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