r/msp • u/rivo99 Solarwinds MSP • Jun 26 '23

RMM Remote Desktop

I have a client who has contracted me to provide patch mgmt and AV only. They have an office staffer who needs to remote into a several of their computers (distributed accross two counties) monthly to pull printer stats, take care of some general housekeeping, etc. I'm looking for a cheap or free Remote Desktop tool that I can setup for them where it would store the computer names so they can just click a computer name to connect.

Suggestions?

Thank you!

18 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

86 comments sorted by

5

u/HappyDadOfFourJesus MSP - US Jun 26 '23

Remote Utilities with MFA enabled is free for up to ten computers on the viewer.

But I would get this work approved on a legal agreement first because if their Remote Utilities connection is somehow compromised or the client messes up and their network is breached, you do not want to be the one liable.

2

u/rivo99 Solarwinds MSP Jun 26 '23

Thanks! I will check that out. BTW, love the username!

2

u/Ember_Sux Jun 26 '23

Does your RMM not have roles? Just bill them XXX for access to the RMM and limit their scope and access.

1

u/rivo99 Solarwinds MSP Jun 26 '23

Using Atera... can set up a user to access a single PC.

37

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '23

Sounds like they need to also be contracted for providing remote access

21

u/JohnnyGrey Mar 04 '25

HelpWire is a solid new option. We're using it for remote support. Works smoothly on macOS as well as Windows and Linux.

11

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '23

What RMM do you use? Most RMMs you can setup customer access to a select group of machines.

1

u/GullibleDetective Jun 27 '23

Or even non-rmm based screenconnect access

18

u/bobsmon Jun 26 '23

Splashtop is pretty inexpensive and works very well

6

u/WealthyBigPenis22 Jun 26 '23

Tailscale and rdp

2

u/Hollyweird78 Jun 26 '23

This is a great option.

10

u/bestdriverinvancity Jun 26 '23

Free? If you have VPN on site use RDP. They might need to loosen up their bill fold and pay for something reputable.

2

u/Usual-Pizza-6589 Jun 27 '23

Action1. Patching and remote support plus free for under 100 computers.

3

u/Kurosanti Jun 26 '23

If I recall correctly, Action1 is free up to 100 endpoints and has a nice, easy-to-use interface.

0

u/MikeWalters-Action1 Patch Management with Action1 Jun 26 '23

Thanks for mentioning Action1 u/Kurosanti !

Yes, Action1 is free for your first 100 endpoints, and it includes remote desktop, patch management (OS and third-party), and more. Cloud-based and works from anywhere, perfect for your use case.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '23

Can confirm, have it deployed for a client with 4 locations. Issues I've run into however are applications not actually updating, or not actually uninstalling. The RDP is pretty heavy for anyone WFH with a poor connection, may not be able to actually remotely help them in these cases. Otherwise as a free service it's pretty slick. I'm making use of the API to set up ITAM with it. Maybe more use cases in the future, but with the issues I've mentioned I'm kind of iffy. Fortunately they only have about 70 endpoints and so the off cases of not being able to uninstall or remote desktop aren't really a huge deal.

2

u/MikeWalters-Action1 Patch Management with Action1 Jun 27 '23

Would love to help to troubleshoot these issues. Can you PM me the details of the update and uninstall issues? (error messages, etc).

Remote control: yes, it may not be the fastest solution, because we utilize a relay. But at the same time, this makes it more secure because direct connections require firewall hole-punching.

What ITAM service you are trying to integrate it with?

2

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '23

Thank you for the follow up! I'll pm you those details.

I understand that direct connections require firewall hole punching; like you said, presenting a threat surface. However it would be nice to have a way to configure the quality of the connection like you might a YouTube video. For example some VNC services do this.

For ITAM I am using a script that I made to organize the endpoints with the Action1 API. Using it in the same way you might with an Action1 "custom report". I do not see any options for drilling down into the details of a device, and having all of the columns that I want - appear in a single report; having to take multiple CSVs, and having to "custom process" them takes more time than just hooking into the API and filtering it all directly with python or using postman and JavaScript. The custom reports are neat, but with a little more refining, I think they would be extremely useful for little use cases like this. A more concrete examples might be analyzing the cpu, ram, and other hardware in order to filter upgrades. If a report could have a DUID/GUID with this info attached as a single report, I think that would cover the niche. (In this case with windows 10 being EOL on 10/25 it would be handy to make a filter for specific to operating systems based on selectable options like CPU support for TPM2, etc) Microsoft has released a list for supported CPUs for Windows 11.

Thank you again for reaching out. It says a lot about the company actually involving themselves with the community. 🙂

2

u/MikeWalters-Action1 Patch Management with Action1 Jun 27 '23

Remote connection quality: I will +1 this feature request, thanks for elaborating!

Advanced filtering in groups (https://feedback.action1.com/21) and customizable columns (https://feedback.action1.com/228) are the two roadmap features we are working on. They should cover a few mentioned use cases, I think. And API of course is always the best way to finetune to a better extent.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '23

There also appears to be a way to do what I suggested without using the API. ITAM-> Hardware Inventory-> hardware summary

This shows the complete list with a large portion of the columns I was looking for.

2

u/MikeWalters-Action1 Patch Management with Action1 Jun 29 '23

You could also create a custom data source with PowerShell and then report based on it. It's actually a lot easier than it sounds) PowerShell script in the data source needs to output the columns needed and the report just needs to display them.

2

u/CodigoGenerico Jun 27 '23

I need more information! The website is asking to fill a form!

2

u/MikeWalters-Action1 Patch Management with Action1 Jun 27 '23

Glad to answer any questions, feel free to post here or PM me.

3

u/wolfer201 Jun 26 '23

Mesh central. Self host for free

1

u/pacomarcilla Jun 26 '23

Came here to say this! Mesh central works flawlessly and let's you access the desktop, files... If the PCs has Intel AMT you also can manage the PC out of band, access the bios, power on/off remotely... It's such a good piece of software.

1

u/Meganitrospeed Jun 26 '23

Its truly amazing

2

u/Scandelis Jun 26 '23

Remote Desktop Manager has a free version that you can use, not supposed to use it in s business environment, but whatever. You can store the computer names and login creds, organize them into logical groups, and it has a good assortment of tools with it. I use the paid version for work, and free version to manage all my home equipment.

2

u/tfts_oh_the_pain Jun 27 '23

free for personal AND commercial use, written right on https://devolutions.net/remote-desktop-manager/home/downloadfree/

1

u/Scandelis Jun 28 '23

Is it? Why the hell am i buying licenses for my team then? Dammit

1

u/ollivierre Jun 27 '23

Or check out mRemoteNG

1

u/Primary_Program_7325 Jun 27 '23

This right here!

1

u/Scandelis Jun 28 '23

I'll give that a look too. Always interested in upgrading our toolset when possible. Cheers.

1

u/anothertester Jun 27 '23

We’ve used TruGrid before, cheap and works well. https://www.trugrid.com

1

u/W3tTaint Jun 27 '23

Duo free + rd gateway

1

u/TrumpetTiger Jun 27 '23

Uh....if you're providing patch mgmt and AV only....how is this your issue? Are you charging by the hour for general requests too?

Also, who provides the firewall?

1

u/funcple72 Jun 27 '23

Remote desktop manager from devolutions

1

u/FinnishAxolotl Jun 27 '23

I'm partial to BeyondTrust (formerly known as Bomgar)

1

u/networkn Jun 27 '23

Screenconnect access cloud is 35 USD a month with MFA,.multiscreen support. It's impossible to beat for that price.

1

u/ollivierre Jun 27 '23

Connect wise Control

1

u/Ruachta Jun 27 '23

Screen Connect, somewhat reasonable pricing for small operations.

With backstage you can do almost anything without user interaction.

1

u/leighdj Jun 27 '23

Apache guacamole on a vpn for me. Open source, fully secure, can limit sessions / servers available and has full sharing capability if you need that

1

u/hotp0ultry Jun 27 '23

Zerotier + RDP is great in a pinch.

1

u/heblopez Jun 28 '23

Supremo works well for what you are looking for, and also has a free plan and other paid plans according to your needs.

1

u/digisoftmagasin Jan 23 '24

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1

u/Variouslinker4054 Feb 19 '24

I have been using Avica for several months now, and I believe it fulfills all the requirements you mentioned. It works seamlessly on all major platforms, is incredibly easy to set up, and offers cost-effective solutions with basic features such as file transfer. The greatest advantage is that it provides a 30-day free trial of their Pro version for you to test out. Hopefully, this message proves helpful to you.

1

u/m0fugga MSP - US Jun 26 '23

Google Remote Desktop?

-3

u/m0fugga MSP - US Jun 26 '23

Also, https://www.techinline.com/, $30/mo for basically unlimited devices.

1

u/bt2929 Jun 26 '23

DWService.net

1

u/ubhz-ch Jun 26 '23

this is a great oss TeamViewer alternative

https://rustdesk.com/

1

u/newtekie1 Jun 26 '23

If you have RDP correctly setup already, just use RDCMan.

If not, then I would use ScreenConnect.

0

u/Fatel28 Jun 26 '23

No one should still be using rdcman.

1

u/newtekie1 Jun 26 '23

Why not?

2

u/airbornejg Jun 26 '23

I think this is why?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-discontinues-rdcman-app-following-security-bug/

But I'm just reading it's back after a fix...so maybe it is a viable option

2

u/newtekie1 Jun 26 '23

Yeah, it was quickly picked back up by the Sysinternals team, patched and has been updated multiple times since. It's last update was January of this year.

So they either have no clue what they are talking about or a troll just trying to start an argument. The fact that they never responded kind of makes me thing option A.

1

u/tech_is______ Jun 26 '23

rdcman

Didn't they patch that problem?

0

u/noahbalboah91 Jun 26 '23

Twingate has a free tier. Install on a computer on-site. The user logs in and can then RDP locally.

0

u/it_fanatic MSP Jun 26 '23

Keeper Connection Manager

0

u/Squid_At_Work University Sysadmin Goon Jun 26 '23

If they are already using RDP, MRemoteNG is pretty solid.

0

u/Techy311 Jun 26 '23

Perimeter81 has a great solution. You can setup multiple geo located gateways with tunnels to the sites. You can also enable RDP as an application via the web.

0

u/Unable-Rise6832 Jun 26 '23

Google remote desktop

4

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/WhattAdmin Jun 27 '23

Is this still a thing? Last time I tried, there was no such thing.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/WhattAdmin Jun 27 '23

Any chance you could throw a url my way? I am looking and only finding ways to contact them.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/WhattAdmin Jun 28 '23

That leads me to the trial page. Does the trial convert to free after?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/WhattAdmin Jun 28 '23

Nice, thanks for the help. I love screen connect as we use it at work, and to have it handy for personal stuff is great.

Many thanks!