Advice needed about dabbling in Remote Support

[ericpol911]

I have a client in Illinois and I live in Michigan. They run into problems sometimes when I'm not in town and I am thinking about providing them with remote support. I am looking for a low cost remote program and some low cost/ easy to use software solutions. What do some of you use to diagnose and repair client PC's? I am totally lost here but I do have some time to dabble/learn. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rosco]

I have a client in Illinois and I live in Michigan. They run into problems sometimes when I'm not in town and I am thinking about providing them with remote support. I am looking for a low cost remote program and some low cost/ easy to use software solutions. What do some of you use to diagnose and repair client PC's? I am totally lost here but I do have some time to dabble/learn. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

gfi max is great i started using them about a month ago. Only pay for the services you use and no up front costs! Also there reps and tech support are great!

 

[ericpol911]

Thanks Bob that looks interesting. Have you used the managed antivirus they offer? Also no list of prices, is it expensive? I've been looking at Crossloop anyone have any input on them?

 

[rsarceno]

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I use a combo of RemoteZilla and MagicJack for almost 2 years.

RemoteZilla is perpetual licensing. You pay once and no usage fee. Updates are free also. I haven't come across an option that is not available that stop me from fixing a problem. I have RemoteZilla link on my partnership page,

MagicJack - Reception is sometimes lousy but I can call anywhere in the USA for $70 for 5 years. No long distance charge.

Good luck

 

[ericpol911]

RemoteZilla is a little more than I'd like to spend right now. I'm looking more for something that is either very cheap per year or has monthly fees. I've been checking into Logmein pro that is something I can afford to try and get my feet wet with remote support. I'm just looking for some input on some of these programs, but thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Xander]

Eric, look into ScreenConnect. One-time price and self-hosted. There's a good thread in them Remote Support forum.

You'll also find a thread in the Remote Support forum which links to my comparative chart found here.

My $.02 on Crossloop -- not impressed. I paid for a year and really didn't like the way they handled branding, etc.

One thing I do to try to keep my remote skills at their max is I remote into the machines on my workbench. They're 2m away and I do all that I can via the remote connection. Obviously, if it's a hardware issue, I might not bother but, for virus removals and cleanup/tuneups, it's great practice.

 

[altrenda]

"What do some of you use to diagnose and repair client PC's?"

Are you talking workstations, servers, laptops? How many?

if it's just workstations or laptops, why not Log Me In? Free to use, access their computers from your computer, tablet or phone.

 

[Mr.Mike]

You'll also find a thread in the Remote Support forum which links to my comparative chart found here.

@Xander: The link requires a login (user name and P/W).

 

[Rosco]

Thanks Bob that looks interesting. Have you used the managed antivirus they offer? Also no list of prices, is it expensive? I've been looking at Crossloop anyone have any input on them?

i have 5 computers hooked up to it. couple at my house and all my dads pcs. I wanted to vet it. Have an old pc with a cracked os i got from a client. It picked up the crack and made windows invalid. It works great. Based on Viper Antivirus which is another GFI product.

The service is very reasonable! With these prices i dont see how teamviewer and the like can compete!

 

[Xander]

@Xander: The link requires a login (user name and P/W).

Sorry, I took that URL right from my bookmark. That's not, however, the 'shared' URL that should go out.

This is the right link (and above post edited).

 

[ericpol911]

Eric, look into ScreenConnect. One-time price and self-hosted. There's a good thread in them Remote Support forum.

You'll also find a thread in the Remote Support forum which links to my comparative chart found here.

My $.02 on Crossloop -- not impressed. I paid for a year and really didn't like the way they handled branding, etc.

One thing I do to try to keep my remote skills at their max is I remote into the machines on my workbench. They're 2m away and I do all that I can via the remote connection. Obviously, if it's a hardware issue, I might not bother but, for virus removals and cleanup/tuneups, it's great practice.

ScreenConnect is a little too rich for my blood right now. Believe it or not I did try and view your spreadsheet earlier and didn't notice the tab on the bottom for remoteapps kinda makes you wonder doesn't it? Excellent tool thanks for sharing it. Once I find an app I'd like to try that's exactly what I intend on doing. I have 2 desktops and 2 laptops here I can play with and a handful of older machines donated to family I can also practice on. As for Logmein free it doesn't offer file transfer and diagnostic tools, how important are these features? If I have to upload diagnostic tools to dropbox and access them that way what do you guys and gals recommend? I'm sorry to be a pain but I'm just getting tired of when you come into town can you look at my PC it's acting funny and taking time and gas to travel to their homes for little or no money and if I can pick up some extra paid work that's just a bonus. Thanks again everybody for your help and suggestions.

 

[Xander]

Eric, it's not really a matter of what we recommend for diagnostics. It's a matter of 'what do you need?'. A customer saying a computer "acts funny" may mean a hundred different things but nothing will more of a difference to you than plain ol' experience ... and you don't need File Transfer for that.
About the only tool that I use that would count as pure diagnostics would be CrystalDiskInfo to check the SMART info.

You may find that a LMI connection and a Dropbox Public folder may serve your purposes for a while. Open up the Public folder on the remote computer and run each program as needed. Another option, if you find that you keep using the same tools over and over, is to simply zip them up and transfer/download a single file over.

One last plug for ScreenConnect - its Toolbox lets you click a button on the toolbar and, after transfer, immediately run that program on the client. Very handy for things like Process Explorer, etc.

 

[Encrypted Existence]

One thing I do to try to keep my remote skills at their max is I remote into the machines on my workbench. They're 2m away and I do all that I can via the remote connection. Obviously, if it's a hardware issue, I might not bother but, for virus removals and cleanup/tuneups, it's great practice.

Great idea! Thanks. filllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllller

 

[Secc]

Ammyy Admin

Hi all,
I (like so many others....) have been looking for remote software. I have searched the threads, read virtually everything here but for me it is coming down to price. At the moment i do not do enough remote work to justify something like teamviewer (would be my preferred choice if funds allowed).

I thought i had settled on crossloop but then found several posts on TN stating it has many issues and to stay away from it, so now i am looking at Ammyy Admin. this seems the right sort of price for me, Premium v3 license is $66.50 and seems to allow unlimited connections to clients, basic customisation, file transfer, chat etc.

I have searched TN for Ammyy and a couple of people have said they use it but no other info. Anybody using it can you give me the pro's/cons as to your experiences with it, is it a good option?

I was looking at Remote Utilities as posted in its own thread and they have a package for around $50 but having asked a few questions it seems i have to de-register the license on each machine that i connect to and if the user has a problem within 7 days, i can't go back in to reconnect......i understand their point in this to a degree but what do you do if you have a customer who says 'this (insert app name here) worked fine yesterday before you connected to me and now doesn't work' - what happens then is i have to drive to them - sort of defeats the purpose of remote access!

Anyway any views on Ammy would be appreciated.

Secc

 

[Xander]

Their price, if I read it correctly, is not $50 flat rate but $50 per remote computer or $699. That makes it among the more expensive options out there and, from looking at their features, they're not offering much that you can't get with LMI Free.

 

[Secc]

Their price, if I read it correctly, is not $50 flat rate but $50 per remote computer or $699. That makes it among the more expensive options out there and, from looking at their features, they're not offering much that you can't get with LMI Free.

Hey eHousecalls, yep thats correct but if you unregister it on the client machine after session then you can use it on another machine, here's a quote from conrad78:

'You can do it. That is - you can un-register RUT on one PC and register it on another PC, thus transferring your license. However, you won't be able to use that same license on the old PC for some time (that's sort of protection mechanism). '

secc

 

[altrenda]

I forgot about Supremo at www.supremofree.com/free-remote-desktop-features-en.aspx It's a TeamViewer clone that's free for personal or business use.

Drag and Drop file transfer, no installation required, looks and acts like TeamViewer.

I've used it a couple times and seems to work well.

 

[callthatgirl]

One thing I do to try to keep my remote skills at their max is I remote into the machines on my workbench.

I do that too sometimes, I remote into the bench computers or have another tech at another location of ours remote in and help out. One feature I love about LMIR is that we can flip computers from one tech to another or log out of the website session and log in at another location and continue the job. I do that on occasion, leave the office and log in on my home computer.

I think logmein free would work just fine for the few jobs you're doing and since you already have them as a past client, should be ok.

 

[Secc]

I forgot about Supremo at www.supremofree.com/free-remote-desktop-features-en.aspx It's a TeamViewer clone that's free for personal or business use.

Drag and Drop file transfer, no installation required, looks and acts like TeamViewer.

I've used it a couple times and seems to work well.

Hi altrenda, i found this a few days back and have only used it locally on my own machines but not on a proper session yet. It did seem to work fine and as its free for commercial use i was thinking of hosting it on my site. It is a bit light on features but covers the basics though.
I think if they had a donation/low-cost version with the option to brand it, added a few extra features then it would be a definite replacement for one-man operations like me.

Good to know that someone has used it in a real session and it performed well.

Secc

 

[Xander]

Hey eHousecalls, yep thats correct but if you unregister it on the client machine after session then you can use it on another machine, here's a quote from conrad78:

'You can do it. That is - you can un-register RUT on one PC and register it on another PC, thus transferring your license. However, you won't be able to use that same license on the old PC for some time (that's sort of protection mechanism). '

I saw that but I'd have to ask -- what if you have to reconnect to the machine you repaired two days ago for a few minutes of followup? And can't?

That's a dealbreaker right there.

Coincidentally, I started looking at Supremo today myself. ScreenConnect isn't quite perfect so, for a couple of things, I want to have a Plan B card up my sleeve. Only thing of note has been Kaspersky windows can't be clicked at all. I've needed a second connection just to deal with those. (If anyone's installing Kaspersky on their bench in the next couple of days, I'd like to know if Supremo can touch its windows)