[FreeNX-kNX] Support-mode

[Terje Andersen]

On Monday 09 May 2005 12:51, Paul van der Vlis wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Is it possible to break into somebody's session for support reasons?
>
> I mean that I want to see exactly the same as a customer with a problem.

Yes, this would really be a nice feature! I use it more or less everyday on 
Citrix (and sometimes RDP) - It's a nice way to help people whit their 
applications, or when there's trouble, but also a nice way to test new 
functionality/technology on existing users (so that one don't have to know 
the users password).
In the Citrix world this is called shadowing and almost every org. using 
Citrix use this feature to help their users. MS call it 'Remote Control' in 
RDP.

This is really a feature IMHO needed if one thinks about convincing 
Citrix-admins to look at the NX-technology as a feasible alternative.

The way Citrix/MS has done this is that the "server==client" -channel for a 
user session, is redirected/mirrored (or you could call it multicasted, 
because this is the way Citrix does it in their Conferencing server) into the 
admins-channel until it's requested to end the Remote Control/Shadow session. 
Then the admin returns to his/her previous session. 

The user would get a question in his/her session to allow, or decline, an 
admin to shadow their session. (In Citrix/ICA the user and admins can each 
choos to end the shadowing at any time, but in MS/RDP the user hasn't got any 
way to throw the admin out of their session - it's all up to the admin). 
Citrix/MS has made this functionality configurable through policies where an 
admin could choose between (roughly):

* No Remote Control/Shadowing
* Full Remote Control/Shadowing where user can choose to, or not to allow it
* Full Remote Control/Shadowing where the user cannot choose to not allow it
* Remote Control/Shadowing, but only view - admin cannot control keyb/mouse

This makes sense, and is somewhat similar to some of the possibilities in VNC 
today. 

The areas this can be used is somewhat "unlimitless", where everything from 
remote support, conferencing and to be used as a teachers tool to bring 
his/her demo-screen out to every pupils screen (like NetOp from Denmark).

Is this what is meant by this FR ?
http://developer.berlios.de/feature/index.php?func=detailfeature&feature_id=834&group_id=2978
If so, could this FR be extended so that the functionality above could be 
possible to add in the future ?
If not, could this be added as a FR?

/Terje