Configure your firewall in C++
Last Updated on Saturday, 13 June 2009 09:04
I did work recently on configuring Firewalls programmatically within an application, so I thought I should share my experience here.
Challenges
Most computers run a Personal Firewall these days (Windows Firewall, PC-Cillin, Norton, AVG...). So in many cases, software developers will have to deal with getting their application configured in their customer's firewall.
You could either choose to tell your users how they should configure their firewall (in a help document) or do it automatically (during the install process).
Some application only require a static configuration, i.e a configuration that will never change. For instance "myservice.exe" should be added to the list of "exceptions" or trusted applications. This can be performed during the installation process and is normally supported by most installers (InstallShield)
But in other cases, the configuration depends on the user configuration and needs to be done after the install. Then you will need to deal with it within your application. So let's see how to do it in C++
How to enable Remote Desktop programmatically
Last Updated on Saturday, 13 June 2009 09:03
There is a lot out there about enabling Remote Desktop remotely with different methods (registry or script), but not much about enabling Remote Desktop within your application (programmatically), especially for C++ developers . All we want to achieve here is Enable/Disable Remote Desktop as we would do in the System Properties.
This would be useful for admin softwares or installers that need to enable/disable Terminal Services.
Remote Screen over Vedivi VPN using VNC
Last Updated on Thursday, 14 January 2010 11:33
Vedivi VPN allows you to access any resource on a remote network by just installing a software on each side.
Once connected with Vedivi, you can for instance control computers remotely using Windows Remote Desktop (RDP). RDP is usually great choice for accessing computers remotely because it is a part of Windows.
In some cases however, RDP is not the appropriate choice:
- XP Home or Vista Home edition: Remote Desktop is not supported on Home editions
- Need multiple users to be able to see the same screen at the same time
- Need people sitting in front of the remote computer to see what you are doing on the screen
In those cases, any other Remote Screen software can be used instead of RDP. UltraVNC is an alternative to Remote Desktop as it free and easy to install.
This article describes how to use UltraVNC instead of Remote Desktop when connected with Vedivi.
Follow these instructions on any computer you need to access remotely without using Remote Desktop.
Users with Vedivi Business can VNC any computer on the remote network (providing VNC is installed on those computers).
Note: You also need to install UltraVNC on computers from which you want to establish the connection to the remote computer (although you only need UltraVNC Viewer)
