Hope this makes sense

I am looking for methods to remotely access computers to perform repairs. I have only been on the receiving end of this and have used Lan Desk, and Webex. With Webex I had to go to a URL then the support person could take over the computer and no software had to be installed on the users computer. I have no idea what Webex costs but I bet it's not cheap. Is there anything free / cheap that works the same way ? I am looking for something where the user doesn't need to install something on their computer ahead of time.

GoTo Assist is about the only product I know of off hand that is similar. Looks like they have daily, monthly and yearly prices.

http://www.gotoassist.com/en_US/expPricing.tmpl

If your looking for pure remote desktop access without someone else on the other end, GoToMyPC pricing and info is here:

https://www.gotomypc.com/en_US/pricing.tmpl

I've used GoToMyPC on a trial basis, and it seemed pretty solid. Worked fine with Windows and Mac.

You could try FogCreek CoPilot. It's based on VNC, if I recall correctly.

I've been looking for the same thing for a long while now, and I have not found anything in the cheap/free category that does things as seamlessly. GoToAssist is the ideal, as far as I'm concerned, but I wouldn't call it cheap, sadly.

Instead, I've been using a product that's free, but is certainly not as easy for the remote user, which is in turn a challenge for me The product is called TeamViewer. I have it installed on my computer, and I put a portable version on my web server under a very short address that's easy to give to clients over the phone. The problem is that it's an exe file, so they get all the usual warnings when downloading it AND running it, so I have to keep telling them to say yes to everything (which is a bad habit to get them into already ).

Once the application is running on both computers, they have to read a couple numbers to you and you're connected.

Like I said, it's far more of a process, and I really dislike that, but I simply can't afford the $660/year for the GoToAssist product, as excellent as it is...

This functionality is built into Windows and Mac OS. You don't need to buy anything for the client.

For Windows you can use Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection from a Windows or Mac system to connect to the client, the software is free. You can also use one of the third party programs available that allows compatible MS remote connections.

Windows also has a remote assistance feature which should allow the person at the other end to see what you're doing. Normal RDC shuts down the screen on their end.

For Mac OS you can use Apple's Remote Desktop which is commercial but available at a couple of price points I believe. I'm not sure if there are any free third-party programs that can connect directly to the remote service. Can't recal if VNC will do it. Apple's solution has the ability to show or hide the desktop on the client side.

In both OS cases you need to first enable remote connections on the client machine(s).

While the functionality is built into Windows and MacOS, the ability to traverse NAT, and otherwise deal with routers and only let certain people in securely is left to the end user to figure out.

On OS X, they also have iChat with Screen Sharing, and Back to my Mac which both try and address the problems above. Nothing that I'm aware of does this in Windows though out of the box.

I'm pretty sure that the Remote Assistance feature in Windows will allow an arbitrary machine behind a NAT firewall to be connected to from the outside. Like in the Mac solutions you mentioned, however, I don't know specifically how to initiate the connection.

Both Windows and Mac Remote Desktop will only hit a single machine behind a NAT firewall when connecting from the WAN side by default. Not sure if there is any way around that. This isn't an issue if all the machines that need to be connected to are on their own LANs with their own WAN connections (different homes for instance).

If you're using the tool inside Windows then you either email the other person a file that contains the details or save the file and transfer it via alternative means. The user has to set a password for that connection when creating the config file.


MSN/LiveMessenger/WindowsMessenger/whateveritscalledthesedays will do it.

Windows Remote Assistance FAQ. The last question shows what is supported.

Ahh, right, I always forget about Remote Assistance in XP, don't think I've ever seen anyone use it.

Apple's Remote Desktop is VNC, full stop. Once you enable the service, the ability to do a remote connection is basically the same as the ability to see the computer on a local network (i.e., Bonjour -- when you click on the computer to get at its files, there's a "share screen" button). I'm not sure about whether they have any security embedded in the protocol. I tunnel it through SSH with port forwarding so I can get to my home machine from work or vice versa.

When using the Screen Sharing app in OS X, it defaults to encrypting keyboard and mouse controls. Under preferences allows the video feed to also be encrypted. Over Back to my Mac, the entire connection is running via an IPv6 IPsec tunnel.

I've used GoToMeeting for this, and I think you can get a subscription for $50/year.

J

Wouldn't that only be for access to a single computer? Matt mentioned "computers," so I think he's looking for more than one. Besides, that requires software to be installed on the computer being remotely accessed in advance, which isn't very handy for remote support.

No, with the subscription you can "host" a meeting. Anyone can join a hosted meeting for free, and once joined they can hand over control of their computer to another attendee (or the host).

The software is downloaded and installed automatically when the user attempts to join the meeting via the web site. A small little application is downloaded and installed. If my uncle can manage it, *anyone* can.

J
Edit: I was wrong, it's $50/month, but it's priced by the organizer (meeting host), so this would work perfectly. The annual price is $468/year -- don't know if this is too expensive, but the service works beautifully.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Copilot sounds pretty cheap. 5 dollars for a 24 hour pass for one computer. Would think anything desktop wise you could fix remotely you could get done in 24 hours.

I still don't get it. Why pay for something that's already built into the OS? Is it for the ease of the client (being able to visit the web site and simply download a piece of software)?

Yes.

Plus when searching for windows remote access it sounds like there are quite a few things that have to be in place for it to work. When I have used Webex it seemed much simpler.

Plus poke a hole in your firewall to allow the remote end in?

Oh.. "what's a firewall?".. well, uhm.. err..

YES! I assure you, it's essential that the process be as painless as technically possible for the remote user. Being able to say "go to this site" or "click on the link I just emailed you" and have all the rest done for them automatically is essential. Otherwise you're in for an extremely painful process.

I couldn't agree more, even the most hopeless person I end up supporting can cope with going to the copilot website and typing in the code I read out to them. The times I have to provide this support is also typically just after they have bought a new PC/Mac, that I haven't seen and hasn't be touched by anyone sensible to set it up.

I'm quite happy to pay a small amount of cash to reduce the hassle of trying to talk a clueless user through getting a random version of Windows/OSX to the point that I can connect to it.

I'm curious, why do you think there isn't a sort of "roll your own" remote service that could accomplish the same thing? Why can't I install something on my own website that I could use to make remote connections with my clients with the same ease as GoToAssist?

I'd also love to know how they calculate that a service like theirs should be precisely $660 a year. That seems like way too much to me...

I'll look into that CoPilot service.

http://www.uvnc.com/addons/singleclick.html

Works great. You can email it to the customer or put it on your website and they just have to click connect. You just need to run listening viewer on your end.

Oh, that looks like a very handy/free alternative to copilot.

I set it up to work with all of our employees. I first setup our dns so that vnc.mydomain.com pointed to my firewall. Then used port forwarding with translation to foward 5501 to 192.168.0.101:5500, 5502 to 192.168.0.102:5500, etc... Then I setup static DHCP for those workstations so that they'd always have that address.

At that point, you could connect to employee 2 by entering vnc.mydomain.com:2 in the "add new viewer" dialog.

Then I compiled singleclick with our employee's names and their addresses. So when someone was on the phone or I'M with our support staff, they just clicked on My Company Remote Support, then on Tom, Dick, or Harry. Then we rolled the singleclick into our Wise installer package. Obviously won't work to put names in if you have a lot of turnover, but we didn't, so it added a personal touch, and we could always update the list when we rolled out updates.

Probably more info than you ever wanted, but there ya go. Hopefully this is legible...I pecked it out on my Droid.