Remote Administrator

Remote Administrator (Radmin) is a product of Famatech International Corp. It is remote control software for Microsoft Windows which uses the Mirror Driver (Video Hook Driver) to remotely control another computer.

Principle of operation

Radmin consists of two separate modules:

• The Server module (Radmin Server): needs to be installed on the computer which you want to access remotely.
• The Client module (Radmin Viewer): needs to be installed on the computer which you want to use to access remote computer.

All mouse movements and keyboard signals are transferred from the local computer directly to the remote computer over the network (via LAN or Internet), relaying the graphical screen updates back in the other direction. Radmin Server uses the Mirror Driver (also known as Video Hook Driver) to read the remote screen bypassing Video Display Controller. Mirror Driver allows to read only changing parts of the screen. The New DirectScreenTransfer technology was implemented in the latest version of Radmin. Developers of the software claim that the adaptation of the new video driver allows Radmin to dramatically increase the rate of screen updates with a minimum utilization of CPU.

Version history

Remote Administrator was originally developed by Dmitry Znosko in 1999. At present he is the CEO of Famatech International Corp. Remote Administrator 2.2 was released 2004-06-16. The users and the developers shortened the name of the software to RAdmin. Current version is officially called Radmin 3 and was released 2007-02-13. The minor update Radmin 3.01 was released 2007-07-03. The latest version Radmin 3.1 with 64-bit versions of Windows support was released on 2007-11-02.

Previous versions compatibility: The Radmin 3.x viewer can operate with the earlier 2.2 server software, although some new features such as chat will not be available.

Operating systems support (32-bit and 64-bit editions):

There have been some reports of the Radmin Viewer functioning under UNIX-like operating systems through wine emulation1, but wine community2 and CrossOver support3 has thus far been limited.

Features

Connection modes:

• Full Control - shows you desktop of the remote computer and allows you to control it with your local mouse and keyboard.
• View Only - the same as full control mode, but only allows you to view the remote computer screen.
• Telnet - text-mode connection to the remote computer to use system commands and launch text-mode applications without a graphical interface.
• File transfer - lets you manipulate remote computers files and folders. Supports two-way file transfer with an auto-resume feature.
• Shutdown - special connection to shut down the remote computer.
• Text and Voice Chat - lets you converse with all users who are connected to the same computer via text chat or talk using a microphone.
• Send Message - sends a text message that POPS up on the remote computer.

Security

In the latest version of Radmin security options have been strengthened. The software's own security system can now maintain individual user passwords and permissions. The new authentication method is based on a Diffie-Hellman key exchange algorithm using 2048-bit keys. User login names and passwords are stored on the server systems for additional security. The software can still use Windows' own user authentication services, avoiding the need to maintain separate sets of user security data, with Kerberos support available as well.

See also

• Remote access
• Remote administration
• Remote Assistance Software
• Terminal Services
• Virtual Network Computing
• Help desk

External links

• Radmin home page
• Public Forum at Famatech's web-site
• Editor's Review at CNET Download.com
• Editor's Review in SC Magazine
• Editor's Review in Windows IT Pro
• Editor's Review at Soft32.com

References

ru:RAdmin