Launch Configuration

Section: remoteit Desktop for Windows, macOS, and Linux Updated: May 20, 2022 16:16

Once you have configured remote.it Services, you can now connect to them. If you have any trouble using the default connection settings, you may need to change the Launch Configuration.

Several examples are given below for the most commonly used applications in Windows, MacOS, and Desktop Linux.

Windows

SSH using Windows Command Prompt

SSH Command:

start cmd /k ssh [username]@[host] -p [port]

SSH using PuTTY

PuTTY is a popular open source Windows application for making SSH connections. It includes many features including logging which you may find useful. You can download it here.

SSH Command:

"[path]" [host] -P [port] -l [username]

VNC using RealVNC Viewer

VNC Command:

"[path]" -Username [username] [host]:[port]

RDP using Remote Desktop Connect

RDP Command:

mstsc /v: [host]:[port]

MacOS

SSH using MacOS Terminal

SSH URL:

ssh://[username]@[host]:[port]

SSH using iTerm2

iTerm2 is a third-party terminal solution for MacOS with some nice features such as being able to display multiple sessions in a single window. The default URL Launch configuration in remote.it should work, but you have to set your Mac to use iTerm2 as the default SSH handler and configure iTerm2 as well.

See: https://iterm2.com/faq.html and look for:

Q: How do I set iTerm2 as the handler for ssh:// links?

SSH URL:

ssh://[username]@[host]:[port]

Screen Sharing using MacOS Screen Sharing

MacOS Screen sharing is built in to MacOS and is the simplest application to use if you are connecting to another Mac computer. If you are connecting to a Raspberry Pi, you may have to adjust the Pi's RealVNC Server authentication settings to allow connections from MacOS Screen Sharing. An alternative is to use the RealVNC Viewer application installed on your Mac which will work with MacOS as well as Raspberry Pi VNC Connections without additional server configuration.

VNC URL:

vnc://[username]@[host]:[port]

VNC (Screen Sharing) using RealVNC Viewer

VNC Command:

"[path]" -Username [username] [host]:[port]

Linux Desktop

SSH using Linux Terminal

SSH Command:

ssh -l [username] [host] -p [port]

Connection Name	The name given to this connection, when using Named Connections. User editable.
Local Port	The port that will be used on your client when making the connection.
Launch type	URL - launch in browser Command - launch in shell
Auto-launch	On or off, sets whether to automatically launch the associated action after making the connection.
<Application> Command	Depending on the application type (SSH, VNC, etc.) allows you to customize the command to launch using the shell.
Username	Optional field, specified by use of [username] in the application command. Arbitrary tokens can be used to pass additional entries to the command line.

Launch Types

The Remote.It Desktop application

The Launch Type determines how a Remote.It Connection will be used. There are two launch types available in the Remote.It Desktop application.

- URL
  - Builds a user-editable Browser URL using the connection hostname and port, and launches it using your default web browser.

- - MacOS natively uses this approach for web pages, ssh, and screen sharing (VNC). This is called "deep linking".
- Command
  - Builds a user-editable command using the connection hostname and port, and launches it using the system's command shell (Terminal in MacOS and Linux, Command Prompt in Windows).

- - Windows does not have native web browser support for anything other than http(s) connections. Some applications do install deep linking support on Windows, but most of our examples show using the Command launch type as it is more universal.

The Remote.It web portal

URL
- The Remote.It web portal only supports URL Launch type for http(s) connections. The URL will be built and launched in your default web browser.
Command
- All other connection types are handled using Command launch. The connection string will be built and available to copy and paste into the "Run" window or a Windows Command Prompt.

Application Command/URL

The Application Command or URL (depending on the Launch Type) allows you to build a command or URL that will be triggered when you make a connection. This allows you to integrate Remote.It connections with third party applications as long as they accept hostname and port parameters on the command line.

Tokens

Tokens allow you to specify how the custom command will be constructed. There are several built-in tokens available for every connection. You can also define your own tokens by enclosing the desired word in square brackets.

[host] - the hostname returned by the Remote.It Connection
[port] - the port returned by the Remote.It Connection
[username] - user-entered user name as required by the application, e.g. SSH or VNC login
"[path]" - allows you to choose the path to the application program you wish to use with this Connection.

User-defined tokens

This example shows a user-defined token called "token". By entering [token] in the SSH Command, a new field is created to hold the user-entered value. If you leave the token blank, you will be asked to supply that information every time you launch the connection. Otherwise it will be saved and pre-filled in the launched command.