Connect to your computers

Remote access lets you use one of your organization’s computers from wherever you are, through the portal. You can connect only to computers you have been given access to, and only in the ways your organization and your IT provider allow. This page covers connecting, giving access, and the rules.

Before you begin

• Your IT provider has turned on remote access for your organization. If not, Remote access says Remote access is off.
• Connecting needs Use remote access and access to the computer. Giving access and changing the rules needs Grant remote access. The IT contact role can connect. The Owner role can do all three.
• Remote access opens in your browser, even when you use the portal in Microsoft Teams.

How a connection works

Each computer you can reach says how the connection works:

Shown	What happens
Any time	Connects without asking, even when nobody is at the device.
With a notice	Connects straight away. The person at the device sees a banner while it lasts.
Ask first	The person at the device is asked, and nothing happens until they say yes.

The person at the device sees your name, your organization, and that the connection comes from the client portal.

Recorded means the session is saved as a video that your IT provider keeps, so you can ask them later what happened on screen.

Connect

1. Select Remote access. It lists the computers you can connect to, and whether each is Online or Offline.
2. Select Connect beside the computer.
3. Select Start the session. You may be asked to confirm it’s you first.

The session ends when you close it, when your access ends, or when an owner removes it.

If a session pauses

A session pauses when nobody has used the mouse or keyboard on it for a while. The viewer warns you shortly before. To keep it going, turn on Control and move the mouse over the screen.

When your IT provider requires it, a paused session asks you to sign in again before it carries on. Select Resume, confirm it’s you, and the session picks up where it left off. Only the person who started the session can resume it, and only while they still have access to the computer.

Give someone access

1. Select Remote access grants, or Who can connect on Remote access, then select Give access.
2. Under Who, choose A person or A group, then choose them. Only people and groups with a role that includes remote access can be chosen.
3. Under Which computers, choose One device, Every device at a site, Every device in a device group, Every device with a tag, or The devices assigned to them, then choose which. The last reaches the devices your IT provider records as the person’s, through their linked user. See Manage your team.
4. Under How they connect, choose a way. Only the ways your organization and your IT provider allow are offered.
5. Optionally, turn on Record these sessions.
6. Set Starts and Ends. Leave Ends empty to keep it until you end it, unless your IT provider sets a longest time.
7. Optionally, add a Note saying why.
8. Select Give access.

Access to a site, device group, or tag follows the computers in it, so a new computer at the site is included.

To take access away, select End access beside it. A session in progress stops with it. Access that is about to end shows Expires soon.

Set your organization’s rules

1. On Remote access grants (the Who can connect page), select Rules. The rules page has a Who can connect button to go back.
2. Under Ways of connecting allowed, tick the ways anyone may connect. Ways your IT provider does not allow are marked so.
3. Under Defaults for new access, choose the way new access starts with.
4. Optionally, turn on Record every session, or Always ask the person at the device first, which overrides the ways above.
5. Select Save rules.

Sessions already running follow the new rules within seconds.

Next steps

• Check the activity log
• Manage your team