john kumpf's community posts

conrad, pm me.

One workaround is to zip the file with encryption with a password as i explain in a related post in this forum here:
https://www.remoteutilities.com/support/forums/messages/forum5/message2096/403-another-workaround-for-downloading-agent.exe-in-firefox-which-results-in_-blocked_-may-contain-a-virus-or-spyware#message2096

Hello again!

So, an upd ate. When zipping with 7-Zip it has the option of Encrypting with a password. If I do that, then none of the antivirus's on virustotal.com can see thru it. It's reported as safe. Presumably, then, it would be allowed to download.

I certainly hear your point about making it as easy for the end-user as possible. However, if the download fails, then that's not easy. I have tried this, and with default windows installation, you can just:

• download the .zip file
  
• double click on the downloaded file (or click 'Run') (which actually opens window's zip browser)
  
• then double click on agent.exe that is displayed (which is actually "in" the .zip file)
  
• type in the password
  
• windows does the work of extracting to temp file and running
  

So, it is really just two more steps, just one more double-click, and typing a password, which is still pretty easy. You're probably on the phone with them walking them thru it.

Then, once you're in, you can extract agent.exe to desktop, or remote install host, or file transfer another agent.exe from your machine to remote.

And you can use the task scheduler to re-start agent outside of the .zip file extracted to the temp dir. Here's some .bat file code i use:

:: this editor is putting a space in all my 'set' commands making them 'se t'
se t future_time=19:05

:: rutserv or agent :
se t path_to_rutsrv=C:\some\path\to\rutserv.exe
se t path_to_rutsrv=C:\some\path\to\agent.exe


:: the /rl is priviledge level
:: the /f means overwrite task
:: the quotes are necessary
::   1. to handle the space in eg program files
::   2. to allow the /start to not be processed by schtasks itself but parsed and passed on
::      as part of the /tr
::   3. so that the first space does not delimited programs and parametrs in task scheduler
:: and you dont need /start at all for agent.exe

schtasks /create /sc once /tn rut_restart /tr "'%path_to_rutsrv%' /start" /st %future_time% /rl highest
schtasks /query /tn rut_restart /v /fo list

I just downloaded agent.exe v6.3 in Firefox 38.0.5 from https://www.remoteutilities.com/download/
(direct link to file: https://www.remoteutilities.com/download/agent/ )
sha256 = 1b71e579af7c138736de3dce6fcfa1c3a173be66be0e8bf5a8ffbd70a4a1­1296

And it downloaded without incident. A previous failure downloading in firefox was reported in this form: Downloading agent.exe in Firefox results in: blocked may contain a virus or spyware--but now it appears to work.  In that older post it suggests to workaround by setting 'browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled' to false. But i did not need that this time; mine was set to true.

I also just tried in Chrome Browser "Version 43.0.2357.130 m" and it resulted in "agent.exe may harm your browsing experience, so Chrome has blocked it." There used to be a drop-down menu choice "Keep" but that's gone now. But you can go into "Show all downloads" and click "Recover malicious file" then you get another popup and have to click "Keep anyway" altho these exact details of what to click and what the exact text says will probably change over time.

Of course this is just to download it in the browser. Then you have to get thru your antivirus perhaps once when downloading and perhaps again when invoking.

Thanks!

It's interesting because Alt + Tab currently moves you forward in the list of windows, and Shift + Alt + Tab currently moves you backwards in the list of windows. I personally do already currently use Shift + Alt + Tab to move backwards in windows. So this new feature will mask that old feature, but only on the remote PC.  I wonder, is the hotkey selection settable?

But, anyway, i can also use Windows + Tab and Shift + Windows + Tab to go forward and backward thru the windows (in a different order, most recently used) and i use that a lot, and that's still there.

This is a big step forward. Thanks!

Ah, so as explained above, i can use the configurator to create an agent with an UN-checked IpV6, however, then the resulting file will have a unique md5/sha1 hash. That means new anti-virus programs will flag it as uncommon/suspicious. It can't be whitelisted at google like your standard agent.exe. I mean, i can ask, but they may never get to my request.

Will the agent.exe resulting from the configurator be digitally signed by Usoris under your certificate?

It was with your hosted service, the default. I dont have my own RU server running. And i have not tried this again since i posted so i dont have any more data on it. But thanks for looking into it.

AH HA! I did not know the MSI configurator could be used to create a new agent. I thot it only wrote an .msi installer. i see now on that page it can create .msi, .exe, or agent.exe. OK great i will check that out.

As for why connection actually failed....

How long does it take from an agent.exe invocation to the Internet-ID being available on your gateway? Another time i tried to connect in this same location it took about 1-2 min. I did not know to wait that long. Perhaps un-checking IPv6 just bought me the time for the agent to register.

And does a brand new host take longer to register than a 2nd invocation of agent.exe on the same host?

Thanks for the reply, Conrad.

I had one problem accessing a remote host using the agent via Internet-ID.
It turned out UN-checking IPv6 fixed the problem.

Is it possible to deploy an agent with IPv6 UN-checked to start out? Or do i have to walk the customer thru the process of un-checking it, which would be difficult.

Or maybe have the agent try both methods without any user intervention?

Note i still have v5.6

It is not feasible for me to update all my remote hosts at the same time.

Can i run a mixed environment, v6.0 viewer with some remote hosts v6.0 and some v5.6?