Connection Monitor Guide
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Welcome to the Connection Monitor Guide
2. What is the Connection Monitor (CM)
2.1. Access the Connection Monitor
3. The Connection Monitor of the Enterprise Client
4. The Connection Monitor of the Server (nobody is connected)
5. The Connection Monitor of the Server (someone is connected)
Introduction
The Connection Monitor is the graphical !M menu that you can open from the system tray, and it's not related to the NoMachine 'nxserver --connection-monitor' process which is in charge to monitor sessions and visible when listing processes while somebody is connected.
1. Welcome to the Connection Monitor Guide
This guide is an introduction to the Connection Monitor present in NoMachine client and server version 8. It illustrates the functionalities available via the Connection Monitor Menu when a client or a server package is installed. In this last case, if somebody is connected to the server, there are some additional items in the Menu.
For guidance on installation and configuration of the software, please consult the Installation & Configuration Guides available on the website: https://www.nomachine.com/all-documents
2. What is the Connection Monitor (CM)
The Connection Monitor is a process that appears in the system tray of your computer, it’s identifiable by the !M icon.
In the case of the Enterprise Client, it opens once the client is launched and stays available until the client is terminated via Menu (‘Quit NoMachine player’).
In the case of a NoMachine server, the Connection Monitor is a process which must be running in order for the NoMachine service to be active. This service runs until NoMachine is shutdown. By default, it is restarted at the next boot (unless configured differently). It provides fast access to the server User Interface (UI) and others. It is also in charge of notifying the desktop owner when another user is requesting to connect.
Remark for Linux users
Starting from GNOME 3.26, the drawer showing 3rd party application icons was removed. As a consequence, it’s no longer possible to display the !M icon out-of-the-box. To support that, it’s necessary to install a specific GNOME extension like TopIcons Plus https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1031/topicons/. Please refer to the official documentation of your Linux distribution for the appropriate instructions. As an alternative, you could choose to adopt a lightweight desktop which doesn’t exhibit this behaviour, for example MATE or Xfce.
2.1. Access the Connection Monitor
In the system tray, right or left mouse click on the !M icon to open the Connection Monitor Menu:
3. The Connection Monitor of the Enterprise Client
3.1. Show main window
It opens the main window of the NoMachine client, i.e. the ‘Machines’ panel displaying the connections you already created and the NoMachine servers available in your network, if any.
From the main window you can start an existent connection or create a new one by clicking on ‘Add’. You can also access ‘Settings’ to configure the client.
3.2. Show transfer status
It displays files transferred from the remote server to this computer.
3.3. Quit NoMachine Player
Once the client is started, the ‘nxrunner’ and ‘nxplayer’ processes stay running in the background also when all the NoMachine windows are closed.
Clicking on ‘Quit NoMachine player’ will terminate these processes immediately.
If one or more connection is running, you will be asked to continue or not with quitting the player. Continuing will close the session(s).
4. The Connection Monitor of the Server (nobody is connected)
4.1. Desktop shared
Clicking on ‘Desktop shared’ open a menu from which you can disable/enable sharing of the physical screen of this host.
At the bottom of the UI there is small icon which controls fast track acces to the physical desktop of this host. Switching on/off this icon makes the same as clicking the Desktop shared/Desktop not shared in the menu.
If the computer is your own and you need to access it remotely, you can still connect even when the desktop is not shared provided that your user is also the owner of the remote desktop. Even if you explicitly disabled it in the server UI.
TIP
You can hide the ‘Desktop shared’ item from the Connection Monitor menu by editing the node configuration file:
/usr/NX/etc/node.cfg on Linux
%PROGRAMFILES%\NoMachine\etc\node.cfg directory on Windows
/Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/etc/node.cfg on macOS
Set there:
EnableAcceptingConnection 0
4.2. Show main window
It opens the client User Interface and displays by default a welcome panel that shows the IP of this host, to be used for connecting from another device to the desktop of this machine.
Click on ‘Ok’ leads to the ‘Machines’ panel displaying the connections you already created and the NoMachine servers available in your network, if any.
From the main window you can start an existing connection or create a new one. You can also access ‘Settings’ to configure the client and the server settings.
4.3. Show server status
It opens the User Interface on the Server settings section, with focus on the ‘Server status panel’.
From this panel you can easily see if the server is running and you can restart or shutdown it. It also displays users actually connected to this host and give the possibility to disconnect any of them.
4.4. Show transfer status
It displays files transferred from user’s device to this computer.
4.5. Show whiteboard
It displays the NoMachine whiteboard, a tool which allows NoMachine users connected to this computer to exchange messages and drawings. Note that all users connected to the same desktop will see the content of the whiteboard.
TIP
You can hide the ‘Show whiteboard’ item from the Connection Monitor menu by editing the node configuration file:
/usr/NX/etc/node.cfg on Linux
%PROGRAMFILES%\NoMachine\etc\node.cfg on Windows
/Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/etc/node.cfg on macOS
Set there:
EnableWhiteboard 0
4.6. Show recording bar
It opens the recording tool to start recording the desktop. Even if nobody is connected to this host, you can use it for recording a video of your activities on the physical desktop.
In case of a Linux host, when the recording tool is opened inside the NoMachine virtual desktop, it records activities made inside that session.
TIP
NoMachine video recordings are .nxr files which can be opened by a H.264-capable player (except QuickTime Player, at the moment).
4.7. Quit NoMachine service
This is a shortcut to shutdown the NoMachine server and all services. A dialog is issued to confirm that. Administrative privileges are requested to perform the shutdown, you will be requested to authenticate as administrator or root user on Linux. Once authenticated, all services will be shut down and the !M icon will disappear from the system tray.
By default, NoMachine server and services will be restarted at the next boot.
Otherwise you can launch the NoMachine User Interface from Programs or Applications, access Settings -> Server and start the server from the ‘Status’ panel.
When ‘Show main window’ is clicked or the User Interface is open via Programs or Applications, the Connection Monitor Menu shows also the ‘Quit NoMachine Player’ item.
4.8. Quit NoMachine Player
When ‘Show main window’ is clicked or the User Interface is open via Programs or Applications, the Connection Monitor Menu shows also the ‘Quit NoMachine Player’ item.
5. The Connection Monitor of the Server (someone is connected)
When somebody is connected to this computer, some additional items appears in the Connection Monitor Menu. They are:
'Connected users (n)', 'Transfer a file and 'Open menu panel'.
5.1. Connected Users
This item reports the number of users actually connected, for example 'Connected users (1)' . This item has a sub-menu showing username and IP of the connected user and give the possibility to disconnect all users:
It has also the ability to display a floating dialog for reminding that somebody is seeing the screen, which looks like this one:
By selecting the connected user, another sub-menu opens with the possibility to switch at any moment between interactive and view-mode for that user and the possibility to disconnect him/her:
5.2. Transfer a File
It opens a sub-menu to choose between uploading a file from the user’s device to this computer or vice-versa. As an alternative, you can drag & drop the file from local to remote or in the opposite way.
5.3. Open menu panel
This item is specific for NoMachine sessions, if clicked on the physical computer it doesn’t perform any action. When clicked inside a NoMachine session, it opens the Menu Panel for changing session settings on the fly.
Detailed Menu Panel guides for clients on Linux, Windows and macOS are available in the Configurations section of the website: https://www.nomachine.com/all-documents.
6. Configure the Connection Monitor of the Server
6.1. Hide Server Status and Settings
It is possible to hide or show the 'Show server status' item displayed in the !M (the Monitor) menu in the system tray by editing the node configuration file:
/usr/NX/etc/node.cfg on Linux
%PROGRAMFILES%/NoMachine/etc/node.cfg on Windows
/Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/etc/node.cfg on macOS
Set there:
EnableServerStatus 0
Then restart NoMachine server, via UI or from command line, On Linux and macOS:
$ sudo /etc/NX/nxserver --restartOn Windows:
> %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\NoMachine\nxserver\nxserver.exe --restartIt's also possible to hide the possibility to access server settings via UI. Edit the node.cfg file and set: EnableServerPreferences 0
It's not necessary to restart the server, but if you have already the NoMachine UI open, close and re-open it to make changes effective.
To hide settings for the Server in the UI, set both EnableServerStatus 0 and EnableServerPreferences 0. If you have the client UI (main window and/or session window) open, close and reopen it to make changes effective.
