Community
alert when a remote Host becomes UNavailable
Links used in this discussion
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: 3184)
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
Hi John,
Thank you for your patience.
I’ve just checked on this request with our developers and, unfortunately, for now we do not have any plans to introduce a Host offline notification. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
Let us know if you have more questions.
Thank you for your patience.
I’ve just checked on this request with our developers and, unfortunately, for now we do not have any plans to introduce a Host offline notification. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
Let us know if you have more questions.
* Website time zone: America/New_York (UTC -5)