Show HN: Remote Desktop Protocol in Node.js

by citronneur • 11 years ago

140 28 11 years ago

Oh cool! Now you can embed an RDP session into a webpage. Finally, a way to use the primary system administration tool from almost anywhere!

With this, you can hand out links to pages with your server RDP already configured - just send the link to the admin and let them administer.

How well does this work with dynamic username/password? If we wanted to leave those fields blank, and maybe have the webpage prompt on open?

Something missing is RDPClip.exe, which synchronizes the copy/paste clipboard data between your local session and any remote sessions. Though I'm not sure how that would work in some cases.

daveidol• 11 years ago

Agreed - this is awesome! Also, if you didn't catch it, there appears to be a full web example using this library (as well as websockets) here: https://github.com/citronneur/mstsc.js

sciurus• 11 years ago

Is graphical remote desktop really the primary systems administration tool in the windows server world?

stephengillie3• 11 years ago

Yeah, it's a widely accepted de facto method for interacting with the GUI. While in Server 2012, it feels like all GUI elements are just wrappers for Powershell cmdlets, most 3rd party tools have only a graphical interface.

Server 2003 doesn't support Powershell 4 or newer, nor .NET 4.5.1 or newer, and so IIS6 and other old Windows features have limited CLI interfaces.

Most Powershell cmdlets work on Server 2008/R2, but remote (WinRM) isn't enabled. There's a quick command to enable, but that's a security hole like leaving WMI open to the internet, and so is hard to push on secure environments.

RDP gives KVM, and that's been enough for decades.

NeutronBoy• 11 years ago

Maybe for tasks in s small show or on a specific server, but you'll find that most enterprises have automated tools for provisioning, deployment, patching, etc.

brazzledazzle3• 11 years ago

Only in small or unskilled shops.

chrisfosterelli• 11 years ago

Oh this is great! The remote-host scripting this would allow is super cool.

brazzledazzle3• 11 years ago

Unless you're building malware/pen-test tools or you're targeting old versions of Windows remote management is much easier via winrm. And there's a chance that your preferred language has a library for it already.

nodesocket• 11 years ago

Very nice work, but Microsoft did a pretty good job with their RDP clients, and making them for OS X and of course Windows. I'm not sure what the draw is for a web-based RDP client.

m4tthumphrey• 11 years ago

VPS / server management all from one user interface / control panel.

nly• 11 years ago

We have this already with VNC. Ramnode has a HTML5 VNC client in their CP.

cwyers• 11 years ago

RDP on ChromeOS.

kbutler• 11 years ago

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desk...

chrome addin for rdp on chromeos or chrome desktop browser

awinder• 11 years ago

Others have alluded to this elsewhere in the comments, but the draw is that this is a programmable rdp client in Node.JS. You can use this to write host scripting code, you could use this as the basis for something like Screenhero, etc.

hobarrera• 11 years ago

It's usable by everyone else NOT using MS (which, in IT, is a lot of people).

rpavez• 11 years ago

Do you have any screencast to see it in action?

citronneur2• 11 years ago

An exemple of node-rdpjs -> https://github.com/citronneur/mstsc.js

el_duderino• 11 years ago

If only it supported NLA...

citronneur2• 11 years ago

Planned in next release

brazzledazzle3• 11 years ago

That's awesome. Most RDP implementers seem to give up on NLA.

jacob0192• 11 years ago

Are websockets required or can it fall back to polling? I would like to to use it behind an authentication proxy that does not support websockets.

jacob0192• 11 years ago

Finally tested it out. Yes, it does fall back to polling :)

Show HN: Remote Desktop Protocol in Node.js

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