About remote access

Use the remote control feature to easily resolve device problems from one location. Read this section to learn about:

• Remote controlling devices
• Using remote control
• Configuring Windows 2003 client security for remote control
• Accessing remote Linux servers

Remote controlling devices

Remote control allows users to remotely diagnose and troubleshoot many device problems. During a remote session, you can do anything on the remote computer that a user sitting at it could do while using the keyboard layout of your machine, not that of the target machine. All of your actions happen in real time on that computer. You can set remote control access through the Role-based administration tool. It allows you to:

• Fix software and identify hardware problems quickly by allowing authorized users to check and take control of a computer remotely
• Access remote files
• Transfer files in either direction
• Execute remote applications
• Remote reboot
  

If you have integrated or certificate-based security, the remote control right can be set to exclude days of the week and/or hours of the day. If a user is remote-controlling a machine, and this user has a time constraint added to the remote control right, the session will no longer work after the ending time of the constraint is reached.

Using remote control

To use remote control from the console, you must first install the remote control viewer. You need administrative privileges on the local computer to install the viewer, which you are prompted to download the first time you access the remote control page. If necessary, you can uninstall the remote control viewer using the Windows Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs applet. Look for LANDeskManagement Suite Remote Control Console in the program list. The remote control agent also must be installed on each remote device you want to control.

To remote control a device

1. In the health dashboard, right-click the icon of the device you wish to connect to and select Remote control, which will launch the viewer.

2. In the Web console, single-click the device and select the Remote control, SSH, or SFTP button in the Properties tab in the lower pane. (You can also double-click the device to launch the local console and click Remote session in the left navigation pane.)

You can also remote control more than one computer at a time. After starting one session, return to the dashboard or console and select another computer.

To be remote-controlled, Windows devices must have the product remote control agent installed and loaded. This agent is installed by

• Creating an agent configuration task in the console and scheduling a deployment to the device, or
• Mapping a drive from the device to the core server and running the appropriate agent configuration.

This agent may be loaded as a resident service in order to provide immediate access to the machine, or (if you have certificate-based security) it may be installed as an on-demand agent that loads only when needed.

Additionally, you can install the remote control mirror driver to improve the performance of detecting, capturing, and compressing screen changes if the device CPU is slower (< 2.0GHz) or the network is fast (> 100mpbs) . Note that remote control doesn't support DOS graphics or full-screen DOS windows. The command prompt window may not display initially when using the mirror driver. If this occurs, minimize the window then maximize it.

For additional information about Linux device remote control, seeAccessing remote Linux devices.

Configuring Windows 2003 client security for remote control

The resident service uses Windows NT security. To work with Windows 2003 servers, you must configure the server clients so that the Windows 2003 sharing and security model for local accounts is classic (local users authenticate as themselves). If you don't do this, the default guest-only authentication won't work with remote control's Windows NT security.

To set the Windows 2003 security model to classic

1. On the Windows 2003 client, click Start > Control Panel.
2. In the Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy applet, click Security Options > Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts, and set it to Classic - local users authenticate as themselves.