Since N-able's N-central only officially supports Windows when using DirectConnect, many of you IT professionals that use Linux as your primary desktop may be disappointed. You can still log into N-central and have limited functionality using Linux, but you will not be able to use DirectConnect to remote control one of the agents. Thanks to the WINE project, by installing the Windows versions of Firefox and Java, you can actually use DirectConnect on Linux. This tutorial is tested on Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10 using Firefox 17.0.1 and Java RE 1.7.0.10, although these instructions should work on any Debian based system. It has not been tested on openSUSE or Fedora, but if you install the respective packages for those distributions, this should work as well.

To begin, follow this step-by-step tutorial to install the Windows version of Firefox on Linux:

How to install the Windows Version of Firefox in Linux using WINE

Now follow this step-by-step tutorial to install the Windows version of Java on Linux:

How to install the Windows Version of Java RE in Linux using WINE

Now launch the Windows version of Firefox and login to your N-central server (the Firefox install guide above shows how to launch the Windows version of Firefox):

Now click on the Remote Control button for which ever system you like (You need to make sure the Remote Control type is set to DirectConnect for the system, as Remote Support Manager currently does not work using this method). A Firefox notification bar will appear at the top of the browser. Click on Options and choose "Allow pop-ups for my-ncentralserver.com".

Click on the Remote Control button again and a message will pop-up asking, "Do you want to install NTRCloud Remote Control Plugin?" Click OK to continue:

Another Firefox notification will pop-up. Click Allow to continue:

The Firefox Software Installation box will pop-up asking you to install the NTRglobal Plugin. Click Install Now to continue:

Another Firefox notification will pop-up asking you to restart Firefox to install the NTRglobal Plugin. Click Restart Now to continue:

After Firefox restarts, everything is ready. It will reload the DirectConnect page and connect you to the remote system using DirectConnect.

If you have any questions or problems, please leave a comment below and I will try to help.