A remote control and remote scripting solution, built with .NET Core and SignalR Core.

Website: https://remotely.lucency.co
Public Server: https://tryremotely.lucency.co (not intended for production use)

The following steps will configure your Windows 10 machine for building the Remotely server and clients.

• Install Visual Studio 2019.
  • Link: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/
• Install the latest .NET Core SDK.
  • Link: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download
• Clone the git repository and open the solution in Visual Studio.
• Build (in Release configuration) the Remotely_Desktop and Remotely_ScreenCast projects.
  • By default, the screen-sharing desktop app prompts for a host URL and can be changed thereafter. To hard-code a URL, set the ForceHost value in /Remotely_Desktop/ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.cs to the server's URL.
• Run Publish.ps1 in the Utilities folder.
  • Example: powershell -f [path]\Publish.ps1 -outdir C:\inetpub\remotely -rid win10-x86
  • The output folder will now contain the server, with the clients in the Downloads folder.

• Download and install the .NET Core Runtime.
  • Link: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download
  • This includes the Hosting Bundle for Windows, which allows you to run ASP.NET Core in IIS.
• Obtain a copy of the server files, either by building (above) or downloading the Windows server package from the website.
• Put the server files into your IIS site folder.
• Change values in appsettings.json for your environment.
• If using SQLite configuration, make sure the ApplicationPool's account has write access to the DB file location.
• After creating your account on the website, you can set "AllowSelfRegistration" to false in appsettings.json to disable registration.
• An SSL certificate for HTTPS is recommended. You can install one for free using Let's Encrypt.
  • Resources: https://letsencrypt.org/, https://certifytheweb.com/
• Documentation for hosting in IIS can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/host-and-deploy/iis/index?view=aspnetcore-2.2

• Currently, only Ubuntu 18.04 is tested. The Linux server package will likely work with other distros after some alterations to the setup script.
• Obtain a copy of the server files, either by building (above) or downloading the Linux server package from the website.
• Copy the server files to the location from which they will be run.
  • This would typically be in /var/www/remotely/.
• If using SQLite configuration, make sure the www-data account has write access to the DB file location.
• Run Remotely_Server_Setup.sh (with sudo), which is in the Utilities folder in source control.
  • This script is only for Ubuntu 18.04.
  • The script installs the .NET Core runtime, as well as other dependencies.
  • Certbot is used in this script and will install an SSL certificate for your site. Your server needs to have a public domain name that is accessible from the internet for this to work.
    • More information: https://letsencrypt.org/, https://certbot.eff.org/
  • App root will be the above output folder.
• Change values in appsettings.json for your environment.
• After creating your account on the website, you can set "AllowSelfRegistration" to false in appsettings.json to disable registration.
• Documentation for hosting behind Nginx can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/host-and-deploy/linux-nginx?view=aspnetcore-2.2

• Windows: Only the latest version of Windows 10 is tested.
• Linux: Only Lubuntu 18.10 is tested.
  • Your account must be set to auto login for unattended remote control to work.
  • The install script needs to be run while the above account is logged in.

• You can turn on session recording in appsettings.json.
• The following requirements must be met for it to work:
  • On Linux, libgdiplus must be installed (sudo apt-get install libdgiplus).
  • The process running the app must have access to create and modify a folder name "Recordings" in the site's root content folder.
  • FFmpeg must be executable from the process running the Remotely server.
    • Link: https://www.ffmpeg.org/download.html
• Remote control sessions will first be recorded as a series of images, which will then be converted to MP4 using FFmpeg.

Ideally, you'd be doing remote control from an actual computer or laptop. However, I've tried to make the remote control at least somewhat usable from a mobile device. Here are the controls:

• Left-click: Single tap
• Right-click: Double tap
• Click-and-drag: Tap and hold with one finger, tap and release a second finger (without pinch-zooming)
  • The click-and-drag operation will begin where finger one is held.

There are a few shortcut keys available when using the console.

• / : Slash will open the autocomplete for selecting the current command mode. The names are configurable in the Account - Options page.
• Up/Down: Use arrow up/down to cycle through input history.
• Ctrl + Up/Down: Scroll the console output window.
• Ctrl + Q: Clear the output window.
• Esc: Close the autocomplete window.

The following settings are available in appsettings.json.

• DefaultPrompt: The default prompt string you'll see for each line on the console.

• DBProvider: Determines which of the three connection strings (at the top) will be used. The appropriate DB provider for the database type is automatically loaded in code.

• AllowSelfRegistration: Enable/disable the ability for people to create accounts.

• RecordRemoteControlSessions: Whether or not to record remote control sessions.

• RedirectToHTTPS: Whether ASP.NET Core will redirect all traffic from HTTP to HTTPS. This is independent of Nginx and IIS configurations that do the same.

• UseHSTS: Whether ASP.NET Core will use HTTP Strict Transport Security.

• DataRetentionInDays: How long event logs and remote command logs will be kept.

• RemoteControlSessionLimit: How many concurrent remote control sessions are allowed per organization.

• AllowApiLogin: Whether to allow logging in via the API (see below).

• TrustedCorsOrigins: For cross-origin API requests via JavaScript. The websites listed in this array with be allowed to make requests to the API. This does not grant authentication, which is still required on most endpoints.

• Smpt*: SMTP settings for auto-generated system emails (such as registration and password reset).

Remotely has a basic API, which can be browsed at https://tryremotely.lucency.co/swagger (or your own server instance). Most endpoints require authentication via the /api/Login, which in turn requires the AllowApiLogin option to be set to true in appsettings.json. If you're not familiar with how CORS works, I recommend reading up on it before proceeding.

Once AllowApiLogin is set to true, you'll be able to use the API with languages such as C# and PowerShell. For JavaScript clients to work, you'll also need to add the website's origin to the TrustedCorsOrigins array. For example, if I wanted to create a login form on https://lucency.co that logged into the Remotely API, I'd need to add "https://lucency.co" to the TrustedCorsOrigins.

Below are examples of how to use the API for starting a remote control session.

JavaScript Client

// Log in with one request, then launch remote control with another.
fetch("https://localhost:44351/api/Login/", {
	method: "post",
	credentials: "include",
	mode: "cors",
	body: '{"Email":"email@example.com", "Password":"P@ssword1"}',
	headers: {
		"Content-Type": "application/json",
	}
}).then(response=>{
	if (response.ok) {
		fetch("https://localhost:44351/api/RemoteControl/Maker", {
			method: "get",
			credentials: "include",
			mode: "cors"
		}).then(response=>{
			if (response.ok) {
				response.text().then(url=>{
					window.open(url);
				})
			}
		})
	}
})

// Log in and launch remote control in the same request.
fetch("https://localhost:44351/api/RemoteControl/", {
	method: "post",
	credentials: "include",
	mode: "cors",
	body: '{"Email":"email@example.com", "Password":"P@ssword1", "DeviceName":"Maker"}',
	headers: {
		"Content-Type": "application/json",
	}
}).then(response=>{
	if (response.ok) {
		response.text().then(url=>{
			window.open(url);
		})
	}
})

C# Client

private static async Task StartRemoteControl()
{
	var client = new System.Net.Http.HttpClient();
	client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));

	var stringContent = new System.Net.Http.StringContent(
		@"{
			'Email': 'email@example.com',
			'Password': 'P@ssword1'
		}",
		System.Text.Encoding.UTF8,
		"application/json");


	var response = await client.PostAsync("https://localhost:44351/api/Login", stringContent);
	if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
	{
		response = await client.GetAsync("https://localhost:44351/api/RemoteControl/Maker");
		if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
		{
			var remoteControlURL = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
			System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(remoteControlURL);
		}
	}
}

PowerShell Client

$WebSession = New-Object Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.WebRequestSession
 
$Response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://localhost:44351/api/Login" -WebSession $WebSession -Method Post -Body "
{
	'Email': 'email@example.com',
	'Password': 'P@ssword1'
}
" -ContentType "application/json"


if ($Response.StatusCode -eq 200) {
	$Response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://localhost:44351/api/RemoteControl/Maker" -WebSession $WebSession -Method Get -ContentType "application/json"
	if ($Response.StatusCode -eq 200) {
		Start-Process -FilePath $Response.Content
	}
}

• .NET Core has two methods of deployment: framework-dependent and self-contained.
  • Framework-dependent deployments require the .NET Core runtime to be installed on the target computers. It must be the same version or higher that was used to build the app.
  • Self-contained deployments include a copy of the runtime, so you don't need to install it on the target computers. As a result, the total file size is much larger.
• .NET Core uses runtime identifiers that are targeted when building.
  • Link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/rid-catalog