Remote Desktop Program

[slither556]

hi im thinking of staring my own repair business just wondering what sort of things you could use remote support for especially interms of home users?

 

[Parkwaytech]

If the computer will boot into Windows and connect to the Internet, you can basically do anything you would onsite or in-shop. If you are comfortable walking someone through steps over the phone, you can do even more. I'd say 90-95% of what you can do onsite can be done remotely with the right software (LogMeIn Rescue, Teamviewer, etc.).

 

[Martyn]

^^^^ this plus even if you don't do remote support it's handy to have for those little fixes after you return a computer that got missed. You'll be surprised what people don't know that you assume they would.

 

[RedFoxComp]

If the computer will boot into Windows and connect to the Internet, you can basically do anything you would onsite or in-shop. If you are comfortable walking someone through steps over the phone, you can do even more. I'd say 90-95% of what you can do onsite can be done remotely with the right software (LogMeIn Rescue, Teamviewer, etc.).

Well, there are a lot of things that you can't do like run proper hardware diagnostics like memtest, or bootable AV to catch rootkits before they load. Other than that I agree. I've been using ChunkVNC for over a year with no problems. I install it as a service and I can do anything I want, including rebooting into safe mode. It's great and free. If you leave it installed the connection ID is static and can be associated with the customer and the repeater service creates txt files with connection information that can be used for billing.

Which reminds me, I've been meaning to donate to this dude.

 

[FoolishTech]

Well, there are a lot of things that you can't do like run proper hardware diagnostics like memtest, or bootable AV to catch rootkits before they load. Other than that I agree. I've been using ChunkVNC for over a year with no problems. I install it as a service and I can do anything I want, including rebooting into safe mode. It's great and free. If you leave it installed the connection ID is static and can be associated with the customer and the repeater service creates txt files with connection information that can be used for billing.

Which reminds me, I've been meaning to donate to this dude.

I use it too but it annoys me the repeater isn't designed to be run as a service. I haven't bothered with trying to MAKE it do so because from what I've read it is unreliable. Have you set it up like this and what is your experience with it?

 

[RedFoxComp]

I use it too but it annoys me the repeater isn't designed to be run as a service. I haven't bothered with trying to MAKE it do so because from what I've read it is unreliable. Have you set it up like this and what is your experience with it?

I have it running as a service and I noticed it wasn't starting reliably on reboot. In Recovery options for the service I set first and second failure to 'restart the service', reset fail count to 1 day and restart service after 3 minutes. Not a single problem since.

 

[madcow007]

I'm currently using the Stable Perl Repeater script fork by Rat with zero issues. I actually have it running on an old openwrt router.

My only issue is the false positives that most AV give on autoit based apps so I'm working on a custom solution in AHK to replace chunk

 

[D_Underground_Computers]

I agree with you. I can imagine using a piece of software such as Team Viewer for that kind of deployment would be problematic due to the massive amounts of machines that are being serviced and maintained. I do enjoy Team Viewer for my customers who happen to have issues while they are in front of the computer for a convenience factor of not having to wait for me to arrive or for them to haul their equipment. Another plus to it I can use it quite well on my Android phone for emergency service when I myself am not in front of a computer.

 

[FoolishTech]

I have it running as a service and I noticed it wasn't starting reliably on reboot. In Recovery options for the service I set first and second failure to 'restart the service', reset fail count to 1 day and restart service after 3 minutes. Not a single problem since.

Finally got around to setting that up. Problem is nothing can contact the repeater when it runs as a service ... when running manually it is working fine. I've verified the repeater is indeed running in task manager, tried disabling the firewall entirely for testing purposes, and of course using the same user credentials for the service as my login account where it runs ok from, all to no avail.

 

[marcink99]

logmein rescue for sure. All you need to is set vpn(maybe they already have it?) connect to it and than use "connect on lan" or just remote destkop to each one of it. What tweeks needs to be done? maybe you could just automate it? also will you do server tweaks? such as granting updates etc...

 

[clayb226]

Finally got around to setting that up. Problem is nothing can contact the repeater when it runs as a service ... when running manually it is working fine. I've verified the repeater is indeed running in task manager, tried disabling the firewall entirely for testing purposes, and of course using the same user credentials for the service as my login account where it runs ok from, all to no avail.

I have been using ChunkVNC for a long time, I use the perl script on my Linux server, works great. Did you ever get the issue figured out?

 

[nightkingdoms]

I've been using - and continue to use - GoToAssist. I initially went with them because I didn't do many remote support calls and could get the day pass. Now I pay the yearly fee and have never had problems with it.