Some kind of effective way to offer Remote Support

I want to do Remote Assistance for a number of clients. They boarder on the
PC-illiterate and I really want to find a better solution than the Ask for
Help scenario. It’s caused me to maintain multiple dummy hotmail accounts and
I still regularly am pulling my hair out just talking the remote user into
successfully asking for help.

There has got to be a better way. I’ve looked at the commercial offerings
and feel they are cost prohibitive. I would never recover the costs from my
clients.

Is there a way I can configure a remote machine (or better yet have them
insert a disk or something) that would allow me to take control of the
desktop? I’m all for security and I’m all for them authorizing my access but
I need something easy and manageable.

I have access to and looked at SBS and terminal services but they seem to
have their shortcomings as well.

Your opinions and horror stories are welcome

Thanks ALL

This solution works over a network in a work group environment...

http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.o...Assistance.html

If your talking about a domain or trusted domain environment you could use the Remote Assistance
"Offer" functionality......instead of
waiting for the novice to ask for help...

http://support.microsoft.com/d*efau...b;en-us;3080*13
http://support.microsoft.com/d*efau...b;en-us;3015*27
http://support.microsoft.com/d*efau...b;en-us;3106*29
http://support.microsoft.com/d*efau...b;en-us;3064*96

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)


Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the mutual benefit of all of us...
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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights...


"jepp" <jepp@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B708819F-45D4-4331-ABE7-D3EC2D702959@microsoft.com...
>I want to do Remote Assistance for a number of clients. They boarder on the
> PC-illiterate and I really want to find a better solution than the Ask for
> Help scenario. It's caused me to maintain multiple dummy hotmail accounts and
> I still regularly am pulling my hair out just talking the remote user into
> successfully asking for help.
>
> There has got to be a better way. I've looked at the commercial offerings
> and feel they are cost prohibitive. I would never recover the costs from my
> clients.
>
> Is there a way I can configure a remote machine (or better yet have them
> insert a disk or something) that would allow me to take control of the
> desktop? I'm all for security and I'm all for them authorizing my access but
> I need something easy and manageable.
>
> I have access to and looked at SBS and terminal services but they seem to
> have their shortcomings as well.
>
> Your opinions and horror stories are welcome
>
> Thanks ALL
>

hi:

you might want to take a look at the nTeras RapidAssist product
www.nteras.com . We've been using it for a couple of years and love it.

1. works with any firewall
2. you email/IM user a Web link and they click on the link and the user
gives the Tech permission to view/control
3. can be self-hosted - just a single service on an existing win2k or
windows 2003 box
4. a lot cheaper than Webex
5. less complicated than LM
6. one license allows one tech to support unlimited # of users

check it out.


"jepp" wrote:

> I want to do Remote Assistance for a number of clients. They boarder on the
> PC-illiterate and I really want to find a better solution than the Ask for
> Help scenario. It’s caused me to maintain multiple dummy hotmail accounts and
> I still regularly am pulling my hair out just talking the remote user into
> successfully asking for help.
>
> There has got to be a better way. I’ve looked at the commercial offerings
> and feel they are cost prohibitive. I would never recover the costs from my
> clients.
>
> Is there a way I can configure a remote machine (or better yet have them
> insert a disk or something) that would allow me to take control of the
> desktop? I’m all for security and I’m all for them authorizing my access but
> I need something easy and manageable.
>
> I have access to and looked at SBS and terminal services but they seem to
> have their shortcomings as well.
>
> Your opinions and horror stories are welcome
>
> Thanks ALL
>

jepp wrote:
> I want to do Remote Assistance for a number of clients. They boarder
> on the PC-illiterate and I really want to find a better solution
> than the Ask for Help scenario. It's caused me to maintain multiple
> dummy hotmail accounts and I still regularly am pulling my hair out
> just talking the remote user into successfully asking for help.
>
> There has got to be a better way. I've looked at the commercial
> offerings and feel they are cost prohibitive. I would never recover
> the costs from my clients.
>
> Is there a way I can configure a remote machine (or better yet have
> them insert a disk or something) that would allow me to take control
> of the desktop? I'm all for security and I'm all for them
> authorizing my access but I need something easy and manageable.
>
> I have access to and looked at SBS and terminal services but they
> seem to have their shortcomings as well.
>
> Your opinions and horror stories are welcome

Reading your requirements but not knowing the number of clients you are
referring to..

If it is a few (less than a couple dozen) then you might consider installing
UltraVNC on their machine(s) and setting it up with SSL. Then setting them
up with DynDNS.org addresses as well with the updater software running on
their PC.. In that way - you know their address at all times and you have a
secure way of communicating with their machine is an ASSITIVE manner - not
just remote control with it locking them out.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html