Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect

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

scottalanmiller

Updated

MordyT

2 questions...

How does mesh agents handle being behind an authenticated proxy? Where can I give credentials, etc?
Where can I find agent logs on Windows? I suspect my issue is due to the authenticated proxy, but want to confirm.

JaredBusch

Does MeshCentral have a way to uninstall the remote agent from within the console like ScreenConnect does?

scottalanmiller

@JaredBusch it has "delete device". I don't know if it removes the remote agent. But it makes the remote agent useless at least. I've never tested to see what the remote agent does when that option is selected. But it definitely removes it from MC itself.

NashBrydges

@scottalanmiller said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@JaredBusch it has "delete device". I don't know if it removes the remote agent. But it makes the remote agent useless at least. I've never tested to see what the remote agent does when that option is selected. But it definitely removes it from MC itself.

Interesting behaviour I just observed when I tested this. I can click on the "Delete device" option and it does momentarily remove it from my MC installation however the remote device immediately returns to the MC My Devices dashboard. It looks like there may be a bug that prevents it from being removed if the remote agent is still running on the remote device.

NashBrydges

If I first remove the remote device agent, then I can successfully delete the server from the MC dashboard.

The test was on a remote server running Windows Server 2012R2.

scottalanmiller

@NashBrydges said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@scottalanmiller said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@JaredBusch it has "delete device". I don't know if it removes the remote agent. But it makes the remote agent useless at least. I've never tested to see what the remote agent does when that option is selected. But it definitely removes it from MC itself.

Interesting behaviour I just observed when I tested this. I can click on the "Delete device" option and it does momentarily remove it from my MC installation however the remote device immediately returns to the MC My Devices dashboard. It looks like there may be a bug that prevents it from being removed if the remote agent is still running on the remote device.

That's odd. I've done this a bit and not seen that happen. But maybe the agent was no longer running?

JaredBusch

@scottalanmiller said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@NashBrydges said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@scottalanmiller said in Comparing MeshCentral 2 to ScreenConnect:

@JaredBusch it has "delete device". I don't know if it removes the remote agent. But it makes the remote agent useless at least. I've never tested to see what the remote agent does when that option is selected. But it definitely removes it from MC itself.

Interesting behaviour I just observed when I tested this. I can click on the "Delete device" option and it does momentarily remove it from my MC installation however the remote device immediately returns to the MC My Devices dashboard. It looks like there may be a bug that prevents it from being removed if the remote agent is still running on the remote device.

That's odd. I've done this a bit and not seen that happen. But maybe the agent was no longer running?

Most likely. I can remove an agent and it pops back immediately, as @NashBrydges noted.

I want to remote uninstall the agent.