Community
Disconnect vs. Lock workstation
Pepa Kokes,
User (Posts: 32)
Jan 31, 2020 2:04:53 am EST
Support level: Free or trial
When a Remote Utilities Full Control connection to a computer ends, the computer gets locked. That's as it should be. However, I am encountering an undesirable locking behavior in conjunction with short disconnects:
1) Viewer connects to a Host in Full Control mode and controls the computer for a while.
2) A momentary disconnect occurs.
3) Viewer tries to reconnect in five seconds and succeeds.
4) Viewer can still control the computer for a while.
5) After a short while, the computer gets locked.
This is definitely incorrect. I suspect it is caused by the fact that disconnections can't get detected other than by missing a timeout and when that occurs, the Host doesn't care whether a connection is still available and simply locks the workstation. Unfortunately, it means that a computer may remain unlocked for some time and that someone can connect to a computer and work with it without unlocking. I think these fixes should be considered:
1) Decrease the timeout for "connection lost" on the Host. It might be a good idea to make it user-configurable.
2) Do not lock workstation on "connection lost" if another connection is active.
3) A Host configuration option to *also* lock the workstation on each Viewer connect. Default: Not active.
4) A Host configuration option to mitigate #3 in such a way that if the same host (identified by e.g. a nonce sent by the Host to the Viewer during the previous successful connection) reconnects without being properly disconnected while the workstation is not locked, #3 will be skipped for this Host. Default: Active.
1) Viewer connects to a Host in Full Control mode and controls the computer for a while.
2) A momentary disconnect occurs.
3) Viewer tries to reconnect in five seconds and succeeds.
4) Viewer can still control the computer for a while.
5) After a short while, the computer gets locked.
This is definitely incorrect. I suspect it is caused by the fact that disconnections can't get detected other than by missing a timeout and when that occurs, the Host doesn't care whether a connection is still available and simply locks the workstation. Unfortunately, it means that a computer may remain unlocked for some time and that someone can connect to a computer and work with it without unlocking. I think these fixes should be considered:
1) Decrease the timeout for "connection lost" on the Host. It might be a good idea to make it user-configurable.
2) Do not lock workstation on "connection lost" if another connection is active.
3) A Host configuration option to *also* lock the workstation on each Viewer connect. Default: Not active.
4) A Host configuration option to mitigate #3 in such a way that if the same host (identified by e.g. a nonce sent by the Host to the Viewer during the previous successful connection) reconnects without being properly disconnected while the workstation is not locked, #3 will be skipped for this Host. Default: Active.
Pauline,
Support (Posts: 2848)
Jan 31, 2020 10:05:16 am EST
Hello Pepa,
Thank you for your message.
This is a known issue as we were able to reproduce it and we will be implementing a fix for the issue in our future updates. However, thank you for your suggestions. I will forward them to our development team to see if we can implement any of them.
Please let me know if you have other questions.
Thank you for your message.
This is a known issue as we were able to reproduce it and we will be implementing a fix for the issue in our future updates. However, thank you for your suggestions. I will forward them to our development team to see if we can implement any of them.
Please let me know if you have other questions.
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