Remote Control

This Article Applies to:

Avast Business Hub

Remote Control allows you access and manage your network through the Business Hub. With this service, you can remotely configure settings or monitor and diagnose issues on end devices, providing support to your network's users from anywhere online.

There are two types of Remote Control offered in the Hub:

Premium Remote Control (PRC) — Paid service available in single or unlimited concurrent sessions (depending on your choice during subscription purchase) of any length
Basic Remote Control (BRC) — Free service of five 15-minute sessions per month

Remote Control can be used on both Windows and macOS devices, and can be activated at both multi-tenant/partner or site/customer level.

Requirements

The Business Agent will install the service. Therefore, the usual Business Agent requirements are needed, as well as the Remote Control specific requirements.

For macOS devices, screen recording and remote control permissions are also required.

Key Features

The key features of Remote Control in Business Hub are:

Keyboard Matching: Matches the host’s keyboard layout and vice versa.
Restart and Resume: Restarts the connection of the viewer to the device and resumes the connection.
Pause Session: Pauses a current active connection to a device and resumes it later on.
Multiple Monitors: Allows switching between multiple monitors that the device may have.
Session Notes: Allows typing in notes during and after the session.
Info: Provides vital information about the connected device, such as CPU, IP, memory, data drives, and more.
Select Region: Displays only a specific part of the device’s desktop.
Session Recording: Captures your session for follow-up or training purposes.
Share My Screen: Shares your screen so the user can see the admin’s screen.
Whiteboard: Allows drawing on the connected devices’ screen to adding shapes and text.
Blank Screen: Blanks the connected device’s screen so the end user cannot see anything.
Screen Capture: Allows taking an image snapshot of the connected device’s screen.
Copy/Paste to a Remote Computer: Allows copying from one device and pasting to the other.
Files: Allows transfering files to and from devices, along with pausing/resuming a file transfer.
Chat: Allows communication with the user during the session.
Quality: Allows changes to the viewer’s quality resolution.
Tools: Offers quick commands like CTRL+ALT+DEL

Activating Remote Control

Activating Premium Remote Control requires purchasing a subscription from the Hub, while Basic Remote Control does not require a subscription to be activated. PRC and BRC are available at either multi-tenant/partner level or at site/customer level.

Site admins cannot use a PRC subscription at site level if the subscription is only at multi-tenant level.

From the Subscriptions page at the multi-tenant/partner level of the Hub, select Get in now to activate Basic Remote Control, or Buy Premium to purchase Premium Remote Control.

Similarly, at the site/customer level (or the single-tenant version) of the console, select Activate basic for free for Basic or Buy premium for Premium Remote Control.

If you already have Basic Remote Control activated, you will see Upgrade instead of Buy Premium.

Depending on the service you chose, do one of the following:

For Basic Remote Control, review the information in the dialog pop-up, then confirm the activation by clicking Activate now.

For Premium Remote Control, choose between one or unlimited concurrent sessions, select the duration of the subscription (one, two, or three years), then click Buy now to proceed to checkout and complete your order.
- You can also purchase the Premium subscription from your account manager or the Business Sales Team. In that case, you will be provided a wallet key to enter into the console.

Once activated, the Remote Control service will become available on the Subscriptions page.

For Premium, the subscription type will be displayed (one or unlimited concurrent sessions).

For Basic, the number of sessions (used/total) will be displayed.

Clicking the count link will bring you to the Remote Control Report.

Installing/Uninstalling Remote Control

The activated Remote Control Service will become available for new installations as part of the Business Agent deployment.

Download the package and execute the installer as usual - the Agent will install alone, and then install Remote Control afterward.

Inside the Business Hub, the Remote Control service can be seen on the Devices page through selecting the Remote Control column.

Once added, the column will display the Remote Control icon and toggle.

Existing devices can also add Remote Control post-installation using this toggle — click it so that it turns blue, then confirm the action by clicking Install in the pop-up dialog.

The service will be installed once the Agent syncs with the device.

To uninstall Remote Control, click the toggle so that it turns gray, then confirm the action by clicking Uninstall in the pop-up dialog.

You can also bulk change the Remote Control service to off/on via the Manage Services option.

For more information on how to manage services for devices, see Managing Services.

Installing Viewer Application

To be able to connect to devices, the administrator/viewer must install the ISL Light viewer application. This can be downloaded when selecting Connect for any device that has Remote Control installed.

From the dialog that opens, download the installer via the link at the bottom.

Then, execute the downloaded installer file and complete the installation process.

Once complete, the ISL Light application will be displayed in the installed application for the viewer.

Connecting to Devices

To remotely connect to a device:

Go to the Devices page
Expand the device you want to connect to - it must be online and with BRC/PRC installed (see above for installation steps)
Select connect next to the Remote Control icon
In the dialog that opens, you can see the process and (for workstations) choose a custom message and a time-out for auto-connect (Windows) or auto-reject (macOS)
Click Run the Viewer to launch the session and open the Viewer app

While waiting for the user to accept/reject the session or the request to time out, the Viewer application will display the Waiting for Remote Connection window.

Once the session starts, you will see the user's desktop and be able to remotely control the device.

Viewer Tools

During the remote session, the administrator/viewer can use a variety of tools from the top bar:

Share My Screen: Allows the viewer to share their screen with the end user

File Manager: Allows the viewer to manage files on the system - the user will need to allow this (or the viewer can allow themselves)

Chat: Opens the chat window to communicate with the end user (the user side visible in the bottom right corner of their desktop)

Marker: Allows marking the screen while sharing
Pointer: Drops an arrow on the screen for the user
Keyboard: Allows sending a variety of keyboard commands to the end device, using remote/local layout (or auto), enabling clipboard, print screen, and paste

System Information: Displays information about the end device

Administrative Mode: Allows rebooting, rebooting in safe mode, and forcing those actions
Request Remote Sound: Allows sound from endpoint in viewer device
Black Screen (Curtain Mode): Blanks out the end user's screen during session
Select View Region: Sets the user's desktop as the view region, or the one selected by viewer

Session recording: Records the session on the viewer's device and allows the viewer to save the recording on their disk
Settings menu: Offers multiple options for quality and speed, view, toolbar, viewing the log, as well as the advanced session settings for the remote connection (most of which are defaults and are not required to be accessed)

End Session: Ends the remote connection upon viewer confirmation

End Device During Remote Sessions

There are no client-side features in Remote Control for Business Hub. The Business Agent handles the communication and implementation of the Remote Control.

Connection Prompts

When a connection to a Windows device is attempted, the end user will see the consent dialog, either with default text and timeout, or what the admin defines when launching the connection (see the steps at the top of this section).

When a connection to a macOS device is attempted, the end user must allow the installation of the ISL Light Client and grant permission for screen recording and remote control (until this time, the viewer will see a blank screen). Once these steps are complete, the viewer will be able to view and control the device.

Connection Widget Options

The connection widget is displayed by default at the top of the screen. Selecting the menu will provide the user with several functions:

Stop Sharing: Stops the remote view/control - the viewer can re-initiate through selecting View Remotetop (the local user will need to allow the connection again)
Revoke Control: Prevents the viewer from being able to control, but they can still view - this status is visible in the widget (the user can then Grant Control again)
Whiteboard tools: Allows the user to either freely draw lines on the screen (Freehand) or drop small arrows (Pointer) - both can be exited by pressing Esc
Clipboard: Enables/disables the viewer from copying to clipboard
Position: Allows changing the location of the widget
Hide Control Bar: Hides the widget

From the ISL Light Client, the user can also see the various changes made by the viewer, and can send messages to them. Stop/Start will allow the user to control whether the viewer can see/control the device. They can also end the session through the end session icon.

The user can also see the file transfers and settings (although it's not likely they will require this part, the viewer should control those settings). There are more settings related to quality which are ISL defaults that do not require any changes. Some features are also not available (e.g. remote printing).

End Device's Status Effect on Connection

There are several states of the end device which will affect the remote connection process:

OS	Status	Result
Windows server	User logged in	User consent message 60s, auto acceptance
	User session locked	User consent message 60s, auto acceptance
	No user logged in	Immediate connection
Windows workstation	User logged in	User consent message, auto acceptance
	User session locked	User consent message, auto acceptance
	No user logged in	Immediate connection
macOS	User logged in	User consent message, auto rejection
	User session locked	User consent message, auto rejection
	No user logged in	User consent message, auto rejection