Remote Support in Corporate Branch Offices

[raja_s_patil]

Hi Friends,

We are multi-Branch, multi-location corporate organization and
in phase of accepting Kubuntu as desktop OS. We have completed
almost every functional test for Kubuntu and found that it is quite
suitable for us. As of today we use mix of Win98, XP, W2k3 as
various desktop and server OS. All of our branches have ADSL
Broadband internet connection and we carry remote support
to our employees almost in any branch with team-viewer and
frequency of such support is really very high. While accepting
Kubuntu as our corporate Desktop OS we need such kind of
replacement. the structure of Typical Branch is as follows.

------------------------------------------------------------- ADSL Router ---> internet
| | | | |
PC1 PC2 PC3 PC4 Server

------------------------------------------------------------- ADSL Router ---> internet
| | | | |
PC1 PC2 PC3 PC4 Server

We should be able to get Remote access to any desktop from any branch
on request from that particular employee. As of today we call on support
persons cell phone and tell him the info given by team-viewer and the
support person irrespective to his physical location can connect to
desktop of requester and help him out.

is there any such thing in Kubuntu available if not plz suggest any other
alternatives we will evaluate that to suit our needs.

Thanks and best regards.

[sithlord48]

Re: Remote Support in Corporate Branch Offices

have you tried the desktop sharing app that comes w/ kubuntu,
check system settings->sharing to set it up ....

[flarson]

Re: Remote Support in Corporate Branch Offices

In my system System Settings-> Sharing refers to file sharing.

VNC is Virtual Network Computer and allows desktop sharing between Mac, Windows, Linux and probably more. If you use apt to search for vnc it shows many version including
krdc - Remote Desktop Connection client for KDE 4
krfb - Desktop Sharing for KDE 4

which are installed by default. I think they are actually a KDE frontend to VNC and I doubt you will find anything better.

[raja_s_patil]

Re: Remote Support in Corporate Branch Offices

thanks for suggestions

I have used VNC before but it needs an IP address of requester
in my case the requester PC is having local IP like 10.-.-.- which is
not accessing through internet. The ADSL router is getting real
IP but that we dont want to get accessed.

If u evaluate teamviewer (Windows based) it wont need any IP address
of requester requester gets a ID number and password suggestion
and requester makes a telephonic call to supporter and communicates
both parameters and the supporter starts teamviewer and enters
those parameters and takes full control of requesters machine even though
its behind the router. I would like to have similar thing on Kubuntu (Linux)
and this wont require any port forwarding at adsl router.

Thanks once again for suggestions

[flarson]

Re: Remote Support in Corporate Branch Offices

You are right, of course, and it seems like there should be a solution. In fact I could use it myself. Looking around I have found a few things that can make this work. One that looks interesting is gitso.
http://code.google.com/p/gitso/
Looks a little new though. Another is UltraVNC. This is GPL bit now commercial also.
http://www.uvnc.com/index.html

I may try these myself but I would also like to hear what you come up with.

[raja_s_patil]

Re: Remote Support in Corporate Branch Offices

Thanks mando_hacker

I am Sorry for delayed response since there were some
firefighting issues which kept me engaged for a while.

Well nice suggestions I will give a try to First one and then
ultra VNC with java addon I think one of them can satisfy
our need.

I am putting forward our need to UltraVNC team through their
forum and let us see what they respond. If required may I request
you to second the need at their forum. Since they are providing
java addon i feel they are near to Team-Viewers mode of functioning
and they will be in position to address it bit fast.

Thanks and best regards

[flarson]

Re: Remote Support in Corporate Branch Offices

I have now tried gitso in the situation you describe, both requester and supporter are behind NAT, and found it to work very well with the supporters side setup to forward port 5500 to the supporters machine. You can include the supporters hostname in a .deb for the client machines so all they do is click the gitso button, select the hostname to get support from, and click start. It then pops up on the supporters desktop.

It is very simple, which is a huge benefit, but it will only work with one support machine per FQDN. You could probably change the port before installation so that certain client machines would use 5501 and get connected to a different support machine, based on the port forwarding.

The UVNC system seems to be more complicated and more capable in this regard. I have not tried it yet. I am not sure what your java addon would do. Maybe you would like to explain that?