Open any device's web page remotely, with no VPN
Press Access on a switch, router, firewall or access point and its own web interface opens in your browser, tunnelled through the collector at that site. Nothing is opened on the customer's firewall.
Remote access is part of the paid plans, from $24.99 a month. It is switched off until you turn it on.
One click from the device list to its own login page
Press Access
Pick a device in NetDraw and press Access. Its web page opens in a new tab and you log in to the device the way you normally would. NetDraw does not store device passwords.
Outbound only
The collector keeps one outbound connection to NetDraw and your requests travel back over it to the device. There are no inbound ports and no VPN to set up or maintain.
Its own address for each session
Each session gets its own address, so the device's page sees its own root and pages that use absolute paths, redirects and cookies keep working. Pages with the device's IP address written into them are rewritten to work.
Short-lived and revocable
A session ends after 30 minutes without use or 8 hours in total, and you can end it yourself at any time. Switching off access for a device or site, or signing out, ends it as well.
Every session is logged
NetDraw records who opened which device, when, for how long and from which address, in an access log you can read.
Locked to known devices
The collector will only connect to devices it discovered at that site, on private addresses and web ports (80, 443, 8080 and 8443). NetDraw cannot point it at anything else.
Off by default, switched on in layers
Nobody can open a device until you decide they can.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Account switch | Remote access is off for the whole account until the owner turns it on, and turning it off ends every open session. |
| Per site and per device | Turn access off for a customer site or a single device. |
| Roles | Owners, admins and technicians can open devices. Viewers cannot. Technicians can also be limited to certain sites. |
| Plan | Available on the paid plans. The free plan does not include remote access. |
What works today and what does not yet
Remote access carries a device’s web page, and older devices can be awkward. Here is the honest list.
| Works today | Not yet |
|---|---|
| Device web pages over HTTP and HTTPS, including self-signed certificates | An SSH or Telnet terminal in the browser |
| Login pages, cookies, redirects and file uploads | RDP and VNC |
| Pages that have the device IP written into their scripts | Pages that depend on WebSockets, which may only partly load |
| Modern switches, routers, firewalls and access points | Very old interfaces built on Java applets or Flash |
Questions
Is this a replacement for a VPN?
For reaching a device's own web page, yes. You do not need a VPN into the customer network. It does not give you network-level access to the rest of their LAN: each session is for one device, and the collector will only connect to devices it already knows about.
Does NetDraw store my device passwords?
No. You log in on the device’s own page each time. Saving device credentials is not part of remote access today.
Which devices does it work with?
Anything with a web interface on port 80, 443, 8080 or 8443, such as switches, routers, firewalls, access points, NAS boxes and printers. Some very old interfaces, and ones that rely on WebSockets, may not load fully.
Is it available on the free plan?
No. Remote access is included from the $24.99 a month plan. The free plan still gives you monitoring, alerts, dashboards and topology maps.
Can I see who has opened a device?
Yes. Every session is recorded with the person, the device, the time, how long it lasted and where it came from, and owners and admins can read the log.
Does it work for devices on a customer network I do not manage?
It works for any device the collector at that site has discovered, as long as the owner of your NetDraw account has switched remote access on for that site and device.
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