remote pc support

I'm in the market of remote pc software/package for our company to help us support different clients. So far I've found this products:

*critix GoToAssist
* logmein.com
* Bomgar

Do you guyz have any suggestions or experience about this subject. I want to keep it cost effective since we're still a small company.

For a company you will need to pay for it the free versions are for non-commercial use.


I'd say use RealVNC easy to configure

i use realvnc... very nice

We use go2assist and realvnc. Realvnc has been best to deploy over a managed environment, but go2assist works best for having unmanaged customers go through our webpage and load the client for us to connect. Not sure how go2assist would fair being deployed/managed across a domain. Only annoyance with the citrix client is that it doesn't install as a service unless you specify it, which means on a reboot you lose connection to the box until someone lets you in (but if it's installed as a service it will reconnect on reboot).

Here's a thread with some info on logmein:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=520418


Note that realvnc is one of the cheapest options available, $50 or less per license versus $70 PER YEAR with logmein.

logmein is nice because it is web based so you can remote desktop into any logmein configured PC from any other PC with internet access.

Another vote for logmein. It is free (assuming you only need remote access and not the ability to transfer files and stuff), the web interface is awesome, firewalls don't block it, no need to know the ip or configure port forwarding on routers. RealVNC works OK on an intranet, but is a pain over the internet.

i use realvnc everyday over the internet without a hitch, it also has web interface available on it, but i only use it on one pc, and not multiples. guess with all this talk about logmein, i might as well give it a shot

In the spirit of full disclosure, this is Justin Brock from Bomgar Corporation.

I'd like to put in a shameless plug for the Bomgar B100. Here's why:
1. If you use it for more than a year, you'll break even over g2a. G2a is posted at $300 monthly, but they would likely come down. You can get a B100 for around $2000 - then you own it.
2. The Bomgar B100 is incredibly easy to use. I'm a non-techy former high school English teacher, yet it's intuitive to me. Setup takes about 15 minutes.
3. It's got all the features you need, and our dev team is working on a short release cycle.
a. Multi OS: Remote Desktop Control for Windows, Mac and Linux (in the upcoming fall release).
b. Control multiple clients at the same time.
c. Access unattended computers - You can push to any computer on your network. You can install a Jumpoint on a remote network and push to any unattended computer on that network from wherever you are. Or you can set up a client on a single pc and access it later.
d. Reboot/Reconnect - Ours really works.
e. Brand it. Make your own support page, put your own client-facing messages and alerts in it, your logo, etc.
f. If you're supporting clients, you probably ought to use something that's secure. The B100 has the same core software on it as our security-audited, enterprise appliance.

There's tons more, but someone's probably gonna slam me for suggesting the company I work for. . . . Whatever.

We have a free trial, but the trial doesn't show you the full picture . . . there's tons of admin features in the Box. I can try to give you more about that if you want to email me - jbrock[at]bomgar.com.

Good luck with your search.

Justin, is this box intended to sit at MY location or the CLIENTS location? You see, I support about 20 different locations. Am I to understand that to support all 20 with your product I would need 20 units?

Ideally, you would put the Bomgar Box at your location. From there, you would have two primary means of offering remote support to your clients.
1. They could come to your support page whenever an issue arose, and a) click on a link to begin a support sesson, or b) submit a support request into the queue. This is the recommended way if you're just solving problems as they come up.
2. If you want remote access to unattended systems, you could set up a Jumpoint on each remote network. From the Jumpoint, you could push a Bomgar session to any remote computer on your customer's network. [We've even had a customer push a Bomgar session through a vpn]

In terms of volume of people you can support, that's not really an issue. Our licensing is based on concurrent usage, not named seats, number of connections, etc. So one support rep can help about as many clients as he can handle at once. It's pretty easy to keep track of multiple sessions with our interface.

You, for instance, would need one Box for all of your clients. After that, we hope you're efficient enough to turn your 20 clients into 120 clients. But one Box could handle them all.

I think that answers your question. In a nutshell, how many support reps need to be logged in at the same time determines what Bomgar Box you need. But a rep can support a ton of clients at once when he's logged in.

Tell me if that doesn't make sense.

Justin, your solution looks nice - but if I do work from home and from my office, I then need 2 boxes... my partner would need a 3rd? With your remote application can I log into a machine that is on but unattended? You see many times we log onto networks to perform upgrades etc. We try to do this after hours as to not disrupt our clients work. Is this possible? Also, all of our networks are domain based where users are just standard users. If I log into a remote session with a user and need to log them out then re login as administrator (to permission or install for example) is this possible?

... if I do work from home and from my office, I then need 2 boxes... my partner would need a 3rd?

Click to expand...

No. No multiple boxes are needed [unless you have hundreds of support reps and want redundant units].

You would get 1 Box. Plug it in at your office. Then you, your partner, and your customers could connect to it at any time from any where. The last time I went to Califonia, I could connect to our Box [forget which state it's in], and help my wife in Mississippi with her email. You only need one Box for you and your partner.

With your remote application can I log into a machine that is on but unattended? You see many times we log onto networks to perform upgrades etc. We try to do this after hours as to not disrupt our clients work. Is this possible?

Click to expand...

Yes. You can gain remote access to unattended computers on remote networks.

You would simply set up a Jumpoint(tm) on each of the remote networks at each client location. From there you could push a session to any computer in that LAN/VPN. [This webcast talks about Jumpoint and the newest features]

Also, all of our networks are domain based where users are just standard users. If I log into a remote session with a user and need to log them out then re login as administrator (to permission or install for example) is this possible?

Click to expand...

Yes. Bomgar allows you to log in/log out, switch between users, etc. The sofware works on remote computers with user or admin rights. And you can escalate from User permissions to Admin permissions . . . provided you know the Admin login.

The following links may be of interest to you. These things are explained fairly thoroughly on our site.

Features:
Remote PC Support: 95-XP - Supporting older version Windows computers
Remote PC Support: Vista - Supporting remote Vista PCs
Remote Mac Support - We work with Mac OS X and up.

Features For Remote Clients - How do your clients interact with the software?

How the Bomgar Box Works - Scroll to the bottom of the page. You'll notice in the diagram of the B100 setup that there's only one box.

Finally, have you tried it? We offer a free trial of Bomgar - although you do miss some of the administrative features in the trial.

Hope that helps.

Feel free to email jbrock @at@ bomgar.com

Thanks for your replies. I need to talk to my boss. I will definitely get hold you justin if I have any further questions.

Have you checked out TightVNC? It's gpl'ed and does most everything the pay versions do including file transfers. About the only thing it lacks which apps like RAdmin have is remote install in a domain environment. It's nice to be able to push it out to 30 workstations from a management console.

Sure thing, goroX. I'll be happy to speak with you anytime. I'm out of town at SES in San Jose for the rest of this week, but I'll be back on the 27th.

A humbly submitted perspective on VNC

conway said:

Have you checked out TightVNC? It's gpl'ed and does most everything the pay versions do including file transfers. About the only thing it lacks which apps like RAdmin have is remote install in a domain environment. It's nice to be able to push it out to 30 workstations from a management console.

Click to expand...

I'll probably get slammed for this, but it needs to be said.

VNC is open source, and I LOVE open source. I love how passionate the user base is. I love that the "products" are "free". I love the independence and the feeling of sticking it to the man.

It all gives me a vigorous sensation similar to the one I get reading Henry David Thoreau's Walden or Self-Reliance.

Use open source and clear your cookies!

That said, there some compelling reasons NOT to use VNC, and pay for a product instead.

First [and of debatable importance] VNC can be more time consuming to use than a purchased product. To quote Thoreau, "The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run."

Secondly, and of profound importance, is security. When you're connecting to customer's computers, you need a solution that
-logs and records everything that has been done on that computer
-makes no changes to their firewall configuration
-makes it incredibly easy for the user to regain control
-offers multiple levels of acceptance/authentication before control happens
-leaves no residual software on the remote computer

There's a ton of other security issues surrounding remote desktop support (a list www.bomgar.com) that one should take into account when choosing a solution that does something as touchy as controlling someone's computer. The base code of VNC is simply lacking many of these security measures.

Original versions of our products when we were NetworkStreaming used VNC as part of the architecture. We left the VNC base, rewriting our code from the ground up with version 8 [i think. Our release log is here http://www.bomgar.com/blog/tag/new-features.] Among our many reasons for leaving VNC were its inherent security issues.

These guys made a similar decision http://www.tridiavnc.com/.

In summary, I'm not anti-VNC. There are a number of setting in which VNC is probably a fine product to use. However, in implementations where security is a prominent issue, the use of VNC should be heavily considered.

I agree that there are better solutions available, for a price. Unfortunately, a lot of times it can be difficult to convince a client to fork over the money for them just so you don't have to make the trip to their office when something breaks.

The sale might be a little easier if they're in a different state or a city hundreds of miles away of course.