Options for remote access

[mrstrong]

just looking at my options:

 

for accessing a PC/laptops on and off site where the user is present I'm looking into quick assist

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4027243/windows-10-solve-pc-problems-with-quick-assist

hopefully will will work through our smoothwall

 

any recommendations for how to access remote PCs / servers when no one present?

In school I've always used Microsoft remote desktop (mstsc) but from outside school

what are my options e.g. to get to the desktop of my school pc / the school server.

 

Need something free and secure that will work through a smoothwall.

[mproffitt1983]

We use Chrome Remote Desktop quite a bit. You might need to unblock some URLs for it to work onsite.

 

remotedesktop.google.com

remotedesktop-pa.googleapis.com

play.google.com

[synaesthesia]

Teamviewer across the board for us - we don't have staff laptops and have had to rush to prepare a load of domain only student laptops for around 30 staff. Installed teamviewer on all of them on personal/non commercial license and thankfully yesterday Teamviewer announced they would be turning a blind eye to any possible licence infringements

Plus there's Teams sharing if need be.

[highsky]

Smoothwall has free Open SSL VPN.

There's a guide on the forum plus the have their how to in their site.

Rdcman for onsite or via VPN.

 

Wakeonlanx , for wake on LAN.

But needs Mac addresses also.

[dgsmith]

I use remote utilities which allows you to sign up for a free license per each user/email, to use with 10 different machines. Host application runs quietly in the background and you can set the type of security you want for the connection to take place.

Used to use logmein before it started costing money.

[southhamster]

I use remote utilities which allows you to sign up for a free license per each user/email, to use with 10 different machines. Host application runs quietly in the background and you can set the type of security you want for the connection to take place.

Used to use logmein before it started costing money.

This is me too!

Used to use logmein but their price became extortionate. RU is not as polished but it seems to be working ok for me. I like the customised MSI you can send to end users to just run without hassle.

[round2it]

We are using remotepc.com

 

Dirt cheap for education

[googlemad]

just looking at my options:

 

for accessing a PC/laptops on and off site where the user is present I'm looking into quick assist

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4027243/windows-10-solve-pc-problems-with-quick-assist

hopefully will will work through our smoothwall

 

any recommendations for how to access remote PCs / servers when no one present?

In school I've always used Microsoft remote desktop (mstsc) but from outside school

what are my options e.g. to get to the desktop of my school pc / the school server.

 

Need something free and secure that will work through a smoothwall.

 

Thanks for the Quick Assist tip - this could come in very useful for me tomorrow! (I didn't even know it was a 'thing' in Windows 10!)

 

We have a Cisco AnyConnect solution in place for VPN but now with recent events every user and their dog is requesting VPN access, the trouble being people self isolating at home...with their work laptop which doesn't have the AnyConnect client installed, so at least I can hopefully jump on a few this way and get them up and running

[mavhc]

Windows has VPN built in, L2TP/IPsec is probably the best method it supports. I've found LDAP only works if you pick PAP authentication, it says not encrypted, but it's inside the IPsec tunnel so that's fine. You can email people a .pbk file which they can just double click on to run.

[mrstrong]

Thanks for all the quick replies.

 

Just finished a quick assist session. I can confirm it works ok through the smoothwall.

You do need a person (the sharer) at the other end to enter the code and grant permission.

The only downside is when I tried to run msconfig (which needs admin priv) the screen went black with a pause button.

 

Presumably to allow the sharer to put in local admin credentials. In my case they had wandered off so I had to wait until

it timed out and I got control back. Not sure if there is a way round this (running commands that require admin), maybe some UAC

or group policy setting ?

 

I also installed teamviewer using personal free license and that is working very nicley to connect to my domain joined PC.

If I need to get on servers I can remote desktop on to them just as I normally would

(kind of a double hop, teamviewer to PC then mstsc to server)

Edited March 25, 2020 by mrstrong