On Aug 23, 4:47*pm, JJCSR <JCro... (AT) ktp (DOT) com> wrote:
Ed:

Having installed TeamViewer on my desktop at work, which is behind a
SonicWALL firewall, as well as on my laptop at home, I find that I
have no problem connecting straight through from laptop-to-desktop -
without opening up my VPN that I use when connecting, otherwise.
So, my question at this time is, "what about security?". Somewhere,
outside of my network infrastructure (firewall, et al), there is a
"record" kept of identity to my desktop. By simply supplying the
"partner ID" of my desktop, at work, I was able to connect to that
system from my laptop, at home. What's missing here, as far as
security measures are concerned?

Jim Cronin
Kittery Trading Post

On 2011-08-24 10:26:39 -0400, JJCSR <JCronin (AT) ktp (DOT) com> said:

By using a product/service such as TeamViewer, you're "bypassing" your
firewall by having the desktop make an outbound connection to
TeamViewer servers which store its "Partner ID", IP and TCP connection
port. Your laptop requests this mapping information by connecting to
the TeamViewer server and providing the appropriate "PartnerID". A
lookup of the mapping information is performed and given to your laptop
to make the connection. I assume you must also provide some other
credentials such as a password, no?

If the convenience of such a solution worries you from a security
standpoint, then your only other options are to make a VPN connection
from your laptop, or make a port available on your firewall for a
secure protocol such as SSH (22). Using SSH would allow any SSH
capable client to connect without the hassle of requiring SonicWall
client software.

Ordered by declining security, but increasing simplicity

1) SonicWall client VPN software
2) SSH tunneling
3) 3rd party bypass e.g. TeamViewer

Having personally used SonicWall and knowing the PITA factor it can
create, I would opt for #2. Open port 22 on your SonicWall and forward
it to an SSH service on your LAN. If you're a Windows shop, BitVise
SSHD is a great SSH service product. Tunnelier (free) is a nice SSH
client for Windows as well.

--
Kevin Powick

"Ed Sheehan" wrote:

I've been looking for another app to control my home PC by phone. I
usually use LogMeIn for similar PC/PC remote access. Their Ignition
phone app must be purchased, though it can still be used with free
accounts (which define the collection of PCs to which you want to
connect).

Based on Ed's recommendation I installed TeamViewer to my Android,
with the server component on my PC. TeamViewer works great and I'm
going to keep it installed.

However! TeamViewer is only free for personal use. Commercial users
require a license, which unless I missed something is over $700. For
this reason I may uninstall it.

If you search for "teamviewer alternative" you'll find many other
options. I've tried other remote control apps for the phone but I
really don't trust them. My thinking could be wrong on this, but I
think the lesser known options have less security infrastructure due
to less funding. So unless some company has been vetted by some
millions of users, and subsequently vetted by independent watchdog
companies, I'm not inclined to use their solution. LogMeIn and
TeamViewer have gone through this process.

Based on Ross' comments, at some point I'm going to re-visit the basic
RDP/PPTP option, which would avoid the middle man and perhaps one tier
of vulnerability.

TeamViewer and similar utilities require the PC to have a component
installed. If you are providing ad-hoc support for someone who
doesn't have software pre-installed for you, try http://join.me (from
the LogMeIn people). The user just clicks the Share link and they get
a number which they give to you. You put this in the Join.Me Viewer
and then you can see their screen. The user must approve the
execution of the runtime but permanent installation is not required.
It's simple, free, temporary, view-only access.

HTH
T

On Aug 24, 2:50*pm, Tony Gravagno <tony_grava... (AT) nospam (DOT) invalid>
wrote:
have (CDP certainly at the top of the list) for not only suggestions
for mobile-connection products (Thanks, again, Ed, for TeamViewer
hint). My one and only objective for this connection is for me to
be able to have a means of monitoring and troubleshooting our systems
from afar (this time of year, specifically, the New England
beaches).

One of our network specialists who we deal with, often, advised me
that TeamViewer is a "cool and secure app". As a matter of fact, he
had recently been asked to provide a resolution for one of our VP's,
and was not able to make it happen, due to the issue with ActiveX not
being available for iOS connections. Today, after inquiring about
TeamViewer, he apologized for not having remembered it before.

At this point, for what I am looking to do, I believe Ed has provided
a solution that will work for me. I will, however, look into the
other suggestions presented.

Again, thank you all.

Jim

I am looking at iRdesktop, but I'm not finding my computer at work yet. Our
firewall may be hiding it from the world.

I use teamviewer to get into my work desktop after hours, from a restaurant,
or in the car when an emergency strikes. Then I can either run a terminal
server and get into our local servers, or use RDP to get to a remote server
running a process which serves as a monitor to other processes which may
need attention. It would be nice to get to the final destination directly,
but it's too removed from the outside world without some kind of specialized
software. From home, I use SonicWall/RDP, which has less latency, but I
still have to RDP again to the remote servers. I don't see a way arounf the
double jump. I would use the SonicWall solution if it were available, due to
its increased security and speed, but teamviewer, as a web gateway, is
working well. I supose I'll have to keep looking for a solution where I
won't be violating the "free for personal use" clause...

Ed

"JJCSR" <JCronin (AT) ktp (DOT) com> wrote

On Aug 24, 2:50 pm, Tony Gravagno <tony_grava... (AT) nospam (DOT) invalid>
wrote:
have (CDP certainly at the top of the list) for not only suggestions
for mobile-connection products (Thanks, again, Ed, for TeamViewer
hint). My one and only objective for this connection is for me to
be able to have a means of monitoring and troubleshooting our systems
from afar (this time of year, specifically, the New England
beaches).

One of our network specialists who we deal with, often, advised me
that TeamViewer is a "cool and secure app". As a matter of fact, he
had recently been asked to provide a resolution for one of our VP's,
and was not able to make it happen, due to the issue with ActiveX not
being available for iOS connections. Today, after inquiring about
TeamViewer, he apologized for not having remembered it before.

At this point, for what I am looking to do, I believe Ed has provided
a solution that will work for me. I will, however, look into the
other suggestions presented.

Again, thank you all.

Jim

I was using iSSH on my iPhone but have since discovered GoToMyPC and I
love it. Have it on my iPad now too for better viewing and control. It
connects to the mother ship through the firewall then to my virtual
workstation located in the HQ building. Even when I'm on my remote PC
in my remote office I use it for file transfers. It is a drag and drop
file transfer interface and it works great.

For terminal work when using my office PC on the D3 server over at HQ
I use a putty connection through their firewall to which I connect a
local copy of wIntegrate or a telnet app depending on what I'm doing.

Being able to run around with just an iPad and using it to deal with
emergiencies from the local Starbucks is a very cool thing. No more
lugging around the laptop and waiting for it to boot when the phone
rings.

Terry

On Aug 23, 5:14*am, JJCSR <JCro... (AT) ktp (DOT) com> wrote:

On 2011-08-24 21:31:23 -0400, Tony Gravagno
<tony_gravagno (AT) nospam (DOT) invalid> said:

Control. Since outbound requests from behind the firewall for port 80
typically represent web browsing traffic, isolating remote access to a
separate port allows admins to take advantage of advanced firewall
features, such as traffic monitoring, without impacting web surfing.

--
Kevin Powick

JJCSR wrote:
Only 32.7% on topic here:

It occurred to me that it doesn't do much good to have a desktop
control app if the target system is down. So I setup my system and
router to support Wakeup On Lan (WOL). Then I got an app that sends a
signal over the internet, through the router, and into a specific
system identified by its MAC address. The net result is that I can
power up my system from my phone when I'm out of town, and then attach
to the desktop a couple minutes later using one of the tools mentioned
earlier in this thread.

I have another system where I'd like to do the same but either the
mobo or the NIC don't support WOL. Oh well.

I think this could be cooler than when I had D3 turn on my coffee pot.

On 8/25/11 10:34 PM, Tony Gravagno wrote:
LOL!

--
frosty

frosty wrote:
Unintended...