• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Remote Software Who's Good?

DasFox

DasFox

Diamond Member
Does anyone here have any experience with remote software working as a technician fixing customers systems this way?

Where I live I've always gone to customer's homes and worked onsite doing system repairs, but now I have been considering looking for remote software and doing the repair work from my home, in situations like virus/spyware cleanup, etc.,

What I'd like to know is, will any remote software still give you access to the system to run a chkdsk, run the cmd prompt or use safe mode as well?

I know asking a simple question like, 'Who's the best', doesn't really explain much, but I'd like to know who makes the best remote software, as far as performance, stability, ease of use, and pretty much trouble free usage. All I want to be able to do is connect, and get the job done, fast and simple, that is just about as easy as if you were working on the desktop locally.

By the way anyone ever hear of PC Logix? I'm curious as to what they're using for remote connections...

http://www.pclogix.net/test/about.html

THANKS
 
Originally posted by: l0cke
Logmein Rescue is the only thing that can access safe mode as far as I know.
Click to expand...

Expensive too, I'm not making much at the moment to afford this, but will definitely consider LogMeIn, in the future, looks like good stuff...

THANKS
 
Ok I have some updates here on some software people are recommending:

NetSupport Manager
Radmin

I have NetSupport Manager installed in VMware for testing, I really like the look and feel of this. As a small local pc tech doing mostly home repair work, is there much a customer has to do, to let me connect with NetSupportManager? From what I gather they just give me their IP and I can use the Gateway connection to connect to them?

THANKS

P.S. This is what I've read online about the Gateway:

Internet Gateway :

Delivering seamless Remote Control between PCs that may be located behind different firewalls. The NetSupport Gateway provides a stable and secure method for NetSupport enabled systems to locate and communicate via http.
 
WOW one reply...

Sheesh AnandTech seems to be going down the drain around here lately... 🙁
 
I use SunBelt Remote Admin at my work and I have always liked it. However this will not give you the Safe Mode access etc. that you are looking for. The only thing I have seen that does this is a out of band remote access card like a Dell DRAC but they are only for servers.
 
At work we use gotoassist. This also costs the company like 150k per year so my guess is they are a rip off.... crazy that it costs that much. But it is pretty good. The downside is you can't log out of the remote PC, as its user session based.

One that is free is called crossloop. But that too is user session based so you can't log out.

I've been toying with the idea of coding one actually that lets you log in/out even reboot. Would be a simple file you get the user to download and run, then you do the rest. (would connect to the central server right away). The gotoassist one has a bunch of prompts and users get confused. Takes like 10 minutes to get a session going. The program is not bad, its just that super dumb users have lot of trouble with the prompts. And working at an internet help desk, we get lot of the really dumb ones. 😛 "uhhh, whats internet explorer? whats an address bar?"

I'm curious to see the outcome of this thread, will give me an idea of there is a demand for such software, since think if I coded it the way I have planned it would work out nicely. I'd sell the server part so companies could have their own server and not have to depend on mine being up.
 
Bomgar - http://www.bomgar.com/

My company uses Bomgar and it has worked really well for clients who are not on a company domain.
Can't tell you much more cause I'm not the tech guy at work but worth a look at any rate.

Cheers.
 
Its cheap, as in free and should work pretty well.

A combination of vnc and dyndns

Use dyndns to make sure you always have their ip and vnc so you can remote in. Now this requires the customer to consent to this since this would mean you would always have access to their machine, unless you wanted to make a desktop shortcut to run the service (have it turned off by default)
 
That needs to be initially setup though, for that, best thing is a SSH gateway then you tunnel in then VNC to a central machine through the tunnel then from there hit any other PC (or setup a direct tunnel each time). i would not recommend leaving VNC port open up to public.

For the "1 time use" types where you just get the user to go to a link and enter a number theres gotoassist like I mentioned, crossloop (free) pcanywhere will do this as well I think... or maybe it requires a client install first, not sure.

If initial setup is not an issue and this is internal, then VNC is the way to go. another decent one is dameware.
 
Originally posted by: DasFox
doing the repair work from my home, in situations like virus/spyware cleanup, etc.,
Click to expand...

No.

I've been cleaning computers for over 5 years now (even longer in the repair business), and I tell people who call up to bring the computer to me, it's very rare if I go out on a virus/spyware cleanup anymore. It's just too aggravating. Now I don't even want to begin thinking what it's like to try that remotely...
 
Originally posted by: cubby1223
Originally posted by: DasFox
doing the repair work from my home, in situations like virus/spyware cleanup, etc.,
Click to expand...

No.

I've been cleaning computers for over 5 years now (even longer in the repair business), and I tell people who call up to bring the computer to me, it's very rare if I go out on a virus/spyware cleanup anymore. It's just too aggravating. Now I don't even want to begin thinking what it's like to try that remotely...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can't say that I'm in the same line of work as DasFox, but any of these solutions will require the customer to download and install something on their end. The prospect of walking a customer through those steps, especially when their PC is compromised by virus(es) and malware seems daunting. You may spend more time trying to get the remote connection setup versus driving to the client's house.
 
Gosh don't they have one that a ton of people use every day, it is by far the most popular..works across reboots, it's hard for naive users to configure incorrectly.... What's it called again.... uh.....
........ Storm, yeah, that's it. 🙂

Seriously, though, if this is for repeat business customers, why don't you make up a custom rescue / repair bootable CD or floppy with BartPE or something like that that has whatever remote access configurations you want to use on it and whatever cleaner / scanner stuff you want to use as a first pass, etc.

That way you could be more sure it isn't going to be impacted by an existing rootkit / virus, and you'd have the system already in "safest mode" e.g. you wouldn't actually be running the installed OS at the time you're running repairs on it.

The only downside would be getting such a distribution together, making it work nicely with the most common cable modem / DSL / dialup / ISP settings in your area, etc.

 
bump?



I can use pcanywhere or logmein...unless somebody's got a better off the wall rec.

I wasn't very happy with the VNC clients
 
Originally posted by: cubby1223
Originally posted by: DasFox
doing the repair work from my home, in situations like virus/spyware cleanup, etc.,
Click to expand...

No.

I've been cleaning computers for over 5 years now (even longer in the repair business), and I tell people who call up to bring the computer to me, it's very rare if I go out on a virus/spyware cleanup anymore. It's just too aggravating. Now I don't even want to begin thinking what it's like to try that remotely...
Click to expand...
I'll add to that.

I had one over the weekend that I was attempting to clean up. I'd run just about every piece of cleanup software I could and decided to start in with some online virus scanners. I kept getting messages that I didn't have permissions, that Active-X would not install, all kinds of bogus messages. I chalked it up to bad nasties still remaining in the system.

I changed gears and attempted to get her wireless working in the meantime and could not get the drivers to install. Finally the lightbulb goes on in my head.

I run memtest and her memory instantly starts puking. I put in a spare stick and it tests fine, but I decide to test the HD out and find that it has bad sectors.

This machine booted and ran very well.

An isolated case for sure, but I'm convinced it's better to be in front of it for virus, spyware, etc. cleanups.
 
Another vote for LogMeIn.

GotoMyPc should provide functionality too - although I doubt you can reboot the machine into safe mode.

I'm puzzled as to how any remote access program can do that.
 
I use TightVNC and or DameWare Mini Remote Control in conjunction with No-IP.com to establish a free Dynamic DNS (free if you choose .info domain which is fine by me) That way I can tap in whenever I need without having them provide me with their public IP.

Cut those apps port #'s through NAT to the main pc of the household.
If I need subsequent access to a different PC on the network I can hop from the primary pc to the child client via mstsc or directly via a custom secondary port # scheme of either VNC or DWMRC.

If they have a router (and most these days do) I usually enable remote administration of that as well, but change the default port and set a complex admin password.
 
at my work, we use kaseya for our remote accessing, pushing scripts out to our customers workstation, checking the system logs and bunch of other stuff
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top