Last night I updated the Javascript VNC client called noVNC that you can use along with Meshcentral.com, and now, it supports Intel AMT hardware KVM! So, if you happen to have a computer that has Intel AMT 6.0 of higher that is properly configured with hardware KVM and setup on Meshcentral.com, you can perform Hardware KVM from within any modern web browser!

To do this, just click on the device and select the "VNC/RDP/SSH" link at the bottom. Keep the selections to "noVNC" and port "5900" and click on "Intel AMT" and OK. You can then type in the Intel AMT VNC password and connect. No, to make this possible, Meshcentral.com is going to use another computer on your network as a relay, so you need to have to least two computers on that local network for this to work. This said, this solution will work thru proxies, NAT's and firewalls, so it's really handy.

This is pretty big news since I have been wanting to support hardware KVM from any web browser for a long time. I just demoed this feature to my summer intern, rebooting a computer and having the entire boot process show up within the web browser. Really cool!

Enjoy!
Ylian
meshcentral.com

And now for something completely weird. I saw a recent TED video on the opportunities of a 404 error page. Apparently there are even competitions for the best 404 error page. Given that I am working on my own web site, I figured I needed to get a better page not found. So here we go... the new Meshcentral 404 Page Not Found error!

Ylian
meshcentral.com

Over the weekend I improved the full screen support for the built-in Meshcentral.com remote desktop feature in two ways. Before I get to that, for people who don't know, Meshcentral.com allows you to take control of your remote desktop from within a web browser. So, from anywhere in the world you log in and with a few clicks, you can take control of your computer remotely. Well, when looking at your remote computer within a browser, it's useful to be able to re-size the browser and use as much screen area as possible.

The first improvement I did is to build the normal view and full view within the same HTML page. Now you can connect to your remote computer and switch between view modes without loosing your connection. The icon to do this is on the upper right on the picture below.

Second, I added support for true full screen using the HTML5 full screen API's supported in FireFox and Chrome. When in "full mode" there is a new "Full Screen" button that is available for supported browsers. It will make the page truly go full screen on the client. In both FireFox and Chrome, you press ESC key to drop back out of full screen. So, in this mode, I added a new "ESC" button in case you need to send the ESC key to the remote computer.

In general, this remote desktop within a browser feature is really cool. I hope these improvements will make it a bit better.

Ylian
meshcentral.com

Well, we just got ourself a new feature! With Meshcentral.com, you can access the command prompt of any Windows, Mac OSX and Linux computers from our web based terminal. Works in any browser. It's useful when you need to do advanced operations. It's especially useful for Linux machines where the command prompt is really powerful. So, the new feature is that you can now drag & drop a text document, up to 10k in length into the terminal and the text will be "typed" into the terminal window just like if you typed it on the keyboard. You can how have a bunch of script files ready to go and, when you need them, just drap and drop on the terminal to save you a lot of typing!

This feature working in FireFox, Chrome and Safari. It should work in IE10 when that comes out, but for right now, no IE support.

Enjoy!
Ylian
meshcentral.com

Intel® Secure Key, was previously code-named Bull Mountain Technology. It is the Intel name for the Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures instruction RDRAND and its underlying Digital Random Number Generator (DRNG) hardware implementation. Among other things, the DRNG using the RDRAND instruction is useful for generating high-quality keys for cryptographic protocols.

Because this technology recently launched (May 2012) with the Intel(r) 3rd Generation Core processors (code-named Ivy Bridge) the Bull Mountain Software Implementation Guide has been renamed to the Intel(r) Digital Random Number Generator Software Implementation Guide.

This technology is documented and described in the Intel(r) Digital Random Number Generator Software Implementation Guide. It is intended to provide a complete source of technical information on the RDRAND Instruction usage, including code examples.  Here is a recap of what this guide covers:

• Random Number Generator (RNG) Basics and Introduction to the DRNG. This guide describes the nature of an RNG and its pseudo- (PRNG) and true- (TRNG) implementation variants, including modern cascade construction RNGs. We then present the DRNG's position within this broader taxonomy.
• A technical overview of the DRNG, including its component architecture, robustness features, manner of access, performance, and power requirements.
• RDRAND Instruction usage, providing reference information on the RDRAND instruction and code examples showing its use. This includes RDRAND platform support verification and suggestions on DRNG-based libraries.

This Software Implementation Guide is designed to serve a variety of readers. Software Developers who already understand the nature of RNGs may skip the first 3 sections and simply refer to the RDRAND instruction reference and code examples.

Here is the link for the  Intel® Digital Random Number Generator (DRNG) Software Implementation Guide.

Questions?  Please visit our forum and start a discussion.

One of the big features of Meshcentral.com is it's remote file manager. Being able to manage, upload and download files using any web browser is pretty powerful. Today, we improved this feature a lot by adding drag & drop support. You can now take one or more files from a folder on your local computer and drag & drop them into the web browser. The selected files will then be uploaded one by one to the target computer. This feature is especialy nice since, in the past, you could only select one file to upload at a time. This is the first time you can drag a bunch of them all at once. Note that this feature works in: FireFox, Chrome and Safari. It does not yet work in Internet Explorer.

Now, I can't take all the credit for this feature, my new summer intern Sathvik just got started on Monday and this is this first feature to make it on the site.

All in all, this makes easier than ever to remotely access your files remotely and over the web. I hear lots of stories of people that use this feature to access home files while traveling.

Update (5/12/2012): When you use the "upload" button you can now select multiple files and all files will be uploaded at once. Just put in the feature now.

Enjoy!
Ylian
meshcentral.com

In my last blog I talked about adding iPad Retina display to Meshcentral.com. Well, I made two more improvements on that same topic. First, the new high DPI support now includes Internet Explorer. If you set the zoom factor on IE to 150% or more and go to Meshcentral.com, you will see the high resolution graphics. Seconds, I expended support for high DPI displays and iPad retina displays to the Meshcentral.com mobile application. It's accessible at: https://meshcentral.com/m.

On iPhones and iPad's, you can go to that URL and "Add to Homescreen". You will get a high resolution iOS icon, a splash screen and a really nice web application to monitor your devices. The application looks just wonderful on the new iPad's display.

Ylian
meshcentral.com

In the last week, I got myself a "new iPad" with retina display. It's really a wonderful display and moving forward, there probably will be a lot more high DPI displays available for tablets and laptops. When visiting web sites, the fonts and CSS elements of the web page look sharp, but the images are a little washed out because they are stretched to the higher DPI. Well, I just spent a few hours working on improving Meshcentral's look on the new iPad. When detected, higher resolution images are used and I changed the top logo on the site to something that would render better.

The result is a really good looking web site on the new iPad. I can tell what images have been updates and which have not. I have not gone thru the entire site, but many of the more important element have been upgraded. In the future, HTML will have to include some way to detect high-DPI displays, for now, the new iPad is detected specifically, so only that device will get the improved graphics on that page. Moving forward, I will look at opportunities to extend this feature to all displays that can benefit. Also, for any other device, the normal graphics are loaded, so the pages are not any larger in size.

Enjoy!
Ylian
meshcentral.com

As this document is one of our most often viewed articles on our Community, if you have any thoughts about improvements or additions, I would love to hear them.

Please post any questions or comments onto our developer's forum.

1. (Intel(r) AMT 8.0) Ivy Bridge processor with Intel(r) VT and Intel(r) TXT
   1. Intel(r) Core(tm) i5 Processor or Intel(r) Core(tm) i7 Processor
   2. For KVM support, processor must have Integrated Graphics.
2. PCH: Panther Point (Q77, QS77, QM77)
3. TPM 1.2: Can be removed to meet certain import restrictions
4. Intel(r) VT-x capable BIOS (Disabled by default, can be enabled)
5. Intel(r) VT-d capable BIOS (Disabled by default, can be enabled)
6. Intel(r) TXT  capable BIOS (required)
7. TPM 1.2 Capable BIOS
8. Intel(r) AMT 8.0 Capable BIOS
9. Intel(r) ME Firmware 8.0 with Intel(r) AMT 8.0
10. Intel(r) Wired LAN: (Lewisville 82579 LM)
11. Intel(r) Wireless LAN: Taylor Peak 2X2 - Intel(r) Centrino(TM) Advanced-N 6205 or 6300
12. Intel(Management and Security Status Icon (Recommended; not required)
13. Intel(r) Anti-Theft Technology: Optional

There is a handy website that can be used as a reference for Intel Processors and what technologies they support:  ark.intel.com.  (it will not be fully updated until some time after the launch event in Q2 of 2012.)  This link will take you to an i7 processor spec.  Here are some screen shots of what you will see:

In order to determine if a particular i5 or i7 processor will support Intel(r) AMT, a look at the "Advanced Technologies" is required:

When purchasing a system from an OEM Website, it may be necessesary to look at the specs and dig a little deeper than your shopping cart in order to ensure your system has all of the right components (not all Core i5 and Core i7 support Intel AMT and those that do may not all support KVM.)

If you have any questions regarding Intel(r) AMT Technology, please post your question on our Developer's Forum.

So what does the new face portend? For the moment not too much. I am hard at work now coming up to speed on our manageability technologies, on our VPro Developer Community members and of course, your needs. I am speaking now with the likes of Ylian Saint Hillaire and Gael Holmes Hofemeier. It is nice to have world class experts like these so close at hand.

We will continue ensuring that the content, technical articles, videos and code sample are here. We will soon be starting a new video series, most likely hosted by both Gael and myself. The series will address real problems and solutions relevant to our community of developers. I would very much like to feature community members as well. If you have an idea for a guest or a topic, please let me know. You can reach me through this blog or the forums. Feel free to ask for my email if you want to contact me directly.

And the future? Well, one thing that interests me is the confluence of manageability and security. How will that impact application development and what will that mean to you as developers? Do you have ideas? Let us know. I look forward to working with you all.

The attacthed video demonstrates how this tool can be used (and where to go get it.) The user may decide that their environment calls for more configuration that what they get from this tool. Here is a tip that the average developer may not know:

Along with the ACU Wizard, there is also a Configurator Command Line Interface (that's right - you can push scripts down to your client and have them run locally. If you require Admin Control Mode rather than Client Control mode, there is a command for that too. If you require TLS Communications, you can apply that once your system has AMT Enabled as well (if there is an API in the SDK, there is nothing you can't change about your AMT Configuration once Intel AMT has been enabled.)

You can download the most current version of the Intel SCS HERE (note that soon it will be refreshed with Intel SCS 8.0)

The following video demonstrates how to quickly configure an Intel AMT Client using the ACU Wizard.

But what if you don’t want to specify which tasks should be done? Maybe you don’t want to keep track of when your certificates are going to expire, and want SCS to do that for you? Exactly for that reason, we in the SCS team created the “Automatic maintenance” option. This option will review when the last time a task was performed, or when the object is going to expire, and will act accordingly. All the user has to do is to make sure automatic maintenance happens once every month or two, and SCS will take care of everything else.

Automatic maintenance is available both in non-DB mode (through the configurator) and in DB-mode (configurator and RCS). It is also available for all generations of Intel AMT supported by SCS.

P.S. Just to clarify: regular maintenance and automatic maintenance on RCS side are not identical to what is done by the configurator. The configurator has the added capability of performing “network synch” – it will make sure that the Intel AMT’s hostname and IP are set according to the policy the user defines.