Dameware Remote Support and Mini Remote Control Guided Tour

DameWare Remote Support, or DRS for short, is a comprehensive remote support solution. DRS is self-hosted, meaning that it is managed by you and your team in your infrastructure and on your terms. DRS gives you complete control over your remote access connections and provides a serious ROI benefit over most SaaS and cloud offerings.

At its core, DRS is a set of remote support tools that allows you to provide technical assistance and support to end-users and computers, both inside and outside your firewall. These tools are packaged neatly into a familiar and easy-to-use Microsoft Management Console, or MMC-style, interface. Depending on your organization's needs, DRS can be deployed in one of two modes, Stand-Alone or Centralized. Let's cover these two modes in a little more detail and then jump into the systems administration tools.

Deploying DRS in Centralized mode requires the installation and configuration of the DameWare Central Server, which is one of three server components included in DRS v11. The DameWare Central Server includes the DameWare Administration Console, which lets you set up DameWare users, manage all of your licenses, share host lists, and see a list of all current internet sessions.

In order to make easy and secure remote support connections to computers outside of your firewall, the DameWare Internet Proxy must also be configured along with the DameWare Central Server. These two components can be installed on the same server, but it is recommended that they are separated with the Internet Proxy being installed on a separate server placed in a DMZ. A third server component, the DameWare Mobile Gateway, must be configured if you wish to use DameWare Mobile for iOS and Android devices. Deploying DRS in Stand-Alone mode is as simple as installing it on each user's workstation.

In Stand-Alone mode, DRS makes connections directly to the end-users' computers without the need for the DameWare Central Server. Keep in mind, however, that deploying in Stand-Alone mode means you will not be able to centrally manage DameWare users and share global host lists or make connections to computers outside your firewall with the new Internet Sessions feature. Once you have successfully deployed DRS in your environment, you can begin using all the powerful systems administration tools accessible from the DRS Software Console.

Let's begin by looking at DameWare Mini Remote Control, or MRC for short, which is included with every copy of DRS. MRC is an award-winning remote control and remote access tool that allows you to connect to Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux computers, all from the same console. MRC can be purchased separately from DRS, but it does not include the DameWare Internet Proxy for outside of firewall connections, the DameWare Mobile Gateway for iOS and Android connections, or the other systems administration tools we'll be covering in just a moment.

The MRC Console is easily launched right from DRS, and from there, we can begin making remote control connections to computers inside or outside the firewall, depending on your deployment. From the MRC Console, five types of remote control sessions can be initiated. The first connection type is the MRC Viewer Connection to Windows computers. The MRC Viewer is the native DameWare remote control connection that allows users far more functionality than a standard RDP connection.

In order to make an MRC Viewer connection, the DameWare Agent must be installed on the host computer. The DameWare Agent is highly customizable and can be easily deployed via group policy or upon initial connection. With the MRC Viewer connection, in-session chat, multiple monitor support, simple file transfer, and one-click screenshots are available. Keyboard and mice can also be locked out to prevent the end-user from interrupting troubleshooting sessions.

The second connection type is the Internet Session. The Internet Session is used to make connections to computers outside the firewall via the new DameWare Internet Proxy. Clicking on the Internet Session button calls up the session details, including the session link. The Internet Session link must be accessed by the end-user to initiate an assisted connection. It can be mailed from the mail client, launched directly from this prompt, or copied to a clipboard and pasted into an email or chat window. Once the user clicks on the link, he or she is prompted to accept the IT pro's invitation.

The third connection type is the VNC connection for Mac OS X and Linux computers. From the MRC console, simply choose the Mac or Linux machine you'd like to connect to, select VNC, and hit Connect.

The fourth connection type is the Intel vPro KVM connection for out-of-band computers. With this connection type, users can connect to computers that are powered-off, in sleep or hibernation mode, or even in a crashed state. This is a great option for the times you need to access the BIOS or boot menu of a remote machine.

The fifth connection type is a simple RDP connection. However, rather than launching RDP on its own, you can simply launch it directly from the MRC Console and take advantage of your host list. MRC includes extensive security and encryption capabilities, including multiple authentication methods primarily designed to use the operating system's built-in security. It also offers additional options of encrypting all communications between the remote and local machines, taking advantage of today's standards for encryption, hashing, and key exchange. These include interactive logins and remote authentication using a Smart Card and a PIN from your local machine. No Smart Card middleware is required and no card reader needs to be installed on the remote machine.

In addition to Mini Remote Control, DRS includes a host of other systems administration tools that allow help desk pros to perform many of their daily tasks, all from the DRS console. These include an integrated selection of Microsoft administration utilities that allow you to perform basic troubleshooting tasks on remote computers without initiating a full remote control session. These include starting, stopping, and restarting services or processes, viewing and clearing event logs, managing local users, disks, shares, and peripherals, monitoring system performance, Wake-on-LAN, editing registries, and more.

DRS also includes support for Active Directory. From the DRS console, you can manage multiple AD sites and perform tasks such as unlocking user accounts and resetting passwords, creating for editing users, security groups, and organizational units, and editing group policies.

DRS also includes the DameWare Exporter tool. With this tool, you can quickly and easily export Active Directory objects or Windows configurations in bulk to CSV or XML file formats.

DameWare Remote Support is a secure, self-hosted remote administration solution that packs in a wealth of great systems management tools and gives organizations serious ROI. Download a free trial of DameWare Remote Support today and begin securely supporting your end-users and computers located inside and outside the firewall.