I know been asked many times but......persistence on reboot?

[mustardman]

I love pchelpware. It works great, saved me lot's of grief.

The only MAJOR feature I would LOVE to see is persistence on reboot. I'm sure there are good reasons it has not been implemented but it would be EXTREMELY useful.

Lot's of other similar products can do it. Granted they are not free and I fully realize all this so please no lectures.

Just expressing my gratitude for all the hardwork and mentioning how much better it could be with persistence on reboot.

So any plans to include this in the future?

[mod=3406,1174187594] moved to pchelpware rel 1.0 topic [/mod]

[bevtech]

Unfortunately you probably will not see that in pchelpware it has been suggested many times in the past but the admins feel it will be abused too much to implement it. In a flavor of pchelpware or if a user does a mod of it maybe.

The closest you can get is to use the direct switch but if there are multiple accounts on the machine along with xpsp2 and vista security it really makes that alot harder to do

[mustardman]

Can you explain the direct switch more? Not sure what that means as I have not had to create an executable for awhile.

[bevtech]

[topic=9591]Run server on a remote pc WITHOUT having to push connect?[/topic]

[mustardman]

[topic=9591]Run server on a remote pc WITHOUT having to push connect?[/topic]

Oh well that is EXACTLY what I do now. The problem is that I need someone on the other end to re-run the executable when I reboot. It's that last seemingly little hurdle that is so frustrating. To be so close yet, according to the developers, so far is frustrating.

[bevtech]

wait till you try that on vista it gets even worse..


Well that is all the direct switch will do really..

[PixelMassacre]

The problem is that I need someone on the other end to re-run the executable when I reboot.

Is there any reason you couldn't just drop the executable in the startup folder of the remote PC? (I haven't tried the -direct switch as of yet but if it runs without interaction then you'd think it would work for as long as the exclusion has been added to the firewall and the remote PC has been set for windows auto-login.)

I think there's also a program that will install non-service programs as a service although I forget what it was called. Fire-something or other I think.

[YY]

The problem is that I need someone on the other end to re-run the executable when I reboot.

Would you please advise which computer will be rebooted ? (the one running server, or the one running viewer)?

[mustardman]

The problem is that I need someone on the other end to re-run the executable when I reboot.

Would you please advise which computer will be rebooted ? (the one running server, or the one running viewer)?

The server, of course. I am already sitting at the viewer.

I just tried logmein.com rescue yesterday. It does it all! Reconnect on reboot in normal or safe mode, automatically logs back in the administrator. You name it, they do it (at a price). Their server app is similar size to the Pchelpware server app. Like PChelpware, it does NOT run as a service either so it IS doable this way!

[bevtech]

Key word is does it all for a price.. pchelpware is freeware so there will be a few limitations

[YY]

I just derive a procedure to make a PHW-Server reconnect automatically after REBOOT.

The principle is the server PC must be auto login to a desired user (bring up the desktop), and then the PHW-server will autorun, and autoconnect.

I don't mean you need to pre-config. your server PC to such special condition. I will show you how to do it from the viewer when the connection is first established.

My tested Server is like this:
1. Running WinXP,
2. Have a copy PHW-server, which having -DIRECT & -AUTORECONNECT options inside the Helpdesk.txt
3. The computer is login-ed by a user MAN, and showing his desktop.
4. Someone click the PHW-server, so connection is made.

Do following at the server PC (of course from the remote screen at viewer PC) :
1. Create a link of the PHW-server, and put it inside the AutoStart folder, so that it will run & connect automatically after reboot.
2. Config the XP, set it to auto logon to user MAN, so that after reboot the XP will not stop at logon screen, but will bring up to MAN's desktop directly, thus PHW-server can autostart too.
IMPORTANT: YOU MUST KNOW MAN's password.
About how to set Auto Logon, please reference:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/usin ... logon.mspx

Now the server PC will always log in as MAN and run PHW-server (and connect the viewer) at every reboot.

After you finish your job, cancel the auto logon setting and remove the link in AutoStart folder, then the server PC will resume as before.

[mustardman]

Thanks,

I thought about that but was told it wouldn't work so I never tried. Should do in a pinch!

Quick question. Do I need to use the "-direct" if I don't use a password. The customer does not have to click "connect" right now. Maybe because I don't use a password? Will anything be different if I add the "-direct" command?

Here is what I have now:
-connect mydnydns.org:5900 -autoreconnect

[YY]

Do I need to use the "-direct" if I don't use a password. The customer does not have to click "connect" right now.

According to the information, the "-direct" is the right option that make the server do connection directly once it is executed, or otherwise it should stop at the GUI until someone click "connect".

However, because you didn't added the "-direct" inside your helpdesk.txt but still able to connect automatically, you can't be wrong. I guess the "-autoreconnect" is the reason. In fact, you can get the same result w/o the "-autoreconnect", but if the connection is dropped for some reason (not because reboot), you will stop there until someone at the Server PC click "connect" for you. The "-autoreconnect" is designed for this purpose, but maybe then having a side effect of direct connect.

The password should not be an issue, I used one in my test. Of course should not use "-ask" option, otherwise the server will prompt the user to input one.

My opinion is should have "-direct" & "-autoreconnect" in the helpdesk.txt. The one in my tested server is like this:
-connect 192.168.1.199:5500 -passwd (passwd) -direct -autoreconnect

One thing more, once the server PC reboot and connection droped, the Viewer will stop too. You better click the Viewer's autoreconnect box so it can always restart to wait for the new connection.

[Dionisio]

Hello.
Problems may appear if PC use a dialup connection (ADSL). It is possible to solve it too, but dont remember exactly what steps, nor have the english knowledge to explain it.
Another problem can occur is that viewer PC changes its IP during connection, and server still tries to connect to former IP. May be this can be solved using a batch file to launch the server, and forcing to close server app (if possible) and re-initiate it after, e.g., 30 minutes (if using dnsalias or repeater).

[sscs]

Thanks YY, your automatic reconnect procedure works great in Normal Mode!

Now that's conquered I've been trying the same with Safe Mode. Only two more obstacles to clear:

1) So far I can reboot into Safe Mode no problem by selecting /SAFEBOOT and NETWORK in boot.ini via msconfig, but after the reboot and just before the Safe Mode desktop appears there is the usual XP prompt asking me to choose 'Yes I want to proceed in Safe Mode' or 'No I'd like to try System Restore'. Which of course prevents an unattended reconnection.

2) When the prompt is cleared (manually) the PCH server won't load up automatically, even though it's in the Startup folder and msconfig is set to load Startup items.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[YY]

two more obstacles to clear:

Right! sscs, if we can solve these two problem, we can have an neat PcHelpWare. I have no idea at this moment yet, but will try to see if any solution or workaround.

Thanks & Best regards

[enuro12]

Looks like someone solved your problems
[topic=6593][/topic]

[mattice06082]

OneClick does not use PcHelpWare and in fact the OneClick developer has said:

I've been getting a lot of requests for a OneCLick to create PChelpware packages. I've downloaded PCH and the source and we're in the process of evaluating and testing but at first glance, the capture engine isn't separate like I expected. Everything is hard coded into the viewer/server so it looks like the only thing that can be modified is the launcher. We can't add or improve the file transfer/chat/tools or other features. It would only be a short term fix not a long term project so we probably won't be supporting it for now.

This is not to say that you have to use PcHelpWare, but that's what the original poster was looking for.

[YY]

Looks like someone (Advantig OneClick) solved your problems
[topic=6593][/topic]

Thanks for input.
I'm doing experiment for this with PHW.
I'm not sure whether I can make it happened, only sure will not as good as a product from a programmer/developer.

[bevtech]

There is also a testing version of pchw that runs as a service in xp and vista but only working in LAN as of right now and really kinda buggy.. but it is looking promising..