Tip: How to instantly RDP to your customers PCs from within RangerMSP

[Support Team]

Remote Desktop Connections are a common tool for connecting remotely to customers PCs. You can keep RDP session properties (with the credentials, IPs etc.) as *.RDP files. This allows you to remotely connect to the server, PCs, etc., without retyping the credentials and other connection settings each time.

RDP files can be saved as documents in RangerMSP under the relevant Account, and easily activated from there:

1. To create the document in RangerMSP, simply drag-and-drop the .RDP file to the Account's window.

2. In the document's subject enter the remote PC name or the name of the person using this PC (i.e. " Remote Control - Natalie's PC "), this way you can manage several shortcuts to different PCs / Servers for your customer.

3. Whenever you need to remote desktop your customer PC/Server, simply visit the Docs tab of the customer account in RangerMSP and double-click the relevant document line. This will execute the RDP program and will use the parameters which are defined within the RDP file, instantly connecting you to the customer PC.

Enjoy!

The RangerMSP Team

[FunctionOne]

Re: Tip: How to instantly RDP to your customers PCs from within CommitCRM

This is a great interim solution short of integration but RDP has it's obvious limits. Typically one must be on the same network or have a VPN connection in order to securely utilize RDP to all of a client's desktops.

More often than not an MSP will be utilizing a management platform (Kaseya, N-Able, Zenith) alongside their PSA tool (CommitCRM, ConnectWise, AutoTask) that allows for more in-depth access to asset information and management - including typically a remote access tool that goes far beyond the simple RDP option.

What would make CommitCRM that much more valuable - would be add-on bridges that would talk to the APIs of these tools and allow easy sync and access back and forth of asset data. IN this way - getting to an asset would be simplified and much more powerful. A simple click on a newly added Asset Icon within a ticket could open the asset connection to the Mgmt Platform immediately providing more depth of information and live real-time access to the current health of the device - especially important if the ticket was auto-generated as a result of an alert created within the Mgmt Platform.

From here secure remote access is a simple click away using Mgmt Platform's access tool - e.g. LogMeIn.

It would be good to see CommitCRM make this leap in 2009 to adding bridges/connectors to the major MSP platforms out there. Clearly - this would be an additional paid product but I believe most of the MSPs on this forum would be glad to pay for this next level of integration. We chose CommitCRM over Connectwise due to it's price and level of functionality even though our MSP platform (Zenith) already integrates in this way with ConnectWise.

But it's definitely not something we can ignore all-together. We are betting on the fact that CommitCRM is responsive to it's user-base and aware of the market drivers and position of their competition. Bring it on CommitCRM - we're ready! :)

[danny-pcs]

Re: Tip: How to instantly RDP to your customers PCs from within CommitCRM

Thanks for the tip. I never thought of using it this way, sounds great!

[Support Team]

Re: Tip: How to instantly RDP to your customers PCs from within RangerMSP

@danny-pcs - you are welcome!

@FunctionOne - Thanks for your feedback.
We appreciate your vote of confidence, and acknowledge that adding more in-depth integration with (some) MSP systems is becoming more and more popular. As you know, we already integrate with many MSP systems in the alerts/notifications and tickets, though we completely understand the points you raised and will hopefully offer some more options in the future.

Besides, as you cannot beat the RDP price and availability, the usage of RDP is still very popular, especially by IT providers that haven't invested in an advanced/expensive MSP system yet... Therefore I hope many will benefit from this tip!

Enjoy!

Dina

[FunctionOne]

Re: Tip: How to instantly RDP to your customers PCs from within CommitCRM

You're absolutely right Dina - RDP is definitely a downright cheap solution for remote access - no getting around that!

As for expensive MSP platforms - let me clarify that Zenith is definitely NOT expensive. If there are some MSPs out there (preferably not based in my area ;) ) - you need to look at Zenith if you've been scared away from the cost of ownership on other systems. It's not to be beat - seriously.

And if you're just not ready to CommitCRM to that level - or only have one shop to take care of - you cannot beat the $0 cost of www.spiceworks.com which is now at 3.5 and offers more tools and value than you can shake a stick at for that pricetag. :)

[Sergiodlg`]

Re: Tip: How to instantly RDP to your customers PCs from within CommitCRM

Hey, the RDP solution works great, as long as I double click the appropriate icon while on the server housingCommitCRM. (All of our RDP icons are located on the same server that is running our CommitCRM software.)

It doesn't work when tried from other workstations that are also runningCommitCRM. When double clicking on an RDP icon within Commit, at a workstation other than the CommitCRM server, I get an error message saying that "File does not exist or cannot be accessed." It seems that what is being copied onto the CommitCRM server is a shortcut and not the actual RDP file.

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong, or what I would need to do to get the RDP icons loaded into CommitCRM to work from PCs other than the server?

Thanks in advance for any help provided.

[Support Team]

Re: Tip: How to instantly RDP to your customers PCs from within RangerMSP

Hi Sergiodlg, thank you for your input.

I'm not sure but I think you may have been using a shortcut to the RDP connection rather than a real *.RDP file. When creating a shortcut to the RDP program, you can also set up the connection parameters, but this is not what you should use in this case.

What you should do is create a real .RDP file - to do this, you should run Remote Desktop Connection (from the Windows' Start menu), set the parameters (expand the Options >> ), and use the Save or Save As option from this window. This will save a file with the RDP extension, and you can then copy this file to the RangerMSP documents by dragging into the RangerMSP window. Make sure to choose the "Copy File to RangerMSP" option when the document is created. I believe this document should be runnable from anywhere on your network.

I hope this will do the trick!

Dina

[Sergiodlg`]

Re: Tip: How to instantly RDP to your customers PCs from within CommitCRM

Hi Dina, that was it. I was copying from a folder that was a shortcut to the files on the server. When I attached the .rdp as you described above, it worked perfectly. Thanks so much for your help.

[natrat]

Re: Tip: How to instantly RDP to your customers PCs from within CommitCRM

I'll throw a plug in for Hounddog too (www.hounddogiseasy.com). It's not free but it runs on a pay for what checks you use schedule. I pay around $22 a server for the checks I want to have on my clients servers. It's not as fully gledged as Kaseya but its got a good console and works well for me.

[dkawnik]

Re: Tip: How to instantly RDP to your customers PCs from within CommitCRM

I second FunctionOne's opinion that CommitCRM offers great tips and options for some low cost remote access tools but a good number of us are running something like Zenith alongside CommitCRM and anticipate increased integration between the two to make life easier.