It is a lot simpler to provide assistance when you are actually with the person having the problem. You can tell them, "No, that's not the right program.  Click on the icon that looks like an envelope.  No, not that one. The one two over to the right."  Or, you can actually take the keyboard and mouse and have them watch what you do.  Unfortunately, it is not always convenient to get together.  But technology comes to the rescue in the form of remote control software.  The basic concept behind such software is the ability to connect to a remote computer, see the screen, and remotely control the keyboard and mouse.  This results in the ability to be there virtually, without having to hop in your car and drive across town.

Remote connection for file transfer

There are several remote control programs on the market.  Names like PC Anywhere and LapLink may be familiar.  Windows XP has the Remote Assistance feature.  In November, 2000, I looked at a free program called VNC that works quite well.  See my review at: http://opcug.ca/reviews/vnc.htm.

I have used VNC quite a bit.  While it works quite well, I do have some concerns with the program.  It sometimes has problems with screen updates and you get used to calling for screen refreshes.  While it has password protection to prevent just anyone from establishing a connection, passwords are passed in plain text, where they could potentially be sniffed by someone else.  And it does not provide any means to transfer files between the two machines.  But it is free, which is really nice.  And it's available for just about every version of Windows and even other operating systems such as UNIX and Macintosh.  So it remains an option. More than once, over the phone, I walked someone through downloading and installing VNC from the Internet, so I could then connect to their computer and help solve a problem.

The bare bones approach of VNC made me think about looking for another program.  I was looking for better security, the ability to transfer files, better screen updates, and a small hit on resources-both memory and network bandwidth.  My search led me to Sunbelt Software's Sunbelt Remote Administrator v2.1, which claims, "It's got everything you need and nothing you don't!"  And it comes at the reasonable price of US$30 for two computers.

Sunbelt Remote Administrator (Radmin) is remarkably well thought out.  Although I am normally skeptical of programs that claim to be lean and mean, yet offer all the features users need, I think Radmin hits the mark.

Installation is simple and straight-forward.  If you are running Windows NT/2K/XP, you can install it as a service.  In this mode, Radmin is always running, even before a user logs in at the console.  This is particularly good for doing remote administration of servers, as they are typically sitting there with nobody logged in.  You can also install it as a simple application, so it is available for someone to connect when you specifically run the program.

If you only want to connect to a remote computer, as opposed to have them connect to your computer, you don't even have to install anything.  All you need is to copy the program and a support DLL to any directory on your disk and run the program.  Very simple.  The two files will even fit on a floppy disk!

Strong security

If the computers you are going to be using for both ends are part of a Win NT/2K/XP Workgroup or Domain, you can choose NT security, which is pretty slick.  You can choose specific users on your network and give rights to use any of the four connection types: view only, full control, file transfer, and Telnet.

If you are not using NT security, you have to set a password.  It can be either blank (if you are not concerned about security at all!) or it has to be at least eight characters long.  Unlike with NT security, you don't know who is connecting, so connecting systems can use any of the connection types.  If this is of concern, you can set the program to prompt when someone is trying to connect.  A message box pops up listing the IP address of the machine trying to connect and the connection type they are attempting. You then have the choice of accepting or rejecting the connection.

IP filtering is also available, which allows you to specify single machines or entire subnets of computers permitted to connect to your computer.

All Radmin sessions are secured with 128-bit encryption.  This is done for the entire session, from initial connection-before a password is sent-right through until you disconnect.  Screen transfers, keystrokes, and mouse movements are all encrypted.  No way will anyone sniffing the wire figure out what you are doing.

Radmin has a default listening port of TCP 4899, but if that is not suitable for any reason, you can change it.  Personally, I think even if you don't have firewall issues that would preclude using 4899, you should change it.  If a vulnerability is ever discovered in Radmin, you can bet the script kiddies will be out there scanning for machines that have TCP 4899 open.  While security through obscurity is often frowned upon, in reality, it helps.

Remote control of Windows XP from Windows 2000

Smooth operator

I found the remote control to be remarkably smooth to use, even over relatively slow connections.  It automatically tunes itself somewhat for different connection speeds.  When there are no screen changes occurring, there is a little traffic dribbling back and forth, to the tune of about 1K per second.

As soon as you start doing lots of screen changes, such as dragging a window around, bandwidth usage jumps.  On a LAN connection at 100Mb/sec, while dragging a window around, I saw bandwidth usage of around 150K per second.  You can reduce bandwidth usage by adjusting the maximum number of updates per second.

On a modem connection at 28.8bps, things  were sluggish, but useable.  You have to have some patience, as should be expected when you are so starved for bandwidth.  After all, you can only transfer about 3K per second on a 28.8bps connection.

Memory usage is frugal.  On a memory starved Windows NT Workstation machine (64MB RAM with lots of running programs), when Radmin is sitting idle with no connection, it uses about 300K of memory.  On a machine with oodles of RAM (512MB on my main machine), the idle state usually uses around 4MB.

The amount of RAM used while a remote control session is in operation varies depending on the screen resolution and colour depth.  On the Windows NT Workstation machine, running 800x600 with 16 bit colour depth, it uses about 4MB RAM.  On a machine running 1280x1024 with 32 bit colour, it uses about 12MB.

The CPU cycles taken to run a remote control program can be quite significant.  The program has a lot to do, watching for changes to the screen, packaging up that information and passing it off to the viewer at the remote end, synchronizing mouse movements, capturing remote keystrokes, etc.

When a connection was established, but there were no screen changes happening, Radmin generally created about a 10% load on the CPU.  As soon as I started dragging windows around, the CPU load increased dramatically, as was expected. Radmin is trying to give as accurate a picture as possible.  To do this, it has to chew through the CPU cycles.  On my main computer, a Pentium III/933 running at 1280x1024x24-bit colour, CPU utilization by Radmin would typically run about 50% when dragging a window around.  When doing this on a Pentium MMX/200 running at 800x600x16-bit colour, CPU utilization by Radmin would run about 60%.  If this is a problem, you can limit the number of screen updates per second.  This will reduce the CPU load, at the expense of smoothness.

Four modes

As mentioned earlier, there are four connection types available.  You can have any or all of them open at the same time to one or more remote computers.  The main connection type is full control. In that mode, you can not only see the remote desktop, but you have control over the remote keyboard and mouse. View only mode allows you to see the remote desktop, but you have no control over the remote keyboard or mouse.

In addition, there are two other modes that can be very useful:  File transfer and Telnet. File transfer opens an Explorer-like window with two panes.  The top pane shows local drives and the bottom pane shows drives on the remote machine.  You can drag files from one window to the other to copy them.  You also have the ability to delete files.

Telnet will open a command prompt on the remote machine and give you keyboard control over that window.  Keyboard jockeys know that it's frequently faster and easier to accomplish something from a command prompt.  As well, this mode is extremely stingy in resources, both memory and bandwidth. Anyone who has ever used the NT Resource Kit utility rcmd will recognize and understand the value of this mode immediately.  Telnet requires the NT kernel, so it won't work on Windows 95, 98, or ME.

There is actually a fifth mode called shutdown and it gives you four choices.  You can restart the remote machine, shut it down, switch it off, or log off the current user.

I found clipboard support to be a bit awkward to use.  You can copy data to your local clipboard and then use the control menu option Set clipboard to transfer the contents of the clipboard to the clipboard of the remote machine.  Likewise, you can use the control menu option Get clipboard to transfer the contents of the remote clipboard to your local clipboard.

I much prefer the way VNC handles clipboard transfers.  While you have a remote session in place, when you copy something to either clipboard, it automatically copies it to the other clipboard as well.

All in all, I found Radmin lived up to Sunbelt's billing;  "It's got everything you need and nothing you don't!" It is a small, efficient package that truly does deliver all the functionality I am looking for in a remote control program.  I highly recommend it.

SunBelt Remote Administrator requires Windows 95 or better.  Sunbelt Software claims it will run on a 386 with 8MB RAM.  I will have to take their word for it. I have not seen such a machine in many years. TCP/IP is required.  Resolutions up to 2048x2048 and 32 bit colour are supported.

Pricing is US$30 for two computers.

You can find out more information and download a 30-day eval copy from: http://www.sunbelt-software.com.

Bottom Line:

Sunbelt Remote Administrator
US$30 for two computers
Sunbelt Software
http://www.sunbelt-software.com