Remote connections through any firewall

[gaelenb]

I'm looking for a product that will allow me to connect to any of my client machines, even if they are behind a firewall and that firewall has no forwarding setup. In other words, my clients would need to initiate a connection to me, over which I would establish a VNC-like connection to control their PC.

I know there are products out there to do this. Ever heard of any?

[cobratbq]

Yeah UltraVNC
Look at SC

[gaelenb]

So you're telling me that the very product whose message board I'm posting on has the very feature I'm seeking? A pox on me for a clumsy lout!

What is this SC of which you speak? South Carolina? I thought I looked through the documentation. Any chance you could provide a link? Also, I'll look again.

[Sergio]

http://sc.uvnc.com/index.php?section=12

[mortenchristensen]

my clients would need to initiate a connection to me, over which I would establish a VNC-like connection to control their PC.

The "Add new Client"-feature. I think it is part of all flavours of VNC, and it is definately a feature of UltraVNC's server.

[cobratbq]

To be more clear:

The 'Add new client' feature is part of every VNC flavour (unless they've thrown it out). Because the server is initiating a connection with the client, the client has to forward any incoming ports (instead of the server when the client is connecting to the server).
This is a simple solution to the ever-growing problem of people using their internet connection from behind a router.

The SC is a little bit more. It's a small combination-package that makes it possible to create a list of 'hosts' (the listening clients) to which a server (or for example a customer with a problem) can connect. It's a little Troubleshooting tool.

[davidschlesinger]

echovnc allows for connection through any firewall. I am using it successfully with ultravnc

http://echovnc.sf.net

[Oliver]

I believe that UltraVNC brings everything required with the listening viewer and SC. So practically you won't even need echovnc since UVNC also allows for secure connections via plugins (which can also be included in the SC).

[sbest]

Heyaz. I'm the project coordinator behind EchoVNC, and I just wanted to clarify its differences with UltraVNC's really useful "Single Click" (SC) implementation.

They are clearly very similar in that they both provide an easy way to access a VNC Server behind an unconfigured firewall, and they both provide data securiity with end-to-end encryption.

However, EchoVNC's aim is to enable VNC connections regardless of firewall configuration on either the VNC Server side *or* the VNC Viewer side. UVNC-SC, of course, is a great solution for the Server side, but firewall configuration (and port-forwardings) are still necessary on the VNC Viewer side. Another important difference is that EchoVNC works only for Viewer-side initiated connections, while UVNC-SC works only for Server-side initiated connetions -- which is best for you depends on how you want to initiate remote-access connections: from the PC being "remoted", or from the PC doing the "remoting".

Of course, EchoVNC is not much more than a UI wrapped around the same open-source EchoWare DLL that Kaboodle uses for "firewall friendly" Internet connections. I'd be very willing to help contribute to the UltraVNC's team efforts to intergrate EchoWare into a future release, should their development team feel it would be as beneficial to their userbase as I do.

cheers,
Scott

[CBailey]

EchoVNC looks very interesting. Although UltraVNC does seem to do everything EchoVNC does (UltraVNC can still make a connection with both server and remote behind a firewall, using Repeater II), I've had all kinds of interesting problems using the Repeater, and another choice is very welcome. I'd be ever so happy to find something that 'Just Works'.