In late 2018, we released Wayk Now Enterprise 3.0, which included a feature many of you had requested: unattended access. That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that this feature was only available for Windows. However, today I’m pleased to share that it’s now available for Linux!
About Unattended Access
Unattended access allows you to securely access any unattended device that is powered on and has an Internet connection. For example, if you’re a sysadmin, you can roll out changes to end devices from any location. And if you’re a help desk tech, you can provide instant support wherever it’s needed — even if the end user is somewhere else.
In addition, Wayk Now’s unattended access mode uses a background service instead of a regular application process to enable remote connections. This provides several advantages, benefiting both unattended and remote assistance scenarios.
How to Use Unattended Access
Launching an unattended access session in Wayk Now is simple and fast. Here are the steps (these are the same for both Linux and Windows users):
Step 1: Launch Wayk Now on the remote computer (the one that will be granting remote control), in order to obtain the Source ID. Tip: Once you know the remote computer's Source ID, you can save it as a bookmark for future connections. You can also use the remote computer's IP address.
Step 2: Launch Wayk Now on your computer (the one that will be taking remote control) and enter the Source ID (from Step 1) in the Target ID field. Then click Connect.
Step 3: Choose Secure Remote Delegation from the authentication drop-down list.
Step 4: Enter the Username/Password for the remote computer.
And that’s it! The session will become active. When finished, you can simply select Disconnect from the drop-down menu or close your window.
Security
All Wayk Now remote connections are secured with strong TLS 1.2 encryption and certificate validation. In addition, before establishing a remote connection, Wayk Now automatically checks to see if the proper rights have been assigned to a specific remote device. If they have not been validated, then access is denied.
Additional Notes for Linux Users
Here are some additional comments from our Software Developer Richard Markiewicz:
- While Wayk Now officially supports Ubuntu Desktop (16.04 and up), other Ubuntu variants should work just fine. We also expect things to work on other similar distributions with the features we are dependent on (X11, GTK3, systemd). Given the almost infinite configuration possibilities of Linux, we invite feedback regarding specific issues. Please contact us through the forum.
- We haven’t been able to do a screen capture on systems using the Wayland display server. The Wayland standard deliberately excludes desktop capture APIs. Fortunately, X11 is the default display server again on Ubuntu 18.04 and up (click here to learn more) — except for the login screen! And so, to get Wayk Now to capture the login screen and properly support logging in and fast user switching, you will need to switch back to Xorg.
Tell Us What You Think
We hope that all of you Linux users enjoy this feature, and that it helps you secure and control the IT chaos. Please let us know what you think by commenting below, or by emailing me at joey@devolutions.net. We’re always listening to you!