Access a work computer from home without installing SC

[djgotee]

Access a work computer from home without installing the main UltraVNC program and start initiating the winvnc.exe (on the work comp) from your home computer through an email alert program:

The prerequsites for using this method are :

You want to access a work computer from a home computer.
You have a Soho router at work or a router capable of not disrupting the outgoing signal from the SC program.
You are not allowed to install the regular UltraVNC program on your work computer or do not wish to.
You want to initiate the call to the home computer without any assistance from a person (at work), or there is no one at work to initiate it.
Your work computer is left on when you are not at work.
Your outlook express email system is operational at work (that is...you have your own outlook express mail account with its own POP3 incoming mail server).
You get permission to install a very small (uses little or no system resources) non-disruptive email monitoring program on your work computer.
The work computer would have to have a static WAN ip address or you will have to use a service like TZO to have a static DNS name assigned as your dynamic IP address.


The following scenario is a situation where you would have a home computer and a work computer. You would be at home and want to access the work computer. The work computer would be behind a firewall, so thats why we would be using the Single click method (by using SC method, the person at the work computer would be initiating the call to the home computer by pressing on an SC icon and therefore its an outgoing signal and wont require changes to a Soho firewall...however, there may be some situations where the work computer may have another type firewall that disrupts outgoing signals and this will not allow the use of this method.

Under normal circumstances, the SCIII program has an exe icon on the desktop of the remote computer. This was sent to the DT or was previously placed there. A person at work would then have to initiate the connection to the home computer by pressing the icon. The other way to initiate the connection would be to install a very small, non-disruptive email monitoring program (mail alert...the link for this program is : http://www.diamondridge.com/index.html ). The way i configured it, this program sits in the system tray and monitors any incoming email to outlook express and is configured to start the SC program when it "sees" the word "SC" in the subject line of the email. Once the SC program starts, it initiates the connection to the home computer. (Once the person at the home computer sends an email to his work computer with "SC" in the subject line, it initiates the connection).

I found that the SC1 program can not be used because if you start the (created) SC1 executible program with this email monitoring program, it displays a remote support window where you have to then press on another area (double click to connect) in order to initiate the connection. There is no way to have access to the "winVNC" executible when using the SC1 program, it gets "created" and enveloped within the SC1 program when you go online to create it.

However, the SCIII (test5) program makes use of a folder within which is the enitire program with the individual elements (pieces), including the winVNC executible.You would have to use SCIII in order to start the winVNC program icon and this will start the initiation directly. This means that instead of having an individual SC Program Icon on the work computer's desktop, you will need a folder within which are all the individual program "pieces", including the winVNC executible. Then you would "point" the mail monitoring program to this folder and the winVNC program executible to start the connection initiation directly.

To configure the helpdesk file, I ued the following criteria :

[TITLE]
Technical Support - Desktop Sharing
[HOST]

-plugin -connect (IP Addess of the work computer):5500 -noregistry (I tryed this with and without the "-noregistry" and it seems to work ok for both)

I used the MSRC4Plugin_noreg.dsm plugin from the MSRC4Plugin118.zip on the work and home computer's, but had to change the name from MSRC4Plugin_noreg.dsm to MSRC4Plugin.dsm on both to get it to work.
In other words:
At the home computer i used the vncviewer, .... the newly named MSRC4Plugin.dsm and the rc4 key.
At the work computer i used the same ...... newly named MSRC4Plugin.dsm and the rc4 key

I found you can also use the MSRC4Plugin.dsm plugin from the MSRC4Plugin118.zip on both the home and work computers, and obviously, you do not have to change the name.

I did not employ id function, nor did I employ the ssl function (in the helpdesk file).
To start the viewer at the run box on the home computer I used :
"C:\Documents and Settings\name of my logon\Desktop\vncviewer.exe" -dsmplugin MSRC4Plugin.dsm -listen 5500


Update : instead of using the vncviewer.exe, you can use the tabbed_vncviewer_VS2005.exe. If you do use this newer tabbed vncviewer, even though it has a "start listener" feature in the file dropdown list, this feature did not work for me ( to start the listener). You must still start the listener by going to the start - run box and typing in :
"C:\Documents and Settings\name of my logon\Desktop\tabbed_vncviewer_VS2005.exe" -dsmplugin MSRC4Plugin.dsm -listen 5500
Once the tabbed viewer is started, you must activate it to recognize the MSRC4Plugin.dsm plugin and its rc4 file. To do this go to settings on the upper menu, then session defaults, put a check mark in the "use dsmplugin" check box, then select "save default".
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You have to set up the Mail alert email monitoring program. Its relativly easy, just go to custom notification, add, condition tab (in notification props), subject contains : SC. Then the notification tab of notification props, media file, select and point to the winvnc.exe file (C:\Documents and Settings\my logon name\Desktop\SCIII_test5\winvnc.exe). While in the select media file window, you should also point to the initial directory for this exe (C:\Documents and Settings\my logon name\Desktop\SCIII_test5). Ok, and your done.

I had one problem where the winVNC program would initiate a connection by pressing the winVNC icon directly, but did not intitaite when sending an email through the mail alert program.

At first It seemed to work when I did the following two things:
1) I found by going back into the mail alert program and going to the notification area and reseting it to point to the winvnc.exe file again, that it worked correctly then. You have to go to custom notifications, properties, notification tab on notification properties window and reset the media file to point to the folder on your Desktop where the winVNC program is (in other words, press select on the notification tab, in the select media file window/file and point it to this location : C:\Documents and Settings\my logon name\Desktop\SCIII_test5\winvnc.exe). Otherwise I think its trying to find the winVNC program on the computer elsewhere (see below for more). Its seems like every time I start or restart the mail alert program you have to do this and :
2) Also, you should put a pathway in the "initial" directory (in "select media file") like this : C:\Documents and Settings\my logon name\Desktop\SCIII_test5


Ahead is the other thing to do to eliminate this nusance problem:

The message i would get when it did not intitiate when sending an email through the mail alert program was :

"Plugin was unable to locate key file. Ensure that the registry entry is properly set and that the key file exists. Then it lists this path:
C:\Programs Files\ ORL\VNC\rc4 key
This looks as if its seeking the rc4 key in this location : C:\Programs Files\ ORL\VNC\rc4 key
No such folder (ORL) existed in the program files, however :

Upon searching in the ultraVNC forum, I found that doing a registry "search" check, by using "ORL" as the subject for the check, you should find ORL registry keys at the following locations :
HKCU\\software\orl
HKLM\software\orl
HKU\.default\Software\ORL (On this one "ORL" did not exist in my registry)

These "ORL" pointers exist because I originally installed the vncviewer program on this computer. I think this is what was confusing the Mail alert program to want to look for the rc4 key at this location (software\orl) and not in the correct location (C:\Documents and Settings\my logon name\Desktop\SCIII_test5)
So, what I did was uninstall the vncviewer program and then go to the above registry keys and delete them.
[mod=111,1142233532]added sticky[/mod]

[snobs]

even i am not interested in the case you are describing, i want to point out that SCIII already uses encryption (128bit SSL). that's why you don't need any encryption plugin... just my two cents...

oh, and a full qualified entry in the server config file (helpdesk.txt) would be:
"-id <for example: 100> -sslproxy -connect <ip/domain name>:443 -noregistry"

even though it is a nice howto! ;)

sincerely,
snobs