There are four ways of establishing a connection with an agent:

• From the address bar
• Specify an agent via a dialog box
• Search for an agent via a dialog box
• Select an agent from the Connect button's history list

In any method, if you specify that the agent is to display the connection request, a message dialog box indicating the connection request rejection is displayed on the controller.

If security settings have been specified on the agent side, the User Authentication dialog box appears when an attempt is made to connect to the agent. Authentication will succeed if the correct authentication information is entered in the dialog box. Note that the Change User Name and Password dialog box also appears when the Change the user name and password when a connection is established check box on the General page in the Add User dialog box is selected. If the dialog box appears, enter the new user name and password.

If you want to enter a domain with a user name, use the domain-name\user-name or user-name@domain-name format.

For details on how to specify agent security, see 3.4.4 Authentication settings.

If a connection attempt fails, an error message appears, and the system will reattempt to establish connection based on your option settings.

The following explains each connection method.

(a) From the address bar

This method connects agent specified on the address bar in the Remote Control window. The address bar consists of an agent button and an address box. If the address bar is not displayed, you can display it by one of the following methods:

• From the View menu, choose Toolbar, and then Address bar.
• In the Properties dialog box, go to the Toolbar page and select the Show the address bar check box.

You can use the address bar to connect to an agent via one of the two methods shown below.

Selection from the agent menu

Click the Agent button () in the Remote Control window. The agent menu is then displayed. You can select an agent from the agent menu. The agent menu is a menu-form list of the agents that are currently included in the network. If you register frequently used agents on the agent menu, you will able to connect with them more easily.

Figure 4-3 Flow of specifying the connection destination from the agent menu

By selecting a network icon () in the agent menu, you can determine whether the network represented by that icon includes machines that are running Remote Control Agent. From the top-level of the agent menu, you can add currently connected agents to the agent menu or edit the agent menu.

For information on how to create, maintain, and use the agent menu, see 4.4 Managing agents.

Selection from the address box

To specify the agent to be connected, use the address box displayed on the address bar in the Remote Control window. In the address box, enter the host name, IP address, or path of the agent, and then press the Enter key. Alternatively, select the agent from the pull-down list of agents that were connected in the past.

Figure 4-4 Specifying the connection destination from the address box

For information about agent paths, see 4.4.5(2) Recording agent paths.

Connection records in the address box can be deleted or reordered. For further information, see 4.4 Managing agents.

(b) Specifying an agent via a dialog box

In this method, you display a dialog box for specifying the agent to be connected, and then a particular agent.

To specify an agent via a dialog box:

1. From the File menu of the Remote Control window, choose Connect (or click the Connect button on the toolbar).
   The Remote Control Agent Specification dialog box appears.
   

   Figure 4-5 Remote Control Agent Specification dialog box

   

   Agent to be connected

   Specify the agent to be connected. Once you connect to an agent, that agent is registered in the list box, so you can select it from the list box for future connections. You cannot make multiple selections. Up to 256 agents can be registered in the list box.

   Connect

   Starts the connection with the specified agent.

   Search

   Searches for agents in the network. For details on searching for agents, see (c) Searching for an agent via a dialog box.

2. In the Agent to be connected box, enter the host name, IP address, or agent path of the agent to be connected.
   For details on the agent path, see 4.4.5(2) Recording agent paths.
   
3. Click the Connect button.
   This connects your system to the agent and closes the Remote Control Agent Specification dialog box. If you are already connected to an agent, a new Remote Control window opens.
   

(c) Searching for an agent via a dialog box

From the dialog box for searching agents, you specify the connection destination by searching for machines that are running Remote Control Agent on the network.

For details on agent searching such as how to specify the search parameters and view the search results or limitations of the search, see C. How to Use the Find Agent Facility.

Once you connect with one of the agents identified by the search, the system deletes the information about any other agents. If you want to save the search results, we recommend that you conduct your agent search from the Agent Manager window. For details on agent searches from the Agent Manager window, see 4.4.3(3) Searching for and reading the organizational information about agents.

To search for agents and connect to an agent from the Remote Control window:

1. In the Remote Control window, choose File and then Connect. (Alternatively, on the toolbar, click the Connect button.)
   The Remote Control Agent Specification dialog box appears.
   
2. Click Search.
   The Search Agents dialog box appears. You can also open the Search Agents dialog box by going to the File menu and choosing Search.
   

   Figure 4-6 Search Agents dialog box

   

3. In the Network area to be searched box, specify the IP address of the network to search in.
   For details on specifying the search range, see C.1 Setting the search range.
   Clicking the Settings button displays the Settings for Agent Search dialog box, which is used for customizing the search method. For details on customizing the search, see C.3 Customizing the search method.
   
4. Click Search.
   This searches for machines running Remote Control Agent within the specified network. When the search starts, the Search Agents dialog box expands to display the Agent and Details pages, which show the search status.
   

   Figure 4-7 Agent page

   

   Agent page

   Icons display the status of the agents (Awaiting connection, Connection rejected, Not running, or Not responding). For details on each status, see C.2 The status of found agents.

   For Awaiting connection and Connection rejected statuses, the agent name (for the Show agent host names setting), the version of Remote Control Agent, and the OS are displayed.

   To narrow down the agent statuses displayed in this page, use the check boxes located in the right section of the dialog box.

   Details page

   A message indicates the search status of the agents.

5. From the Agent page, select an agent with Awaiting connection status, and then click Connect.
   The system connects to the agent, and closes the Search Agents dialog box.
   

(d) Selecting an agent from the Connect button's history list

This connection method uses one of the Connect button usage records, which can be displayed from the toolbar in the Remote Control window. Click the arrow next to the Connect button. Select an agent from the pull-down list of the agents that were connected in the past.

Figure 4-8 Selecting the connection destination from the Connect button's history list

If the toolbar is not displayed, you can display it by one of the following methods.

• From the View menu, choose Toolbar, and then Toolbar.
• In the Properties dialog box, open the Toolbar page, and then select the Show the toolbar check box.

You can also use the automatic dialing facility to establish a connection.

In this case, you can select any of the methods described in (1) Establishing a connection. The Dial-up Connection dialog box is displayed when connecting to an agent. When dialing a connection, the Progress dialog box is displayed. The following subsections explain each dialog box.

(a) Dial-up connection

If you are using the auto-dialup function to connect to an agent, the following Dial-up Connection dialog box appears. From the property settings, you can set it so that this dialog box does not appear.

Figure 4-9 Dial-up Connection dialog box

Connect to

The name of the connection destination (such as the name set in the dial-up network or remote access service) is displayed.

Authentication information

Specify the user name, password, and domain to use for the dial-up connection. If these settings are omitted, the current user name, password, and domain are used.

Save authentication information

Select this check box to use the authentication information of this session for subsequent connections. This dialog box is not displayed for subsequent connections.

Connect

Starts the dial-up using the specified authentication information.

Setup

Displays a dialog box for editing the current connection destination. The dialog box that is displayed varies depending on the OS. The settings specified here use Windows functions to directly change the settings of the OS. Once you set these settings, clicking the Cancel button in the Dial-up Connection dialog box will not restore the original settings.

Specifying the user name, password, and domain, and then clicking the Connect button starts the dialup and displays the Progress dialog box.

(b) Progress

While dialing the connection, the Progress dialog box displays the current status.

Figure 4-10 Progress dialog box

Connecting to

Displays the name of the connection destination (such as the name set in the dial-up network or remote access service).

Status

Displays the current dial status in the following format.

hh:mm:ss n/m xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

• hh:mm:ss is the time the action occurred.
• n/m is the redial count and total count.
• xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is the status message.

Re-dial

Resets the redial count and starts dialing again.

Error

Displays an error message if an error occurs.

When the dialing finishes, the Progress dialog box closes and the remote control starts, just as in a regular connection. If dialing fails, the system redials to establish connection based on your option settings. Choose the Re-dial button to reset the redial count and commence redialing.

When connected to an agent, the controller shows an icon () on the status bar, indicating that an agent is connected. This icon is called the transmission icon. The yellow PC at the top of the icon represents receiving data from the agent, whereas the blue PC at the bottom represents sending data to the agent. During data transmission, the relevant PC in the icon illuminates. Placing your pointer over the icon pops up the transmission data count.

The status bar also shows the remote control mode, the amount of time that has elapsed since connection was established, and the number of data transfers. If the status bar is not displayed, you can display it using one of the following methods.

• From the View menu, choose Status Bar, and then Status Bar.
• In the Properties dialog box, open the Toolbar page, and then select the Show the status bar check box.

You can configure property settings to show or hide this information. There are two ways to show this information.

• Selecting from the menu
  In the Remote Control window, from the View menu, choose Status Bar and select the following items:
  
  • Elapsed Time
  • Transferred Data
  • Show Data Transfer Status Icon
• Selecting in the Properties dialog box
  In the Remote Control window, from the Tools menu, choose Properties to display the Properties dialog box. In the Toolbar page, select the following check boxes:
  
  • Show elapsed time
  • Show the amount of data sent
  • Show the amount of data received
  • Show status icon of data transfer

Set the remote control mode of the controller to conform to the contents of remote control operations you need to perform on the agent. However, if the agent side defines a higher level of permission, the mode of the controller may be adjusted when connection is established. For details on the remote control mode, see 3.1 Remote control mode.

There are three ways of setting the remote control mode:

• Selecting from the menu
  In the Remote Control window, from the Tools menu, choose Control Mode and select View, Shared, or Exclusive.
  
• Selecting with the tool button
  You can customize the toolbar to include buttons for selecting remote control modes. When you select a mode, the button is pressed.
  For example, if shared mode is selected, the toolbar looks like as follows.
  

  Figure 4-11 Toolbar when the shared mode is specified

  

  For information on how to customize the toolbar to display additional buttons, see 4.2.4(7) Customizing the toolbar.
  
• Selecting in the Properties dialog box
  Open the Remote Control window from the Tools menu and choose Properties to display the Properties dialog box. In the Control Mode page, select the relevant remote control mode.
  

You can view the set remote control mode from the status bar and toolbar of the Remote Control window.