Is there support for relay and redirect mode

[clayb226]

Hello all,
I am new here, but have used ChunkVNC a few times, it is great. I was curious, though, if it supports relay and redirect mode. What I want to do is have several techs connect to my repeater, I use the Linux repeater, and each work on their system. Also, any word when a Linux version may be released, I am a big Linux fan, and would love to support Linux systems this way. I would like to thank all who have put in the hard work and effort, to get this thing going. I am looking forward to many years using this program. Also, I seen where it is not recommended for unattended access of remote systems, why is this. I will need to connect to remote systems unattended from time to time. Does the server or repeater or something crash from time to time? Does it support a wake function over the internet, that would be ideal for certain situtations. I know I have a lot of questions, but this is the best program I have seen like this and would like to use it for my needs. I also think that the post about the registry hack is interesting, to make the system reboot and reconnect in safemode. I noticed he never attached a batch file, so I am going to try to find time to try this.

EDIT: Another feature that may be worth mentioning here, is the possibility to hand sessions over to another tech. Could be very useful for entry level techs and the such.

Have a great day, and be blessed.

[supercoe]

I am new here, but have used ChunkVNC a few times, it is great.

Thanks.


I was curious, though, if it supports relay and redirect mode. What I want to do is have several techs connect to my repeater, I use the Linux repeater, and each work on their system.

Sorry I don't understand, this is already how it works. The included repeater in the ChunkVNC package allows multiple InstantSupport and ChunkViewer connections at the same time (but only one viewer per ID).
Please clarify.


Also, any word when a Linux version may be released, I am a big Linux fan, and would love to support Linux systems this way.

I had a working test build awhile back but it was very crude but a Linux version is defiantly possible. Focus will remain on Windows first then Mac and Linux.


I would like to thank all who have put in the hard work and effort, to get this thing going. I am looking forward to many years using this program.

Feel free to buy me some beer with the donate button at www.chunkvnc.com


Also, I seen where it is not recommended for unattended access of remote systems, why is this. I will need to connect to remote systems unattended from time to time. Does the server or repeater or something crash from time to time?

The current 3.1 release has the 1.0.8.2 UltraVNC server which is prone to stop connecting to the repeater after some time. I've had much better luck with the 1.0.8.0 server but haven't had time to put it in a release yet. Just replace the winvnc.exe in the SRC\InstantSupport_Files directory and compile a new InstantSupport.


Does it support a wake function over the internet, that would be ideal for certain situtations.

This would be difficult if not impossible to do in most network setups, I recommend you just set the computer to never sleep.


I know I have a lot of questions, but this is the best program I have seen like this and would like to use it for my needs.

No problem, it's nice to see others enthusiasm with ChunkVNC as I created it so that I wouldn't have to buy TeamViewer for my business. I still have a long ways to go before I'll be done with the program but I use it on a daily basis and consider it stable.


I also think that the post about the registry hack is interesting, to make the system reboot and reconnect in safemode. I noticed he never attached a batch file, so I am going to try to find time to try this.

Rebooting to safe mode is something I've been pondering about. I guess I could see the need for some techs to have this but when it boils down to it I just don't see why safe mode would ever be necessary.

Maybe someone could enlighten me on a situation where safe mode would be preferred to booting normally. Maybe it's me but manually adjusting which services run at startup seems trivial.

One could always use msconfig to reboot the computer into safe mode with networking anyways which makes me wonder why it's necessary to have a button on InstantSupport which does the same.


EDIT: Another feature that may be worth mentioning here, is the possibility to hand sessions over to another tech. Could be very useful for entry level techs and the such.

Once InstantSupport is running it will constantly reconnect back to the repeater. As long as the first tech closes their viewer another tech can just connect to that ID and take control.

[clayb226]

Awesome, I did not realize that the repeater was built to let many instances of the viewer to run at once. How many connections can run at one time on this system? Does the 1.0.8.0 seem to not crash, I may have many running the installed service at one time. Thanks for all your help.

[supercoe]

I believe the included Windows repeater is good for 20 connections, the (not included) Linux repeater can handle thousands so it's really only limited by bandwidth.

I don't know what you mean when you say "not crash", even 1.0.8.2 should be stable it just has a problem with reconnecting to the repeater after some time (hours).

[B]

I've had the 1.0.8.0 server lock up after long periods (many days); to be safe I suggest you schedule a restart and/or set up restart rules for the Windows service. (I still suspect it's just my old machine's problem though; it's a rare occurrence.)

<b>Edit: Maybe not so rare -- it's happened again. My icon is yellow and unresponsive. I can NOT restart the service; when I try it times out with an error and still reads "Stopping" in services.

Killing the instantsupport.exe process in Task Manager <i>did</i> work, and then I was able to start uvnc_service without rebooting. So it was a runaway process. The repeater is still running.</b>

However, the 1.0.8.0 is <b>miles</b> better than 1.0.8.2 in keeping persistent connections to the repeater. In my mind (and I think supercoe's) 1.0.8.2 is really unusable for any permanent repeater connectivity, unless the viewer is already connected full time. So to me the 1.0.8.0 swap is essential.

Finally if your setup is such that all servers are in the same place, you might take a look at Guacamole or other projects that don't necessarily rely on the classic UltraVNC repeater. SCprompt is good for "hard mapped" relationships between viewers and servers.

The next version of ChunkVNC promises to be closer to a panacea, but no ETA has been announced.

[clayb226]

I know that I have read this in here, but does anyone know about a way to use authentication to the viewer. If I fire someone, how can I keep them from hacking into my server without recompiling the program if my ports are open in my router? I am just curious, any ideas would be great thanks in advanced, have a great day, and be blessed.

[B]

Just manually change the RC4 key used by the DSM plugin, right in the relevant ChunkVNC directories on your stations.

It's the same thing you'd have to do when recompiling.

Actually, the easiest way to regenerate a new RC4 key might be to use the recompile feature and then just grab the RC4.key file to redistribute to your trusted stations. (You can also use a regular copy of UltraVNC to do it.)

To be clear, the <b>only</b> real security here is that DSMPlugin, and because it's a shared, unrevocable key, you <b>have</b> to change it at all stations.

(If you've managed to get SecureVNC incorporated, this may not apply.)

[supercoe]

Don't forward port 5901 to the repeater, this will block viewers from connecting from outside of your LAN.

[B]

New user ccsupport just provided a Safe Mode patch at [post=72240][/post]

[clayb226]

the (not included) Linux repeater can handle thousands so it's really only limited by bandwidth.

I fired up the Linux repeater, at the top it said max sessions 100. It sounds like this is the limit. Does anyone know of an easy way to change this limit?

Also, when I install as a service, I put the ID # at 100001, and it asked for other stuff, I looked at the code, at it said in the random generation part that #'s start at 200000. Could this cause such a thing? Keep up the good work guys, unfortunatully, at this point I can only help with the testing process, maybe in the furture I can help a little more.

[clayb226]

Well, I figured out how to change the number of simutaneous connections, the "maxsessions = " line in the ultravncrepeater.ini file in the directory. Then you must run the program with the optional tag pointing to the file mentioned above. According to the file, you can not have more than 1000 sessions at one time, and it is stated that this would take some heafty servers. I bumped mine up, and will try some testing and stressed tests if I can find enough people to help.

[supercoe]

Someone else recently wrote some repeater testing software because they were also interested in the same thing you were. (sorry don't have time to find the post) The repeater is a nominal task that requires low resources but is heavy on bandwidth depending on the UltraVNC server settings.

Karl Runge's Perl repeater is my choice on Linux:
http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/ultravnc_repeater.pl


If you look at the ChunkVNC source code you'll see why I designated the ID numbers. 100000-200000 connects the viewer without encryption because the Mac InstantSupport doesn't support it. 200000-999999 was just a large range to connect the Windows InstantSupport with minimal chance of the generated ID number to be the same as one that is already connected.

Remember, the more clients you have connected to the repeater the more chance there is of a duplicate number being generated by InstantSupport. Future versions will have ID management.