Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect

scottalanmiller

Just updated to 0.3.4-t

Ylian

What is the "correct" alternative to MongoDB on Fedora? Maybe I can build a different database binding...

By the way, I just added auto-backup into MeshCentral 0.3.4-t, add this to the "settings" section:

"AutoBackup": {
  "backupInvervalHours": 24,
  "keepLastDaysBackup": 15,
  "zippassword": "test"
}

This will zip a new backup every 24 hours and place the result in "meshcentral-backup". You can optionally say how many days before removing old backups and if you want to password protect the backup zip file, you can set a password. If you use MongoDB, it will call "mongodump" to backup the database and include it in the .zip file.

scottalanmiller

@Ylian said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

What is the "correct" alternative to MongoDB on Fedora? Maybe I can build a different database binding...

There is none, no document database is included with Fedora now.

smartkid808

@Ylian said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

What is the "correct" alternative to MongoDB on Fedora? Maybe I can build a different database binding...

By the way, I just added auto-backup into MeshCentral 0.3.4-t, add this to the "settings" section:
"AutoBackup": {
  "backupInvervalHours": 24,
  "keepLastDaysBackup": 15,
  "zippassword": "test"
}
This will zip a new backup every 24 hours and place the result in "meshcentral-backup". You can optionally say how many days before removing old backups and if you want to password protect the backup zip file, you can set a password. If you use MongoDB, it will call "mongodump" to backup the database and include it in the .zip file.

will you be adding this to the gui? or should I just add this to the config.json?

Also just updated to 0.3.5-a Thanks for keeping the releases coming

Scott

How does the Power State graph work?

I have several clients that show "Device is powered from 12:00:00 AM to 3:50:00 PM" for today May, 22; however, the agent is not connected and the machine icon shows "Last seen: 5/22/2019, 12:57:30 PM" or "Last seen: 5/21/2019, 7:59:00 PM"

Looking at the graph, the machine has been connected all day, however elsewhere it indicates the machine was last seen last night.

Edit: To follow up, another computer has full bars on the 7 Day Power State: "Device is powered from 12:00:00 AM to 12:00:00 AM" For 5/16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and for today 5/22, it says, "Device is powered from 12:00:00 AM to 9:26:43 AM." yet the device icon says last seen 5/17/2019, 11:12:22 AM.

smartkid808

@Scott said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

How does the Power State graph work?

I have several clients that show "Device is powered from 12:00:00 AM to 3:50:00 PM" for today May, 22; however, the agent is not connected and the machine icon shows "Last seen: 5/22/2019, 12:57:30 PM" or "Last seen: 5/21/2019, 7:59:00 PM"

Looking at the graph, the machine has been connected all day, however elsewhere it indicates the machine was last seen last night.

Edit: To follow up, another computer has full bars on the 7 Day Power State: "Device is powered from 12:00:00 AM to 12:00:00 AM" For 5/16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and for today 5/22, it says, "Device is powered from 12:00:00 AM to 9:26:43 AM." yet the device icon says last seen 5/17/2019, 11:12:22 AM.

I have the same issue. Been meaning to ask but kept forgetting.

Ylian

On the power timeline... yes yes... I need to fix this. One thing that would help is to download the power timeline raw data (The "Download Power Events" button on the top right of the power lines display) and make sure the raw data is correct. If it is, it's just me drawing it wrong. If it's not, I need to go fix something deeper in the server. Feedback on this would be appreciated.

smartkid808

@Ylian said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

On the power timeline... yes yes... I need to fix this. One thing that would help is to download the power timeline raw data (The "Download Power Events" button on the top right of the power lines display) and make sure the raw data is correct. If it is, it's just me drawing it wrong. If it's not, I need to go fix something deeper in the server. Feedback on this would be appreciated.

Hi Ylian

Not a big issue for me, but please let me know what I can do to help you out!. Here is a screenshot. Its been off since the 17th, but showing on 24/7. I can email you or whatever you need. Any additional files/exports/logs.

Time	 State	 Previous State
Fri May 17 2019 17:53:28 GMT+0000 (UTC)	1	
Sun May 19 2019 04:53:31 GMT+0000 (UTC)	0

Ylian

@smartkid808 Wow, yes, you got it just right. The saw data and the graph don't match at all. I will work on this...

Scott

Is anyone else running into an issue whereby running the installer on Windows causes two entries to be made in list of machines? One shows agent is connected, other does not.

Identically named machines show up in nodes listing: Owner-HP, or User-Laptop, etc.

This does not happen with all installs, but has on last several.

JaredBusch

@Scott said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

Is anyone else running into an issue whereby running the installer on Windows causes two entries to be made in list of machines? One shows agent is connected, other does not.

Identically named machines show up in nodes listing: Owner-HP, or User-Laptop, etc.

This does not happen with all installs, but has on last several.

Never seen that. But I have seen a second connection show up later a few times.

smartkid808

@Scott said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

Is anyone else running into an issue whereby running the installer on Windows causes two entries to be made in list of machines? One shows agent is connected, other does not.
Identically named machines show up in nodes listing: Owner-HP, or User-Laptop, etc.
This does not happen with all installs, but has on last several.

I have never seen it, but I did see that when I installed it (unattended) and also ran it (ad-hoc connection). I was just curious what would happen if I did that. Hopefully Ylian has some insight.

Scott

@smartkid808 said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@Scott said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

Is anyone else running into an issue whereby running the installer on Windows causes two entries to be made in list of machines? One shows agent is connected, other does not.
Identically named machines show up in nodes listing: Owner-HP, or User-Laptop, etc.
This does not happen with all installs, but has on last several.

I have never seen it, but I did see that when I installed it (unattended) and also ran it (ad-hoc connection). I was just curious what would happen if I did that. Hopefully Ylian has some insight.

Did one show up as connected and the other not?

smartkid808

@Scott said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@smartkid808 said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@Scott said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

Is anyone else running into an issue whereby running the installer on Windows causes two entries to be made in list of machines? One shows agent is connected, other does not.
Identically named machines show up in nodes listing: Owner-HP, or User-Laptop, etc.
This does not happen with all installs, but has on last several.

I have never seen it, but I did see that when I installed it (unattended) and also ran it (ad-hoc connection). I was just curious what would happen if I did that. Hopefully Ylian has some insight.

Did one show up as connected and the other not?

Both showed as online

dafyre

I had my first chance to really use the remote control bits. I was helping someone out, and my system kept dropping the desktop connection, and the client would disappear from the group.

A few seconds later, it would show back up and I could connect again. The disconnection seemed random. One time I'd work 5 minutes, and the next, I'd lose the connection after 30 seconds.

Has anybody else seen anything like that?

scottalanmiller

@dafyre said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

I was helping someone out, and my system kept dropping the desktop connection, and the client would disappear from the group.

No, not seen that.

Ylian

If you see random drops, you may have a router/proxy/firewall with short idle connection timeouts. Add this to the "settings" section of config.json and restart your MeshCentral server.

"AgentPing": 60

This will cause the server to "ping" (within the TCP/TLS control channel) the agent every 60 seconds and have the agent replay. That may fix it. If it does, try "AgentPong": 60 instead, that will cause the server to send a pong every 60 seconds and the agent will not reply, so cuts idle traffic by half. Then, you can also try longer time between ping/pong commands.

It's also possible your agent is on a wireless network and the network keeps dropping.

Let me know if that works.
Ylian

dafyre

@Ylian said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

If you see random drops, you may have a router/proxy/firewall with short idle connection timeouts. Add this to the "settings" section of config.json and restart your MeshCentral server.
"AgentPing": 60
This will cause the server to "ping" (within the TCP/TLS control channel) the agent every 60 seconds and have the agent replay. That may fix it. If it does, try "AgentPong": 60 instead, that will cause the server to send a pong every 60 seconds and the agent will not reply, so cuts idle traffic by half. Then, you can also try longer time between ping/pong commands.

It's also possible your agent is on a wireless network and the network keeps dropping.

Let me know if that works.
Ylian

I have this setting in place. I'll let you know if it works the next time I use it.

Ylian

Perfect thanks. By the way, I have been doing a bunch of updates to MeshCentral, much of it is community driven from GitHub, latest updates on Twitter: https://twitter.com/meshcentral. Just added optional User Session Idle Timeout an hour ago.

smartkid808

One thing that would be nice would be to have the remote machine automatically lock when you press disconnect. Prob best to set it per-machine.