Windows Remote Assistance - Requirements? Alternatives?

A

Asgorath

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 12, 2004
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What are all the requirements to have Remote Assistance work.

Client-
[*]Forward Port 3389
[*]Enable Remote Assistance from the remote tab under my computer>properties

Helper
[*]No Requirements

My question is are there any good alternatives which don't require that the client to forward port 3389 in their router. Most people don't even know their router has an admin page, let along how to configure it. So if you want to go in remotely to fix a glitch, you have to walk them through how to configure their router first. And not everyone has a typical router, which means you have to try to figure out 'exactly what buttons for them to push' without ever getting to look at the admin. It's a mess.

Is there some remote assistance program that will work right out of the box and is free. I know GoToMyPC.com works, but there is a monthly fee for that.

Any other suggestions...please?
 
I've begun doing so much remote work that I've found it worth it to purchase "GoToMeeting.Com" 4-5 hours of billing, it's paid for, and the rest of the year is gravey.

Just walk the customer through pointing Internet Exploader to the gotomeeting.com website, click on "Join meeting"...accept the tiny program download and install it...enter a meeting ID # you give them, they log in, you walk them through 2x quick button clicks...and you're looking at their PC.

Performance is quite good. What I like about this...is it's easy to walk the other people through the quick install, and that initial connection.

If "free" is a must have...there's "logmein.com" free version...but I'd imagine walking the end user through setting up so you can get to it would be cumbersome. Also based on using it....the performance of their product is not nearly as good as GoTo..
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
I've begun doing so much remote work that I've found it worth it to purchase "GoToMeeting.Com" 4-5 hours of billing, it's paid for, and the rest of the year is gravey.

Just walk the customer through pointing Internet Exploader to the gotomeeting.com website, click on "Join meeting"...accept the tiny program download and install it...enter a meeting ID # you give them, they log in, you walk them through 2x quick button clicks...and you're looking at their PC.

Performance is quite good. What I like about this...is it's easy to walk the other people through the quick install, and that initial connection.

If "free" is a must have...there's "logmein.com" free version...but I'd imagine walking the end user through setting up so you can get to it would be cumbersome. Also based on using it....the performance of their product is not nearly as good as GoTo..
Click to expand...


gotomeeting.com seems best so far. LogMeIn.com charges $99/month for their rescue service, which is what I'd need. Their IT reach program is $12.95/month PER COMPUTER! That would add up fast for all my clients.

I think gotomeeting.com is the way to go. Pay the $50/month and call it a day. Plus I think it will increase my productivity and customer satisfaction many fold over.
 
Asgorath said:
Plus I think it will increase my productivity and customer satisfaction many fold over.
Click to expand...

That's the part you have to weigh in...based on what you do. I looked at it as...an increase in customer satisfaction, in resolving their issues quickly...without them having to wait until "the next time I'm in that neighborhood".

For me...I have a good chuck of my clients on an island, and it's a hours ferry boat ride...only 1x noon boat back to mainland, and a boat back to mainland in time for dinner. So it's not like I can go out there to visit a client for an hour and bill them for just an hour. I have to bill my hundge an hour from time on the ferry, til time back on mainland from the return trip. Clients don't go for that. So some of them out there suffer until the next time I'm out on the island...and hope I have free time during that trip to swing by and touch their problems. Or they just forget about them if I'm not over there for a while. Or I don't have time to go stop by because my day is already jammed til the last minute rushing to barely squeeze on the ferry back.

So I use this...I bill a half hour minimum...so even if just a 15 minute connection....a 50 buck charge. Yesterday a physical therapy client had a problem...I didn't have time to drive to Rhode Island for ..well...don't think I could have made it this week....but I could remote in and charge them 50 bucks.

Today, a solid hour for my remote session to Manhatten.

It'll be a balance...just don't forget to squeek in those 1/2 hour bills for even short connections...that'll pay for the software over time...relatively quick time.

The first few times, you'l stumble walking people through how to connect. But once you get it down..it's quick 'n easy. Substantially quicker than trying to walk them through the web admin of whatever router they happen to have.

They'll do a trial..give it a go. If you don't want to do it, just make sure you cancel with them, else if they don't hear from ya, they'll hit your CC.
 
We have used http://www.rapidassist.com/

I'm not sure on the pricing, but its worth taking a look at. The thing I like about it is that you are able to host it on your own servers. They can also host it if you don't want to deal with it.
 
Do they have internal servers? Usually we can RDP in to the server and then RDP from there to each workstation. There's a GP that sets up the firewall and allows RDP connections so any new workstation is up for management. If they don't, I guess it's a bit more difficult. You could, however, have one machine be your "gateway" machine. Even a cheap old computer with XP Pro could do this, and might even be cheaper. You could also run remote maintenance / proactive maintenance. Just a thought.
 
ccarrigan said:
Do they have internal servers? Usually we can RDP in to the server and then RDP from there to each workstation. There's a GP that sets up the firewall and allows RDP connections so any new workstation is up for management. If they don't, I guess it's a bit more difficult. You could, however, have one machine be your "gateway" machine. Even a cheap old computer with XP Pro could do this, and might even be cheaper. You could also run remote maintenance / proactive maintenance. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

Nice idea for some purposes, but unpractical for most purposes. Your average customer won't want another machine sitting around just so you can use it as a RD connection. Its just cumbersome and full of errors. I need a connection that does not rely on screwing around with ports and whatnot.
 
lotik said:
We have used http://www.rapidassist.com/

I'm not sure on the pricing, but its worth taking a look at. The thing I like about it is that you are able to host it on your own servers. They can also host it if you don't want to deal with it.
Click to expand...

Looks good, but much more of a corporate style solution. Looks like big money to me (or at least a large initial investment.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
That's the part you have to weigh in...based on what you do. I looked at it as...an increase in customer satisfaction, in resolving their issues quickly...without them having to wait until "the next time I'm in that neighborhood".

For me...I have a good chuck of my clients on an island, and it's a hours ferry boat ride...only 1x noon boat back to mainland, and a boat back to mainland in time for dinner. So it's not like I can go out there to visit a client for an hour and bill them for just an hour. I have to bill my hundge an hour from time on the ferry, til time back on mainland from the return trip. Clients don't go for that. So some of them out there suffer until the next time I'm out on the island...and hope I have free time during that trip to swing by and touch their problems. Or they just forget about them if I'm not over there for a while. Or I don't have time to go stop by because my day is already jammed til the last minute rushing to barely squeeze on the ferry back.

So I use this...I bill a half hour minimum...so even if just a 15 minute connection....a 50 buck charge. Yesterday a physical therapy client had a problem...I didn't have time to drive to Rhode Island for ..well...don't think I could have made it this week....but I could remote in and charge them 50 bucks.

Today, a solid hour for my remote session to Manhatten.

It'll be a balance...just don't forget to squeek in those 1/2 hour bills for even short connections...that'll pay for the software over time...relatively quick time.

The first few times, you'l stumble walking people through how to connect. But once you get it down..it's quick 'n easy. Substantially quicker than trying to walk them through the web admin of whatever router they happen to have.

They'll do a trial..give it a go. If you don't want to do it, just make sure you cancel with them, else if they don't hear from ya, they'll hit your CC.
Click to expand...


GoToMeeting.com just got my business. I think that's what I'm going to use. $50/ month will pay for itself super quick, especially with the small bills I can send out for easy fixes.
 
Asgorath said:
Nice idea for some purposes, but unpractical for most purposes. Your average customer won't want another machine sitting around just so you can use it as a RD connection. Its just cumbersome and full of errors. I need a connection that does not rely on screwing around with ports and whatnot.
Click to expand...

I absolutely disagree with this, but we have different clients. all of my clients with more than five computers has a central server of some sorts. look at it as more of an opportunity to upsell and provide better service (which a server provides).
 
Agree VPN access is the ideal situation...most of my clients are on decent routers that support VPN connections, an RV0, or Sonicwall, or PIX...so for my network clients, VPN access then RDC or VNC or PcA is my route.

I use the GTM for the onesy/twosy networks that are far away. Or clients home PCs..since I like to doctor up their home PCs before then can VPN into their office.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Agree VPN access is the ideal situation...most of my clients are on decent routers that support VPN connections, an RV0, or Sonicwall, or PIX...so for my network clients, VPN access then RDC or VNC or PcA is my route.

I use the GTM for the onesy/twosy networks that are far away. Or clients home PCs..since I like to doctor up their home PCs before then can VPN into their office.
Click to expand...


Yep.
 
sorry to bump an old topic!

I was playing around with DameWare and am pretty lost.. lol. I got it working fine for computers that were on the same network but I want to be able to connect to the computers that are dialed into our server via VPN access. Would I need to have DameWare or the like ont he server itself to be able to do this? I didn't want to actually do remote assistance on the server if I didn't have to because .. well it's the server.

I'm new to the remote assistance but I would love to get it working because we run software on our server that I know a lot about and would love to be able to offer training right on their screen from a remote location. So, if all our employees are already connected to our server via VPN what is the next best thing to do to offer them Remote Assistance?

Sorry again for the bump but I just was able to get around to fooling with this again. Any help is apreciated.
 
Rahh said:
sI want to be able to connect to the computers that are dialed into our server via VPN access. .
Click to expand...

Depending on how your VPN is setup..you should be able to do it. Last week I connected to a clients laptop from across the country, he VPN'd to our building...he read my his VPN IP address....I connected to him using Remote Desktop and went about my work.
 
so, to be able to do that he has to be connected to your computer through vpn? Our employees are connected to a server through vpn and I don't want to have to be on the server to offer remote assistance.
 
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