Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect

srsmith

I currently use Splashtop Personal / Teamviewer Free for the occassional remote assistance that family members need. I'm a big fan of free and open-source projects, and since this looks like it has an awesome set of features, I figure it is about time I finally check it out.

One thing I can't seem to find (or I missed it above / in the user guide) - is it possible to connect from an Android phone to one of the managed computers? Occasionally, someone needs assistance when I can't get to my desktop but I have my phone.

scottalanmiller

@srsmith said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

One thing I can't seem to find (or I missed it above / in the user guide) - is it possible to connect from an Android phone to one of the managed computers? Occasionally, someone needs assistance when I can't get to my desktop but I have my phone.

Probably can from the web page, but I bet it is awful to do.

srsmith

@scottalanmiller said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

Probably can from the web page, but I bet it is awful to do.

Hmmm... looking at the GitHub repo, I see that @Ylian has been working on a mobile site. I'll have to experiment this weekend. I have a spare Raspberry Pi 3 I can use as a local test server.

scottalanmiller

@srsmith said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@scottalanmiller said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

Probably can from the web page, but I bet it is awful to do.

Hmmm... looking at the GitHub repo, I see that @Ylian has been working on a mobile site. I'll have to experiment this weekend. I have a spare Raspberry Pi 3 I can use as a local test server.

Cool.

Ylian

@srsmith MeshCentral developer here. There is no Android application for MeshCentral, it just going to be the mobile web site. It's not a feature full as the desktop site, but should get the basics (and supports NFC/Bluetooth two-factor authentication on Android Chrome). Let me know if you try it and what you think of it.

travisdh1

@Ylian said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@srsmith MeshCentral developer here. There is no Android application for MeshCentral, it just going to be the mobile web site. It's not a feature full as the desktop site, but should get the basics (and supports NFC/Bluetooth two-factor authentication on Android Chrome). Let me know if you try it and what you think of it.

That should be all that's needed. Bothering with dedicated mobile apps seems like a waste of your time.

srsmith

@Ylian said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@srsmith MeshCentral developer here. There is no Android application for MeshCentral, it just going to be the mobile web site. It's not a feature full as the desktop site, but should get the basics (and supports NFC/Bluetooth two-factor authentication on Android Chrome). Let me know if you try it and what you think of it.

Nice - I was only looking for the basics on mobile for those "OMG I NEED HELP RIGHT NOW" instances when I am away from my desktop. Will hopefully be experimenting with it sometime later today, so I'll let you know how it works out.

srsmith

@travisdh1 said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

That should be all that's needed. Bothering with dedicated mobile apps seems like a waste of your time.

Agreed. If the basics are available on mobile, that should be good enough for the few "OMG PLEASE HELP RIGHT NOW" instances where I'm not around my desktop / laptop.

Reid Cooper

@Ylian said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@srsmith MeshCentral developer here. There is no Android application for MeshCentral, it just going to be the mobile web site. It's not a feature full as the desktop site, but should get the basics (and supports NFC/Bluetooth two-factor authentication on Android Chrome). Let me know if you try it and what you think of it.

Awesome progress!

scottalanmiller

Updating to 0.4.0-k

srsmith

I have this setup on a $5 Vultr instance running Fedora 30, complete with a subdomain, Let's Encrypt and 2FA. I've also got it running as a systemd service running under a limited user account.

I'm only testing with a handful of personal computers right now, but everything just seems to work, and does so quickly. Having secure, easy access to a computer's desktop, files and terminal through a web browser is fantastic! I'm still learning all the features and capabilities, but I'm very impressed with what I have seen so far. Awesome stuff @Ylian!

srsmith

@Ylian said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@srsmith MeshCentral developer here. There is no Android application for MeshCentral, it just going to be the mobile web site. It's not a feature full as the desktop site, but should get the basics (and supports NFC/Bluetooth two-factor authentication on Android Chrome). Let me know if you try it and what you think of it.

Unfortunately, my experience with desktop access from mobile was not so great. I tried using Firefox and Chrome on Android and couldn't do much. When the phone is in portrait mode, the desktop is too small to use for me, and in landscape, the screen is cutoff. Am I missing an option to zoom / pan somewhere? If this is something that you can easily add, I'd love to see it added. Mobile access is by no means a necessity, so please don't take time away from the core product if you think this would be fairly involved to implement.

On a positive note, the group/computer list, general and files sections worked perfectly from mobile.

black3dynamite

Using the filter has some cool usage like showing a collection of certain devices by adding a + at the end of each device.
lib-dt-01+ cafe-dt-01+ cafe-dt-02+

MordyT

Hello All,
6 months ago my Mesh install threw an error (see earlier in this thread) and I forgot to check back in.
Needed to do some support for the folks and remembered the project, etc.
Checked the thread and found that I could copy the data and files folder to a fresh install to prevent data loss.

So....

Brand new VM (went windows this time, I'm more comfortable in it then ubuntu, old install was on ubuntu)
Installed a fresh copy
Stopped the service
Restored the files and data folder
Started the service....

and able to login, old computers showing, my config appears to still be there, etc. Yay Not sure if the old PCs are connecting though...

Except then the page disconnected a few minutes later and does so every few minutes...
Error logs shows this:

C:\Program Files\Open Source\MeshCentral\node_modules\nedb\lib\datastore.js:77
    if (err) { throw err; }
               ^

Error: Cannot create a string longer than 0x3fffffe7 characters
    at stringSlice (buffer.js:589:43)
    at Buffer.toString (buffer.js:659:10)
    at FSReqCallback.readFileAfterClose [as oncomplete] (internal/fs/read_file_context.js:49:23)

Also of note it appears that Mesh is the latest version.

Ideas?

EDIT: I grabbed a backup before it crashed, complete uninstall/reinstall, restored the backup, and it appears stable now. More testing to follow....

EDIT2: 24 hours and it's stable. I think my issues are resolved.

scottalanmiller

Up to 0.4.1-u

scottalanmiller

And now 0.4.1-x

scottalanmiller

0.4.2-a. That's three updates so far today.

scottalanmiller

And 0.4.2-b before I could even look at it

black3dynamite

scottalanmiller

@black3dynamite whoa