What is Remote Assistance Identification?
 Due to high number of clients we have, and need to maintain high quality of our support service we decided to use some kind of Remote Desktop. We choose VNC remote administration tools. Althrough VNC is good solution, we noticed problem from the very beginning: it lacks easy management fo remote users which are not available on static public IP's.
We constantly had a problem to find out when user, who requested assistance, is online, and what is his IP we can use to access his computer. Usualy, we had to keep user online on phone line, and make him connect via other line and then tell us whether he is connected and what is his IP.
We found out solution in writing quite small and simple app to help finding this information fast, reliable, and without involving our clients more that necessity to connect to the internet. That aplication is Remote Assistance Information. We call it RAI, for short.
It works quite simple: it stays in systray and tries to connect to remote server using http protocol. If there is internet connection, it will provide information about user online status and his ID. Our support stuff can check status by simply visiting our site. They can see which users are online, and what IP address (or addresses) they use. Then, connection with VNC client is easy.
Why is it free?
As we developed this applicaion to be used with VNC which is not just free, but even open source, this is our contribution to further development of such software as it could make it easier to use in specific situations as we have. Therefore Remote Addministrtion Identification is freeware. Distribution and use of this application is free.
Download
Current Remote Assistance Identification setup download (270 KB)
Server PHP script example (4 KB)
Client installation
Start setup application. It will unpack RAI and install it. You will be asked if you want it to automaticaly load on user logon and we recomend to choose yes.
Goto Properties (right click on RAI icon in systray and choose properties) and set custom info about user. You may enter his ID (name or something else which will help you indentify user), some custom notes about user and URL to the site where info about user should be sent.
RAI uses http protocol, so remote site may be some web page. By default value is:
http://localhost/set_online.php?user=#USER#&ip=#IP#&computer=#COMPUTER#&os=#OS#¬es=#USERNOTES#
You may change it to match your requirements. You may use whatewer URL you like. Pay attention to use macro fields properly. Macros are simple keywords that will be replaced with actual values before remote site is accessed via http. Macros you may use are:
MACRO |
Description |
| #USER# |
User ID you set in properties |
| #IP# |
List of IP adresses on client's computer. If one of them is public IP and not masquarded by NAT, you may access this client via Internet. |
| #COMPUTER# |
Client's computer name. You may use it to identify client if, for some reason, iser ID is not set properly. |
| #OS# |
Information about Os on remote client's computer. This informmtion is usualy requested by support stuff. |
| #USERNOTES# |
Notes about client. You may enter information about client, software or other data which would help support stuff to know what to expect at client's computer. |
Server setup
As we said, RAI is an client. It posts information to remote server which is accessible by support stuff, allowing them to see who is online. We decided to post data to remote server by http protocol. This allows lots of space for various solutions.
The simplest one is to create server script that will accept posted information and store it in local file or internal database. Other script may be written to read this information and present it to authorised personell. Remember, you should keep this info about your users confidential.
You may also write your own application that will be able accept http connections and gather information or you can make up any other server side solution which suits your needs.
As an example we provide simple PHP script that accepts posted information and stores it in local MySQL database. Other script reads such information and shows it to the support stuff.
Security
We already spoke about security. This app deals with information about clients that should be treated as private and kept confidential. It would not be vise to allow anybody to see which of your clients are online, what are their computer names, which IP's they currently use, which operating systems and possibly even more information which you provide in notes. Make sure that this information is kept private.
About us
Infosys develope business applications for accounting, book keeping, managing production processes and other use. We are one of the largest companies in this branche in Serbia and Montenegro.
Contact
"Infosys" D.O.O.
Dimitrija Tucovića 95/3
31000 Užice
Serbia and Montenegro
Phone/Fax: +481 31 511 455
http://www.infosys.co.yu/
Send email |
