Customer Support Methods

[Martin Francom]

What methods are being used for Remote Customer support?

Currently, I am using UltraVNC which works great with XP computers but is often problematic with Vista. But the price is right.

Recently, I found out about a Server Based Remote Customer support program. It works very well with VISTA but the cost is a bit more than I would like to spend. It is called SimpleHelp For those interested their web site is:

http://simple-help.com

It allows remote viewing and remote control of the customers desktop and also allows uploading and downloading files. These are the features that I need but would like to find something a little less costly.

Has anyone here built server based remote customer support software that they are marketing? Or, do any of you have recommendation to other solutions for handling remote customer support?

[Chris Holbrook]

Currently, I am using UltraVNC which works great with XP computers but is often problematic with Vista.

What sort of issues are you getting?

[Kev Peel]

NetOp remote control is pretty good. I don't have it but used it on a client's computer. It has quite a few features, including the ability to "do things" (like open a window, edit text, etc), while the user is also logged on to that machine.

http://www.netop.com

[Chris Holbrook]

http://www.netop.com

my guess is that it is expensive - you have to apply for a price from the above website!

[Brian Chirgwin]

What methods are being used for Remote Customer support?

Currently, I am using UltraVNC which works great with XP computers but is often problematic with Vista. But the price is right.

Has anyone here built server based remote customer support software that they are marketing? Or, do any of you have recommendation to other solutions for handling remote customer support?

Depending on how often you need Vista support.
CoPilot might be a solution. Pay as you go or flat monthly fee.

[DonDickinson]

i use gotomypc, gotomeeting and plain old remote desktop. iirc think gotomypc is about $20 a month for one computer, gotomeeting is $49 and lets you connect to any computer. remote desktop is, of course, included with windows for nothing but requires some setup, forwarded router port(s), etc.

i use remote desktop to access our servers at an isp. i use gotomypc for clients that are paying for it and using it for many purposes, and use gotomeeting for direct customer support. additionally i have a license to radmin to access a server where i need to see the actual console of the computer (for a user-mode vpn). all of the above work great.

-don

[Martin Francom]

What sort of issues are you getting?

The problem with Vista is very, very slow responce. The connection will freeze or drop.

[Martin Francom]

i use gotomypc, gotomeeting and plain old remote desktop. iirc think gotomypc is about $20 a month for one computer, gotomeeting is $49 and lets you connect to any computer. remote desktop is, of course, included with windows for nothing but requires some setup, forwarded router port(s), etc.

i use remote desktop to access our servers at an isp. i use gotomypc for clients that are paying for it and using it for many purposes, and use gotomeeting for direct customer support. additionally i have a license to radmin to access a server where i need to see the actual console of the computer (for a user-mode vpn). all of the above work great.

-don

Don, and that is using computers running Vista?

[Martin Francom]

Thanks everyone. I will look at the suggestion offerred.

[Shawn Anderson]

I use the free version of logmein.com

[Don Dickinson]

Hi Martin,
I use vista as my desktop at the office (and xp pro at home). i use radmin as a client on xp and vista and a host on windows 2003 server. i use gotomypc and gotomeeting on both the host and remote side. i use terminal services (remote desktop) as a host and remote on windows 2003 server, windows vista, and windows xp pro. so, in short, yes, i use these solutions with vista with lone exception of using radmin as as a host on vista (though i'm 99% sure it would work fine).

best regards,
don

[Gil Nelson]

I access a remote desktop all day long and use gotomypc.com which is excellent. Because I use it all day I can justify the cost. It has remote printing which works very well and file transfer. I use logmein.com as a backup to that in case gotomypc has a problem. Also the logmein is free also for viewing. You pay premium for printing or file transfer. Another free solution is crossloop.com.

Gil

[Knuth Konrad]

As a customer, I find NetViewer pleasant to work with. No installation required for me in order to let someone access my computer, just download the EXE and run it.

The nice part: the one who wants to remote access your machine needs to tell you a PIN, which you type into NetViewer.exe, once you've started it. Without this PIN, it doesn't accept the connection. And with that PIN, it only accepts the connection form the machine the PIN originates from.

This way, no one else can (ab)use a running session. Unlike VNC or others, where a service is always running and you "just" need to guess the password.

[Marco Pontello]

That depend on how you use / configure the VNC host.
When I used that to assist our customers, the VNC server on their side wasn't configure to wait for a connection. Instead, they had an icon with a link to the server instructing it to "call out" the VNC client on our side.
This way it was the customer that initiated the remote assistance procedure (we usually called by phone asking for it, often in the same call in witch the customer explained some problem he was having). Also this way the connection typically could pass NAT routers without any special configuration.
It's also possible to create a single EXE that included the VNC server setup to call us, so we just need to send that EXE to someone (or istruct to download it from a webpage) to start working.

Bye!

[Patrick Harvey]

showmypc

My company uses showmypc.com - for $39 a month you get 20 concurrent support reps that can be remoting into a client's pc..... the client does not have to install anything - they just run a small program... It works very well.... It's a wrapper for VNC with added features like being able to look at hardware info. The interface is simply to use and since nothing ever needs to be installed, it's easy to implement....

patrick

[Martin Francom]

I decided to go with Simple-Help it is Https based and is very easy to use. Also, they use a one time fee module. Pay once and you can use it forever. The program resides on your own server. So you have complete control. The one time license fee is reasonable ($395.00)

[Chris Holbrook]

Citrix GotoAssist

Citrix GoToAssist has a free beta here

[Don Bonnice]

LogMeInRescue

I use LogMeInRescue. They have an unadvertised "per-incident" plan.

[Michael Mattias]

>What methods are being used for Remote Customer support?

As far as I can tell, no one has yet suggested "the telephone."

[Chris Holbrook]

>What methods are being used for Remote Customer support?

As far as I can tell, no one has yet suggested "the telephone."

nor yet, Morse Code or Semaphore, and surely the greatest omission of all, lighting beacons!