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Is it just me?

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Matthew Cooper, User (Posts: 42)
Aug 04, 2021 4:50:32 am EDT
Can I start by saying, I really love the idea of this software. It's design accommodates for the vast majority of things I am looking for in a remote access system. We are an MSP and use this software to support in excess of 350 endpoints on a regular basis.
This is why I am holding out hope that the potential is there for this to be a great tool.

Having said that, I am getting to the point where I am wondering if I am being naive, or maybe I am just doing it wrong.

I have constant issues across a range of areas, that are thinning my hair out day by day.

I run a self hosted server on a dedicated Windows Server 2012 R2 VM in our data center.
All software is running on the latest available versions [Server, Viewer, and Host]
My host machines are a mix of Windows 7,8.1,10,Server 2008,Server 2012 R2,Server 2016,Server 2019


File Transfer:
-Sometimes, the viewer will connect, and will show a blank window for the remote end, sometimes with a message similar to "cannot get folder", If I close this window and re-open will often resolve, but not always.
-Sometimes, it will connect and show all folders, and while navigating through the folder structure, this error will occur. Sometimes, going up a level will resolve, other times, I need to disconnect and reconnect. Example screenshot attached]

-When file transfers do not complete, no status is shown to indicate this. The failure to complete could be a connection drop, or interruption fr om the remote end, but still no error to show the transfer has failed. There are times I will transfer a large installation archive to a remote client - such as the installer for Adobe Photoshop, I would start this and move on to other work, but never know if it completed or if it was interrupted along the way. I know a successful completion will auto close the transfer window, but should a non-successful completion keep it open?

-At times, the file transfer window will get stuck open, and I cannot close it. Only a forced terminate of the viewer via task manager will close the window. This does not always stop file transfers being possible, often I can still open a new transfer to a different host in a new tab when this occurs.


Viewer Window:
-I have all hosts set to Auto Logon, however, some hosts show as Orange - Online, some as Green - Logged On and others show offline. Often the ones showing offline, are actually online, and will allow me to connect, however, it takes 1-3 connection attempts before the connection comes up. - This issue floats around, it is not a case of some hosts, have the problem. Most of the hosts will experience this at some point in time.

-I have some hosts that get stuck in a grey state with an hourglass icon, and never move. Only a restart of the viewer will  clear this. Even a Sign Out / Sign In will not fix this. [example screenshot attached]

-I also have many cases wh ere a host shows as Orange - Online, then when I double click it, I get the hourglass, and it will turn grey and fail to connect 5 times. Once it fails for the last time, it will go back to Orange. Sometimes, another double click will work, other times, nothing will work, not even a restart of the viewer. However, I will come back to it an hour later and connect without issues.

-When machines are logging on or off, even though the machine is shown as Online or Logged on, a view of the remote screen is not possible. Particularly when switching users at the remote end. There is no display between the pressing of the Log Off / Sign Out button at the remote end, and the screen where you can choose / enter a different user. It seems that the video hook driver is not integrated deep enough. I have used other Remote Access software that is able to show these screens without issue.

-When a full control connection drops off, the viewer window does not close, it goes grey and shows a reconnecting message in the top left. This eventually stops trying to reconnect, but remains open in a frozen-like state. If you double click the host fr om the main viewer window again, the frozen window is brought back into focus, but does not try to connect. I need to manually close this window, which itself takes 5-10 seconds, then double click the host again to try and connect.


Remote Control:
-I find the clipboard get and set options very temperamental. Particularly the Set Clipboard does not always take the first time, it routinely takes 2-3 times before it commits, and there is almost always a delay of 3-5 seconds after clicking set before it will apply the change. I am only ever set a line of text, never pictures or any large data. This problem comes and goes randomly on random hosts.

General Use:
-The software is slow, just generally speaking. Right clicking a host and clicking properties is a full second before it appears. I know this is possibly a machine based issue, however, it is consistent across all my machines, which range from a 7yr laptop to a 1yr old Core i7 workstation.

-Connecting to a remote host is slow, the fastest I ever get is about 6-7 seconds for Logged On hosts, but 15-30 seconds is typical for Online hosts. My experience with direct connections rather than via the server is only marginally faster, not enough to warrant the extra work required to setup and maintain them.
If I ask the viewer to Log On a host that is orange, it is commonly about 10-15 seconds before it turns green.

Hosts:
-Some hosts do not come back online if they have been off for an extended period. I recently had an issue with the firewall to my Server, which denied connections from certain IP ranges. Once this was fixed, some hosts stayed grey and showed as offline until the machines were rebooted. Even restarting the Remote Host service did not bring them online.
I have had a small number of issues wh ere hosts show as offline until the machine was rebooted prior to the firewalling issue, but have been unable to do further troubleshooting due to the nature of being cut off from the machines.

Are my issues like the above simply what we all see when using the software, or have I somehow created a unique set of problems that no one else is suffering from?

Matthew
Attached Files
Is it just me? Is it just me?
Pauline, Support (Posts: 2861)
Aug 04, 2021 11:17:57 am EDT
Hello Matthew,

Thank you for such detailed feedback on our software.

-Sometimes, the viewer will connect, and will show a blank window for the remote end, sometimes with a message similar to "cannot get folder", If I close this window and re-open will often resolve, but not always.
-Sometimes, it will connect and show all folders, and while navigating through the folder structure, this error will occur. Sometimes, going up a level will resolve, other times, I need to disconnect and reconnect. Example screenshot attached]

Please make sure that both Viewer and remote Hosts are upd ated to the latest version 7.0.2.0 and their versions match as we've significantly improved the File Transfer mode starting version 7, so such issues might be caused by version mismatch.
In addition, when experiencing such issues please try switching fr om Current user to System using the Access menu in the File Transfer window.
In case if both Host and Viewer are upd ate to the latest version and switching users does not help, please feel free to send us the Host log files for examination to support@remoteutilities.com or you can open a ticket and attach the files there. You can locate the Host log files in the following folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Remote Utilities - Host\Logs\.

When file transfers do not complete, no status is shown to indicate this. The failure to complete could be a connection drop, or interruption fr om the remote end, but still no error to show the transfer has failed.
I know a successful completion will auto close the transfer window, but should a non-successful completion keep it open?

Please note that the File Transfer mode has a built-in Smart download resumption feature which means that if the file transfer was interrupted due to disconnect, the download will resume automatically the next time you initiate a remote control session.
In addition, please note that you can also disable the checkbox Close when operation is completed in the lower part of the File Transfer window - this way the transfer window will stay opened even when the transfer is finished, so you can check if there were any errors:
Is it just me? - 04 Aug 2021 09:58:13

Often the ones showing offline, are actually online, and will allow me to connect, however, it takes 1-3 connection attempts before the connection comes up. Most of the hosts will experience this at some point in time.

I also have many cases wh ere a host shows as Orange - Online, then when I double click it, I get the hourglass, and it will turn grey and fail to connect 5 times. Sometimes, another double click will work, other times, nothing will work, not even a restart of the viewer. However, I will come back to it an hour later and connect without issues.

The issues above are most probably caused by some connectivity issues that might be occurring on either side of the connection. Could you please send us the Host log file fr om a remote Host wh ere these issues occurred and specify an approximate time frame when you've experienced the issue for this specific Host. This way, we will be able to examine the log files to see what might be causing these issues.

I have some hosts that get stuck in a grey state with an hourglass icon, and never move. Only a restart of the viewer will clear this. Even a Sign Out / Sign In will not fix this.

I will forward this issue to our development department and will ask for their input on this.

There is no display between the pressing of the Log Off / Sign Out button at the remote end, and the screen wh ere you can choose / enter a different user.

Could you please clarify if you mean logging off the remote session, i.e. from Viewer to Host or if you mean logging off/switching a Windows user on your remote machine? In case if you mean the latter one, can you please try using the Send Ctrl+Alt+Del command from a Toolbar in Full Control and View mode? In case if you mean something else, please elaborate a bit more on this issue.

When a full control connection drops off, the viewer window does not close, it goes grey and shows a reconnecting message in the top left.

Please try using the Log off connection on disconnect feature - this way your Viewer will log off if connection is interrupted, so the Full Control window will be closed automatically. This feature can be enabled in the Connection Propertied window -> Additional Properties tab.

I find the clipboard get and se t options very temperamental. Particularly the Se t Clipboard does not always take the first time, it routinely takes 2-3 times before it commits, and there is almost always a delay of 3-5 seconds after clicking set before it will apply the change. I am only ever set a line of text, never pictures or any large data. This problem comes and goes randomly on random hosts.

Thank you for letting us know - we will try to reproduce the issue to see is we can implement fixes for it in our future updates.

-The software is slow, just generally speaking. Right clicking a host and clicking properties is a full second before it appears. I know this is possibly a machine based issue, however, it is consistent across all my machines, which range from a 7yr laptop to a 1yr old Core i7 workstation.

Such issues might be caused by a variety of factors, including hardware-related factors or connectivity issues on the Server's side. Please try referring to this KB page and see if any of the solutions listed there helps to improve the connection speed/performance.

Some hosts do not come back online if they have been off for an extended period. I recently had an issue with the firewall to my Server, which denied connections from certain IP ranges. Once this was fixed, some hosts stayed grey and showed as offline until the machines were rebooted. Even restarting the Remote Host service did not bring them online.

Firewall/antivirus software activities might often cause temporary issues with connectivity for example by blocking required ports or access to servers. In order to avoid similar issues please try adding the Host installation folders to your firewall exception list as described here. In addition, please make sure that the ports required for Remote Utilities to work properly - by default it's TCP outbound ports 5655/443 for Viewer and Host and Inbound port 5655 for RU Server. However, since you use RU Server the port values might be custom in your case - please make sure to allow these ports in your firewall settings.

Hope that helps.

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