See the Changelog. New version released 2002.02.10.
Also, as requested I have added a technical notes page.
This is an applet which uses ActiveX controls to implement a unified interface for remote control of various systems. If you're impatient, you can download the application from SourceForge then skip to the Installation Procedure - but I suggest you READ THIS PAGE while it downloads; there is no other current documentation.
This is an integrated remote-control solution for connecting to pcAnywhere, VNC, Terminal Services, and Citrix hosts quickly by just typing in an IP address. One interface, one window. No need to create connectoids, type things at a command line, find and click on shortcuts. No going back and modifying connectoids when you mistype a digit. No stacks of obsolete shortcuts and connectoid files that point nowhere cluttering up your hard drive.
Note that this is BETA code, is not supported, and should be used in a test environment only. You may be further restricted by licensing for your appropriate client systems; I am not a lawyer and cannot tell you how connectivity to your systems running any remote host interface software is licensed. In short, if you are sued or die because of using this software, you're on your own.
The scripted front end is shared under the terms of the GNU General Public License. All of my work is in the HTA file used for this tool, is in human-readable text (for HTML-literate values of "human") and if in using this you cause your own or anyone else's LAN to spontaneously combust, you are on your own.
The primary intent I have in releasing it for download is to get feedback. I think you will find it to be a very useful tool for remote administration as-is, but it has rough edges on it. I believe the best way to iron out such bugs for an open application is to allow others who may benefit from it and are willing to take a look inside the opportunity to do so.
I was initially motivated to search for something like this tool early in 2000. Time and again I had to roll through several windows and take 5 minutes to create a connectoid by hand for client remote support at the consulting firm where I worked. I would often have to re-edit due to a miskeyed or changed IP, then use the connectoid for 10 minutes - and have it hanging around forever after, unused. It was so hard to track down the shortcut when I needed to revisit a client remotely after a few weeks (and 15 new connectoids), that I would invariably create a NEW connection. Eventually, my software subfolders began looking like my desk - sloppy, with lots of scraps of unused material drifting hither and yon.
I remember saying to myself: Self, why don't they make it possible to use all of these tools from a command line? That was a no-brainer; the typical user of these GUI tools is not an IT worker using hundreds of connectoids; it is a user connecting to one system repeatedly, who almost never do anything other than click a desktop shortcut to hook up. Being an IT worker myself, I was convinced this was a badly neglected point.
In spring 2001 I found myself...umm... with "leisure time". While waiting for consulting work with Bittnet Computer Solutions to pick up, I "created" several command line tools using wrappers around common connectoid types. They all had their own problems also. Eventually, I cut to the chase and began using ActiveX controls embedded in an HTML Application.
In days I had a prototype that worked for my "Big 4" - pcAnywhere, Windows Terminal Services, Citrix Metaframe, and VNC. The speed at which I was able to put this together is a credit to the crowd of people who regularly post to microsoft.public.scripting.wsh and a couple of related newsgroups. I will have more detailed credits later, but I do have to mention Mike Harris. Although he is in no way responsible for the content, he repeatedly found ways out of dead ends I was in and pushed my thinking into better channels (particularly since I was clueless about mixing HTML and scripting in the beginning).
The applet is in a generally workable state now; is used by me daily since it now works for its original purpose quite nicely; and I am seeking comments from other IT people about its general usability and any bugs in it.
Requires at least IE 5.01 (for HTA support) and WSH. Tested primarily on Windows XP (IE 6 and WSH 5.6) with *some* testing on NT 4 and Win2K. I am interested in feedback on how it works on any flavor of Windows. It might also work under IE4; read the IE4 Bailing Edge Suggestions in the Installation section
Screenshot 1: Selecting a Connection Type
Here's a screenshot of the "permanent" window that you launch, showing the choices - currently only pcAnywhere, VNC, Windows Terminal Services (RDP for "Remote Display Protocol" fits much more nicely) and Citrix ICA.
This is done in the 3rd box (mislabeled "Height" currently, since that's the parameter which gets passed to the HTML connection document).
Note that this is the target display area of the window - the actual window adds appropriate height and width beyond this for the frame. On pcAnywhere and VNC, it is the size of the connection, but the host desktop may be different and of course does not change to match.
For RDP and ICA connections, this will produce a session truly in that resolution as long as you aren't reconnecting to a session in a different original resolution.
Screenshot 2: Resolution Selection
You can select the "size" of the remote window easily to optimize use for a particular speed of connection. The 512x384 window is most suitable for use over a low speed connection when you only want to check or monitor one applet on the remote system. Obviously the higher you go, the more bandwidth as well as local processing power the connection requires.
Below is a connection window for pcAnywhere as a demo of what you see after connection.
Screenshot 3: A pcAnywhere Window at 640x480
Note the pcAnywhere toolbar at top; this window is a little taller than the standard ones due to space being included for the toolbar.
Below is the standard VNC "error" window.
Screenshot 4: Error shown by VNC if server or VNC service is not reachable
If it appears very quickly, it probably found the server (verifiable by pinging) but could not connect to it. This could be due to an incorrectly specified port (you need to explicitly set ports other that 5900 in the address, for example as 192.168.1.1:5903 to connect to Display 3).
I currently do not have a screenshot of the Citrix connection close confirmation Window since I don't have live access to a Citrix system. If someone could email me a screenshot, I would appreciate it.
To simplify "friendly" installation of the library files it uses, I recently modified the setup process to use Inno Setup; it is available as a single-file download of a little over 1 MB in size.
The file you want to download is the most recent Tier 6 Full Release.
That's it; the rest of this section is an inside look at details in case you're interested or need to manually modify registration for some purpose.
This beta release includes the controls for evaluation.
Note that to manually register a library from the command line you can use:
regsvr32 some.dll
and to unregister one, you use
regsvr32 /u some.dll
If you really want to try it on IE 4, here's a suggested process. These are just some ideas; unfortunately you're on your own with this one.
Good luck. Let me hear from you if you try it and it works. If it fails in a particularly interesting fashion, I would like to hear also. However, please don't expect any feedback from me beyond "Hmm...interesting." I don't use IE 4 much and have at least 5.01 available almost everywhere I go, so I have no personal motivation to do much about this, nor the tools or daily familiarity to make more than wild guesses about what is happening.
By default, the HTA does basic logging for you. The data is saved to the file puddleby.log in the HTA's home folder, and looks like the following:
2002130223720:Target IP:192.168.1.3|Connection Type:1|Height:600 2002130223730:Target IP:192.168.1.3:5901|Connection Type:1|Height:600 2002130223736:Target IP:192.168.1.3:5901|Connection Type:1|Height:600
This is merely a very buggy time-and-date stamp (note that zeros are not inserted correctly) followed by a target IP, a connection type string, and a height for the resolution selected.
The date stamp is generated from your system clock (and will miss leading zeros if present); the connection ATTEMPTS are logged, not the success of the connection. Connection types are:
0 - pcAnywhere1 - VNC2 - RDP (Terminal Services)3 - ICA (Citrix)
To disable logging, open the HTA in a text editor and find the following line:
blnDebugMode = True
change it to
blnDebugMode = False
Please note that this IS a "beta" - but a fairly well-behaved one.
If you have installed one of the support files before but it is missing, the remote control tool will NOT overwrite your settings and thus a particular connection type may not work correctly from here. This is due to the fact that although I gave the applet some ability to set itself up, I specifically made it passive to avoid breaking anything already on your system. It will register controls only if they do not already exist in your system.
Although this is the longest list, all of these should be addressable (except resolution changes) by better coding of the ActiveX control. Thong Nguyen's claim that he did not document it very well and that it is still a "beta" product is an Unixish claim - internal documentation of his control and its overall finish both appear better to me than what you see in most shipping commercial products.
Please do email me comments and questions. They should include the following information.
1. What the version number of the applet is. That is in the title bar of the main window, and is simply a date stamp - for example, the January 30, 2000 version has the text "v. 020130" after the title, as shown below.
Screenshot 5: Version number is in middle of the title bar - "020130" here
2. What your operating system is - NT4 Service Pack 6, Windows 98 Original, Windows 98 SE, XP Home, etc are all "useful" versions.
3. The version of Internet Explorer you are using. This is available inside IE from the "Help | About" menu.
4. Particular details about a crash or problem, comments on what you think would make it more usable, and so on.
My address is at the top of this page in mildly obfuscated form. It is also available from the main console window by pressing the "Comments" button. This pulls up your local email client.
Version History:
Some cleanup, switched graphics to (much!) smaller PNG files.