Internal Remote Support

L

Lugztaz

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jun 21, 2004
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Internally we currently have Windows XP and WIndows 7 boxes. We use Windows remote desktop and remote assistance.

With remote desktop, we can obviously take over the machine completely but sometimes it's nice to share the screen with the user. The problem is Remote Assistance is terrible. We often have times where the service crashes, if it's working the keyboard or mouse control functions won't work and we have to re-start the assistance session.

We are looking for something new. We recently started using Track-IT and it has a feature built in but I'm looking for all options, paid or otherwise. I know there is a giant list of remote software but a lot of it is for external use.

What recommendations would everyone provide? What do you use? This is a Win/AD environment.
 
Dameware works fine, I used it at a previous job.

Otherwise I currently use the good old VNC (UltraVNC for win7, RealVNC for XP) at my current job. Does the job OK.
 
How many nodes?
If you have Small Business Server, there's a built in remote assistance tool which is great and you can share the screen of the end user through a TSWeb like interface.

If not...I supposed a thin VNC client....I like UltraVNC of the VNC variants. Or use UltraVNC SC (single click). Or check out a custom version called "PC Helpware"
http://www.uvnc.com/products/pchelpware.html
 
if it's only a per issue basis and don't need to have access when the user isn't there there's http://join.me or if you want to install a small client user http://logmein.com use both on a daily basis and they're straight forward to get going.
 
for internal SMB just use VNC but for anything over 50 users or multi site I would use TeamViewer, it costs but its worth it.
 
Shadinn said:
We use Bomgar where I work. Great product. Kinda expensive thought.
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Same here. And log-me-in enterprise.

I prefer using log-me-in enterprise, if for no other reason than you can better control it's screen recording, and it handles admin privilage elevations WAY better. IMHO.

And yeah, Bomgar is way expensive :)
 
Control when a user is gone is key. We dont want to go to the outside then back in, we`d like to keep it internal. UAC is big, this does not work worth crap with remote assistance. We have probably 1400 nodes.

I will check into some of the suggestions. Thanks for these.
 
We use Dameware at work with about 500 nodes and we like it. Nice thing is we can remote control the computer even if no one is present. The best feature is it integrates into our inventory system, Lansweeper. Just find the computer and with one click it launches dameware and auto connects to the computer.
Only thing we don't like is it does not have a chat feature. We don't always have a phone number for a person and it would be nice if we could chat with them.
 
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Another vote for Dameware, the per administrator license structure is nice.
 
feffrey said:
We use Dameware at work with about 500 nodes and we like it. Nice thing is we can remote control the computer even if no one is present. The best feature is it integrates into our inventroy system, Lansweeper. Just find the computer and with one click it launches dameware and auto connects to the computer.
Only thing we don't like is it does not have a chat feature. We don't alwasy have a phone number for a person and it would be nice if we could chat with them.
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Yes I've resorted to a Notepad IM session many times :)
 
Wow a lot of people that use Dameware, have never tried it, but may try it out.

if it's only a per issue basis and don't need to have access when the user isn't there there's http://join.me or if you want to install a small client user http://logmein.com use both on a daily basis and they're straight forward to get going.
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^I agree with this if you are just looking for something to use occasionally and do minimal screensharing and support- joinme or logmein free should work just fine for you. if you are looking for something a little more robust we use ScreenConnect for LAN and our remote users.
 
We have both Dameware and Teamviewer where I work. We used Dameware before corporate decided to buy Teamviewer as well. I prefer Dameware, has far more remote features and capabilities beyond your basic remote desktop.
 
Currently using Symantec Altiris but we are transitioning to SCCM this year. Both are great products if you can stomach the costs.
 
I find VNC works fine, especially if you use something like bginfo to put the user's computer name/IP on the desktop. (ever try to walk a user to getting a computer name? lol)

Dameware works good too, and has the ability to push the client so you don't have to install it on each machine.
 
I downloaded Dameware on my PC and created a custom MSI for a test laptop. Works well thus far but have not had time to do more testing. Some of the other issues we have is controlling wireless PCs (oddly this may be a policy thing) and we have many sub shops with T1, DSL or cable lines that are sometimes slow.

Once I get more time I'll post results back here.
 
I just used remote assistance built into windows but it requires the user to be at the pc.

if the user isn't at the pc i just do a standard remote desktop to the machine.
 
RiDDLeRThC said:
I just used remote assistance built into windows but it requires the user to be at the pc.

if the user isn't at the pc i just do a standard remote desktop to the machine.
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I run into lots of issues with remote assistance, it's mostly what is prompting me to seek an alternative.
 
Interesting, I never had problems with it once the firewall settings and gpo settings were configured.
 
+1 for Dameware. Their licensing model (right now - not sure how SolarWinds will make it worse, but they will) is awesome too - only need to hold a license for the "Admin" side, not for each client unlike pcAnywhere, etc. Saved the company about $30,000 by switching over to DW instead of upgrading/keeping pcAnywhere.
 
We use Remote Assistance or Logmein depending on the employee. On an internal network, you can actually do un-intended connections to most of your internal computers if you know the name/ip with Logmein.
 
schnell said:
Currently using Symantec Altiris but we are transitioning to SCCM this year. Both are great products if you can stomach the costs.
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If you have an EA you may be paying for SCCM licensing already.
 
Another dameware user here. We have ~10k desktop across 50+ sites. Occassionally have issues with cross-domain access and some issues with corrupted computer accounts in AD (our problem =P) but out of the all the ones I've tested/tried it's the best internal remote support tool because he doesn't require an enduser present, has plenty of features and is actually very light-weight. I've done plenty of support sessions over wireless as well but I'll be interested to see how you do to T1 sites. We only have a couple and they are usually slow but usable and I turn off as many features to reduce the bandwidth need as possible.
 
renixinq said:
Another dameware user here. We have ~10k desktop across 50+ sites. Occassionally have issues with cross-domain access and some issues with corrupted computer accounts in AD (our problem =P) but out of the all the ones I've tested/tried it's the best internal remote support tool because he doesn't require an enduser present, has plenty of features and is actually very light-weight. I've done plenty of support sessions over wireless as well but I'll be interested to see how you do to T1 sites. We only have a couple and they are usually slow but usable and I turn off as many features to reduce the bandwidth need as possible.
Click to expand...

It's hard to ignore all of these Dameware users. I did some more testing today and have found some useful functions. It also looks easy to deploy with a MSI so that is great.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.
 
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