I looked into something similar recently. The following is based on plenty of research, but Intel's information can be a bit ambiguous and incomplete at times, so I can't promise I have every detail right.
FOR OTHERS: Note that you might be able to disable ME's remote access simply by ordering a computer with "No VPro".
1. ME is a platform with many applications that run on it; AMT (Active Management Technology) is one of them.
2. AMT has many components; remote management is one of them.
3. AMT comes in multiple 'editions' (my word, not Intel's) with different features. The Small Business Technology (SBT) edition does not provide remote access by design, with the idea (AFAICT) that small businesses don't want to setup and manage management servers and therefore remote access is insecure.
4. If in MEBx[0], you see "Small Business Technology", then there's no remote management - unless there's another remote management function in ME that is independent of AMT. Also, the first reference below provides the official method of identifying SBT implementations (via a flag in some table). I discovered it on a system ordered with a "No VPro"[1] network card (I'm still not sure why that's a spec of the NIC and not the processor).
[0] MEBx is Management Engine BIOS Extension: the text-mode, pre-OS console UI for configuring ME
[1] VPro is not a product or technology. It's merely branding for, AFAICT, an ambiguously defined group of products that IT professionals might be interested in. It includes AMT (which is also part of ME and often marketed independently), TXT (Trusted Execution Technology), and more.
FOR OTHERS: Note that you might be able to disable ME's remote access simply by ordering a computer with "No VPro".
1. ME is a platform with many applications that run on it; AMT (Active Management Technology) is one of them.
2. AMT has many components; remote management is one of them.
3. AMT comes in multiple 'editions' (my word, not Intel's) with different features. The Small Business Technology (SBT) edition does not provide remote access by design, with the idea (AFAICT) that small businesses don't want to setup and manage management servers and therefore remote access is insecure.
4. If in MEBx[0], you see "Small Business Technology", then there's no remote management - unless there's another remote management function in ME that is independent of AMT. Also, the first reference below provides the official method of identifying SBT implementations (via a flag in some table). I discovered it on a system ordered with a "No VPro"[1] network card (I'm still not sure why that's a spec of the NIC and not the processor).
Here are a couple of useful references:
* SBT: https://software.intel.com/en-us/documentation/amt-reference...
* MEBx on i7 processors (the title also specifies a chipset; I'm not sure how much that matters): http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/in...
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[0] MEBx is Management Engine BIOS Extension: the text-mode, pre-OS console UI for configuring ME
[1] VPro is not a product or technology. It's merely branding for, AFAICT, an ambiguously defined group of products that IT professionals might be interested in. It includes AMT (which is also part of ME and often marketed independently), TXT (Trusted Execution Technology), and more.