New Options & Pricing from ScreenConnect

stacksofplates

@johnhooks said:

I've never used ScreenConnect, and I'm probably going to sound like a moron but what's the advantage over something like Teamviewer or Usoris Viewer or others that allow things like task manager, cmd, etc without a desktop?

Well originally, it was price compared to features. Still is really since $2195 one time is a lot cheaper than some of the alternatives.

Of note though, ScreenConnect is not a RMM like the tools you are describing can be. It does have remote command though.

Thanks!

FATeknollogee

Any chance of getting a better price than $2,195?
Who do we speak to?

JaredBusch

@fateknollogee said in New Options & Pricing from ScreenConnect:

Any chance of getting a better price than $2,195?
Who do we speak to?

NTG used to have a thing. Dunno if they still do. Ask @Minion-Queen

FATeknollogee

@JaredBusch Did you end up moving your SC install from 2012 R2 to Linux?

JaredBusch

@fateknollogee said in New Options & Pricing from ScreenConnect:

@JaredBusch Did you end up moving your SC install from 2012 R2 to Linux?

Yes.

FATeknollogee

Any one have instructions on how to add Lets Encrypt SSL to "on-prem" SC install?

FATeknollogee

@jaredbusch said in New Options & Pricing from ScreenConnect:

@fateknollogee said in New Options & Pricing from ScreenConnect:

@JaredBusch Did you end up moving your SC install from 2012 R2 to Linux?

Yes.

You notice any performance difference or was it more of a licensing cost issue?

JaredBusch

@fateknollogee said in New Options & Pricing from ScreenConnect:

Any one have instructions on how to add Lets Encrypt SSL to "on-prem" SC install?

Mine runs behind an Nginx proxy, so no.

JaredBusch

@fateknollogee said in New Options & Pricing from ScreenConnect:

@jaredbusch said in New Options & Pricing from ScreenConnect:

@fateknollogee said in New Options & Pricing from ScreenConnect:

@JaredBusch Did you end up moving your SC install from 2012 R2 to Linux?

Yes.

You notice any performance difference or was it more of a licensing cost issue?

It was all because of licensing. Actually the performance is worse on Linux (I used CentOS 7 at the time) than it is on Windows. This is because they develop this product on Windows with ASP.net and then ported it to Linux using Mono.

FATeknollogee

@jaredbusch said in New Options & Pricing from ScreenConnect:

Mine runs behind an Nginx proxy, so no.

Is this the "preferred" way to run it?

JaredBusch

@fateknollogee said in New Options & Pricing from ScreenConnect:

@jaredbusch said in New Options & Pricing from ScreenConnect:

Mine runs behind an Nginx proxy, so no.

Is this the "preferred" way to run it?

Well because I run a large number of things in a colo behind a single IP, I have to do it this way. If I was running this on a VPS like Vultr, I would not likely bother with the proxy unless adding SSL was complicated or something.

JaredBusch

@FATeknollogee I knew ScreenConnect did not use Apache or Nginx, and so yeah using LE will not work out well.

So I just did a quick bit of looking, you have to use their tool to generate a CSR and such.
https://docs.connectwise.com/ConnectWise_Control_Documentation/On-premises/Advanced_setup/SSL_certificate_installation
This is a pain in the ass.

So, here is what I would do.

Install ScreenConnect and leave on default ports (8040 for HTTP and 8041 Relay).
- Remember the relay data is always encrypted by the app itself, there is no cert there.
Run Certbot in standalone mode to get your LE cert
Install Nginx on the same box and configure
- forward 80 to 443
- setup 443 to use the LE cert and forward 443 to http://127.0.0.1:8040
Setup a cron job to run certbot renew daily.

FATeknollogee

@JaredBusch Thanks for the detailed info!!

Mike Davis

I wish there was just a little more competition in this area...

Alex Sage

@mike-davis me too