in and then use remote assistance to connect to them, otherwise get your employer to stop being a cheapskate and pay for a remote access tool that will work across your whole estate of clients. Ben My employer isnt being a cheapskate, its not about that... It's just something Im looking into - for the amount of clients we manage and the price we pay for the remote support tools i thought we could possibly save some moola somewhere... perhaps this is not the case
plexer Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 if you are regularly supporting the same clients perhaps something like this https://www.softether.org/ might be something you can look into although it's probably not the solution for ad-hoc use. Ben 1
cpjitservices Posted November 13, 2014 Author Posted November 13, 2014 if you are regularly supporting the same clients perhaps something like this https://www.softether.org/ might be something you can look into although it's probably not the solution for ad-hoc use. Ben Thats good...
plexer Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 Once you have a vpn connection you can use remote assistance, vnc etc... to interact with client PC's Ben
SYNACK Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 Yeap, italc plus rdp gateway or something similar gives you a secure and free setup, its two tools rather than one but it does make it more secure and free. 1
sparkeh Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 (edited) Yeap, italc plus rdp gateway or something similar gives you a secure and free setup, its two tools rather than one but it does make it more secure and free. As posted above, not completely free as RDS Gateway requires RDS CALs for remote connections. Edited November 13, 2014 by sparkeh Typo 1
cpjitservices Posted November 13, 2014 Author Posted November 13, 2014 As posted above, not completely free as RDP Gateway requires RDS CALs for remote connections. I believe it's RDS Gateway in server 2012.... Terminal Services in previous versions. Thanks all.... will let you know what we go with.
sparkeh Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 I believe it's RDS Gateway in server 2012.... Terminal Services in previous versions. Thanks all.... will let you know what we go with. Mm yeah it is, my typo But still you need to cost up the CALs for the sites you want to support
plexer Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 Ammyy Admin - Remote Desktop Sharing - buy. Ben
matt40k Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 @cpjitservices - CentraStage - CentraStage. Install a little agent, then creates a HTTPS tunnel which you can RDP\VNC, also has a few other cool features like monitoring, auditing (ie what software is installed, ms patches etc) and software deployment.
m25man Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 Logmein Central is still pretty cheap for 100 hosts @ $299 pa. Meraki MDM works and is free but is still a bit flakey for remote control.
north-ict Posted December 16, 2014 Posted December 16, 2014 Sorry to bring up an old thread but has anyone used or know of http://www.aeroadmin.com/en/
cpjitservices Posted December 16, 2014 Author Posted December 16, 2014 Sorry to bring up an old thread but has anyone used or know of Aeroadmin - FREE remote desktop software, easy remote desktop connection No, but looks good.
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