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alert when a remote Host becomes UNavailable
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john kumpf,
User (Posts: 94)
Dec 03, 2025 10:26:31 pm EST
Support level: Starter
I have a remote host PC that's giving me trouble. I would like to monitor it using remote utilities, since I'm logged in there already. I know there's a desktop alert for when a remote host becomes available (https://www.remoteutilities.com/support/docs/checking-online-status/).
I don't see anything for when a remote host becomes UNavailable (goes down). Does something like exist? I just want to be alerted when the remote host goes down or becomes unreachable.
I don't see anything for when a remote host becomes UNavailable (goes down). Does something like exist? I just want to be alerted when the remote host goes down or becomes unreachable.
Conrad Sallian,
Support (Posts: 3182)
Dec 04, 2025 1:55:24 am EST
Hi John,
Unfortunately, there’s no built-in way to immediately detect when a remote Host goes offline—there’s no continuous monitoring. The only indication is the status icon in the address book.
There is a kind of workaround—you can open a View-only connection, and if the Host goes down during the session, the Viewer icon will start flashing/blinking on the taskbar. It's not a guaranteed method, but it can serve as a basic indicator.
Unfortunately, there’s no built-in way to immediately detect when a remote Host goes offline—there’s no continuous monitoring. The only indication is the status icon in the address book.
There is a kind of workaround—you can open a View-only connection, and if the Host goes down during the session, the Viewer icon will start flashing/blinking on the taskbar. It's not a guaranteed method, but it can serve as a basic indicator.
john kumpf,
User (Posts: 94)
Dec 04, 2025 8:56:17 pm EST
Support level: Starter
Can we be creative? If it were a local host, I would run a ping in a terminal window constantly and arrange my windows so I can see it almost constantly.
I know there's ping in RUT but looks like that's for local hosts (NetBIOS or IP) only.
Is there anything I can do from the command line on my viewer to just check whether a remote host is up?
I just browsed https://www.remoteutilities.com/support/docs/viewer-parameters/ and there are several tantalizing options.
I can imagine a -telnet -powershell Get-Date
which would log onto the host and print the date, or not.
I don't think I can specify powershell code or script file via command tho.
What happens when I run a viewer command line and the host is not online? Does it return an error code, by any chance?
-ftp and copy a file to my local host, but I think it just brings up the GUI window.
-remoteexecute -filename:program_name -hidden
But I believe this has to be an .exe, not, eg, a powershell script. I could run ping.exe but I dont think I could pass parameters.
But if I could find a .exe program that could create a log somewhere I could see, maybe...
Oh, maybe screen recorder? Something like low resolution every minute? Might even catch error messages. But I guess -screenrecord just brings up that GUI, it doesn't trigger a screenshot at that moment.
Oh, wait. I could bring up a terminal with ping running and just check that. That would work, right?
(I see you can *add* an entry to "your address book" from the command line. That seems useful for other things. I assume "your address book" is "general address book" not a specific one you added.)
I know there's ping in RUT but looks like that's for local hosts (NetBIOS or IP) only.
Is there anything I can do from the command line on my viewer to just check whether a remote host is up?
I just browsed https://www.remoteutilities.com/support/docs/viewer-parameters/ and there are several tantalizing options.
I can imagine a -telnet -powershell Get-Date
which would log onto the host and print the date, or not.
I don't think I can specify powershell code or script file via command tho.
What happens when I run a viewer command line and the host is not online? Does it return an error code, by any chance?
-ftp and copy a file to my local host, but I think it just brings up the GUI window.
-remoteexecute -filename:program_name -hidden
But I believe this has to be an .exe, not, eg, a powershell script. I could run ping.exe but I dont think I could pass parameters.
But if I could find a .exe program that could create a log somewhere I could see, maybe...
Oh, maybe screen recorder? Something like low resolution every minute? Might even catch error messages. But I guess -screenrecord just brings up that GUI, it doesn't trigger a screenshot at that moment.
Oh, wait. I could bring up a terminal with ping running and just check that. That would work, right?
(I see you can *add* an entry to "your address book" from the command line. That seems useful for other things. I assume "your address book" is "general address book" not a specific one you added.)
Edited:john kumpf - Dec 04, 2025 8:58:10 pm EST
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