Many of you have been playing around with ScreenConnect 3.1 during February and we are very close to releasing a stable version! The new release adds many new customizations, security measures and more.

With ScreenConnect 3.1 we've met our customer demands and improved upon security by integrating two-factor authentication into the product. Additionally, one time password is now built into the out of the box (OOTB) login page.

To round out branding and give administrators more control over the experience and users, we've added new customizations. Administrators can now make infinite changes to the clients themselves including changing colors, icons, test strings and more. Additionally, administrators can choose to change the name of fields and disable select features, such as access to the toolbox or file transfer, globally or for specified users. This increases the flexibility of the host role.

For a full detailed list of ScreenConnect 3.1 features please visit our forum.

With the CES kicking off in Las Vegas next week there is much buzz around new consumer electronics. We recently got wind of Canonical's plans to release Ubuntu for smartphones. The advantage of Ubuntu running on a high-end, multi-core handset is that it becomes a full PC and thin client when docked. Canonical claims, “Ubuntu uniquely enables a new category of convergence device – phones that dock to become full PCs and thin clients – enabling enterprise IT departments to replace phones, thin clients and laptops with a single secure corporate device."

The UI relies on swipe gestures similar to Windows 8 on a tablet or Web OS, instead of a touch interface we commonly think of on a Android device or iPhone. Each edge of the phone has a distinct purpose- which makes apps, content and settings easily accessible.

Apps for the device will be native or adapted web apps - which mean all big apps will be available to Ubuntu at launch. Canonical states, “A complete desktop solution needs a full range of desktop applications. While a mobile OS carries no deep desktop software catalogue, Ubuntu offers thousands of applications, all designed for the desktop.”

Cononical has yet to land a deal on a device with a specific manufacturer but rumors suggest a device will be launched early 2014.

We hope our user base has had a good few weeks getting acquainted to ScreenConnect 3.0! The new changes are quite substantial and exciting. We’ve completely redesigned the UI to position for the new use model, meetings. Meetings have been a long sought after use model for much of our user base so they could collaborate with multiple participants in a conference environment. ScreenConnect meetings allow an unlimited number of guests to attend and view an individual’s screen. Such features for the host and attendees include screen capture, recording, and chat.

Additionally with the new use model comes a whole new feel and design to the ScreenConnect UI. The 3.0 release provides easier access to menus and features—a style challenge that we feel we met and what will be the future of ScreenConnect. During meetings or remote sessions hosts have readily available access to tools and menus the old interface did not provide. Please let us know your thoughts on ScreenConnect 3.0! If you have any questions you can contact our staff!

The ScreenConnect Team wants to inform our user base of a free webinar presented by ACRBO that is taking place on December 12th at 4PM on the topic of Advanced Techniques for Virus Removal. We know many of you are small IT shops that support clients and their personal computers. This discussion will focus on the areas of:

• What are the different types of malware? Why does it matter?
• How do you know when a computer is infected?
• How did the computer become infected? When is the malware being loaded?
• When do you use System Restore?
• What if the malware survives Safe Mode?
• What if you can’t run Regedit? Task Manager? Windows Update?

For more details visit the ACRBO Webinar Homepage

Keeping your ScreenConnect unattended clients updated ensures new enhancements and allows you to have the best overall experience. We work hard to maintain a basic level of compatibility with older clients, but non-essential functionality is often broken either partially or completely. In ScreenConnect 2.5 we have introduced an automatic update of old clients when the server installation is updated.

In the past builds clients had to be updated independently of your ScreenConnect upgrade. You were given the option to manually update them or use the automatic update feature from the Host screen. You still have this option, but in ScreenConnect 2.5 you can opt to update your clients automatically with the server installation. With this, upon the upgrading ScreenConnect, your clients should automatically reinstall and update to the latest version.

To do this you add the below code to the appsettings section of the web.config file in the root of the ScreenConnect server program file directory.

<add key="AutoReinstallOldVersionClient" value="true" />

To check to see if an unattended client has completed an install check the session information screen of the unattended. This can be accessed by the clicking the magnifying glass next to the session from the Host screen. You should see a guest initiated reinstall-disconnected-connected series that will indicate the update has been completed.

Please note that auto-updating could in some situations have undesirable results. Someone could update the server with the incorrect build, you might be testing a pre-release version of our software, or a different situation not outlined here. In most standard situations we see this as a very useful feature. But we also see the potential for issues and we want to make sure our customers are aware of those concerns. We will continue to look at this functionality to see what sort of fail-safes can be implemented.

We often get questions regarding integrating ScreenConnect with other products— such as ticketing systems, RMM, MSP, etcetera. Integrations can be useful as they can provide a means to instantaneously launch remote support sessions or connect to unattended systems from within an application. There are two primary methods of standard integration with ScreenConnect, link creation and pass parameters, and a third less common process of running scripts.

The most common means of integration launches other products or connects to the web application via an active link. This process designates a specific URL for each machine. For example, in the past LogMeIn Free allowed customers to connect to their unattended clients via a LogMeIn free link within Labtech (Desktop Shortcut). The user could click the link from the Labtech application and quickly navigate to the desired machine. We learned just recently LogMeIn restricted access to their Desktop Shortcut feature for Labtech (and possibly other third-party applications). Users clicking on the link would be taken to a page that talks about Desktop Shortcuts and that the feature is now part of LogMeIn Pro-only. ScreenConnect can be setup in a similar fashion, by putting in your link/folder name/computer name into the Labtech application. Then from within the Labtech application you can jump straight to the desired machine in your ScreenConnect folder. Many tools enable this functionality.

Notice the URL in the picture below, the URL displays the path to the machine inside your ScreenConnect installation. The "live.teekie.com" would be the path to your ScreenConnect installation, "Host#TeekieComputer" is the folder, and the "/dublin" is the computer name in the folder. **Now that we have shown the name teekie as a URL path we know everyone is going to go out and register that subdomain tomorrow!

Another popular method allows software to pass parameters. This allows you to use a generic URL as opposed to a specific URL for each system. Here, you only have to put a single link, such as https://support.my.company.com/Parameter1/Parameter2. You then define each parameter within that link. For example, Parameter 1 is the “$Customer" or "$Folder Name” and Parameter2 is the “$ComputerName”. Passing variables like this is a fairly common practice and many of the big solutions provide easy setup. We are currently investigating applications to see whether they have the means to integrate with ScreenConnect by way of this method.

The final method is a bit more complex as it requires specific collaboration with the other party. For this, the tool provides integration by way of a button or link that runs a script that calls into ScreenConnect’s API. This can be beneficial as it can provide more functionality. An example is that you can automatically launch and create sessions to bypass a web application altogether. While we don’t currently have any integrations available using this method we do see this as a powerful alternative that we hope to explore in the future.

ScreenConnect 2.6 will feature some exciting new updates including remote meeting capabilities and a redesign of the host client. Remote meetings will utilize many of the same features already in the ScreenConnect repertoire along with some new features that are unique to meeting software. The new host client will have a streamlined design that will incorporate the new feature set for remote meetings. Please stay tuned for additional news and the ScreenConnect 2.6 release!

Update: We have had a few questions about the new look of 2.6, the icons, etc. Please note this is a conceptual look as to what it could look like as we move forward. We are looking at a more intuitive menu for selecting features, we do want to maintain a very slim footprint, and we want to give users the ability to dock certain controls to the right of the screen. But the actual design is still being tweaked daily, our hopes is that we will have something for everyone to play with in September.

We frequently receive questions concerning remote support for mobile devices. While we do offer mobile clients for the technician to use when supporting customers; the ability to actually control a mobile device is a bit more elusive. The two big operating systems right now (iOS and Android) along with the related mobile device manufactures limit the ability for remote support tools to control or even view the screen of their devices. The exception lies with devices that are jailbroken or rooted, this practice permits tools to be installed at the root level where they have access to control and view the display.

Several remote access solutions including Bomgar and LogMeIn Rescue provide limited connectivity to the file system, chat, and various diagnostics such as email configuration and internet settings. But remote control of the screen is restricted unless the mobile manufacturer has pre-installed the client or the device is jail broken/rooted. This is an industry wide concern, that each remote desktop/remote access/remote support solution is encountering and no-doubt looking for a resolution. These restrictions and limitations imposed by the mobile operating systems have slowed the development in our respective industry. Hopefully through the constant prodding and requests by the vendors and users, options will be implemented so all remote support companies can provide a remote support client that can be used to support these devices.

So what are our plans moving forward? We are looking at what options are available and are considering various mobile clients for our future builds. We are constantly talking with our community to determine what features are necessary and what would be nice to haves. We will continue to evaluate the mobile OS market and do our best to provide the most comprehensive and compatible remote support solution available. And when the mobile operating system providers expose the necessary components to view and control their devices, we will certainly be one of the first to release a full featured client.  If you have thoughts, opinions, or ideas about how we can improve our mobile clients for the technician and eventually the customer please contact the ScreenConnect sales staff. And if you work for Apple, Google, or one of the respective mobile phone manufacturers we would love to talk with you about how to get our ScreenConnect client installed and working so that our users can continue to help make the migration to your devices easier.

In this day and age online shopping has become a customary practice. Still consumers are often wary of looming threats such as credit card fraud, identity theft, or the hassle of getting a refund on returned merchandise. As a dependable merchant we offer buyers a hassle free, secure system to purchase ScreenConnect. Our preferred method is Google Wallet (Google Checkout is transitioning to Google Wallet) but we also offer a product order option. We standby Google Wallet’s mission to “help online merchants sell more by providing a fast, convenient, and safe online shopping experience for their buyers”.

Credit card fraud and identity theft have attracted heavy media coverage over the past 10 years as online shopping has become more popular. To combat these threats Google Wallet promotes a secure, encrypted transaction. Google claims, “Your bank account details and credit card information, which are stored in a single location on our secure servers, are only accessed when needed to complete transactions.” Additionally Google performs industry-standard Address Verification System (AVS), Card Verification Value (CVV), and a list of other checks to prevent credit card fraud. Due to these securtiy checks quite often consumers have to wait for their order to process (up to 24 hours). For more details on Google Wallet take the buyer experience.

We hope you have overall positive experiences when purchasing goods online. We realize that on occasion customers are not 100% satisfied their purchase and realize after the fact the product does not meet their needs. We believe that the customer should always be happy and that is why we have a return policy. Documented under ScreenConnect Terms: If you are not completely satisfied within 30 days of your purchase you can return ScreenConnect for a full refund. Simply contact our sales team and we can issue a refund via the method of your original payment.

A third party Windows virtual private server (VPS) allows one to run a virtual, private copy of Windows on a network and host applications. There are several vendors to choose from when selecting a VPS that differ vastly in cost, uptime and speed.

Speed is an important characteristic of any network. Over an entire 12 month period in August 2010 to July 2011, Compuware conducted speed tests of multiple popular cloud providers. Compuware used its own proprietary software, CloudSleuth, that bases tests on response time (response time is the total time elapsed while downloading both web pages in the multi-step test transaction) and availability (availability measures the percentage of test transactions that completed successfully out of the set of transactions attempted) from different nodes around the world. Each backbone node runs four test transactions per hour against each target application instance. Compuware admits the test is not perfect, as it is limited by factors such as location, but it may be a good starting point for customers trying to decide between various cloud services.

Uptime and cost are also valid concerns when selecting a VPS provider. A reliable network such as Amazon EC2 claims to have an Annual Uptime Percentage of at least 99.95% during the Service Year. Other more affordable solutions may have more downtime associated with their networks. When considering a VPS vendor price is a contributing factor. Amazon EC2 released Micro Instance late last year as a budget conscious choice. From discussions in the ScreenConnect Forums we can see some of our members suggest TrustVPS for a little over $10 USD/month.

When choosing a VPS host service there are many factors and providers to consider. Once you’ve opted for a VPS vendor you can refer to the ScreenConnect guide for moving an installation to a different server.  If you have thoughts, suggestions or experience with VPS servers and your ScreenConnect install please share them with other users in the comment field.