Hey. I have tried Crossloop and it is a very good tool for remote support. Alternatively, I have even tried using other remote support tools such as logmeinrescue, gosupportnow; GoToMyPC etc. and they are good too. One may even consider deploying on premise remote support appliance such as RHUB or Bomgar appliances in order to remotely access computers.

I supported a lot of home based agents a few months back. The problem is if I install some sort of client to their home PCs, they tend to complain that it slowed down their PCs. So I just used the native Remote Assistance built into Windows. Works like a charm.

TEAMVIEWER. Its THE application for such stuff. I usually use it when i’ve had enough of “u sure dis wont do anything bad?????” or “it didnt wrk” or “nope theres no button lyk XYZ”. It almost always turns out to be something obvious I didn’t mention.

LogMeIn has some nice tools for the pros, for example, a separate filesystem viewer, so you can explore their filesystem from your machine, instead of doing it through the arse-slow remote desktop view (requiring every change to be graphically updated across the link). This is also great for fixing things without having to spend half your time managing the user’s fears about you tinkering. I really don’t care if you have porn on your PC, but you don’t know that I couldn’t care less, and I really don’t want to deal with you covering for it… sort of thing. Similar things as well for remote syslog access.

Also, the agent is able to survive logging in and out as the user, and also rebooting if you need it to.

Similarly, the session is active against your logon – go to another machine or punt it to antoher tech, they can just assume the session.

They also have a standalone (windows) viewer agent, so you don’t need to manage it through your browser – click the shortcut, it logs in automatically and you’re good to go.

@ StDoodle:

I personally like the: “You are the last person who touched my computer, so I will blame you for everything that goes wrong with it in the next year and a half” thing. That’s a great one. :P

@ Gothmog:

Heh, I think I have used GTM as a participant of a virtual meeting more than once but never actually considered using it for support.

@ Mich:

I might have to check it out. Though I see it uses ActiveX which may inadvertantly un-train my users from avoiding any and all ActiveX as a plague. :P

@ Morghan:

I have never actually used it. Will have to test it out. Thanks for the link.

What’s your opinion on Splashtop? The lack of encryption isn’t in line with my normal usage, but it’s very easy to set up and runs on my tablet, though it does tend to crank up the host enough that you can hear the fan from the other room. I’ve actually convinced most of the people I say yes to that Ubuntu will work for them, so SSH tends to be my go to for fixing their computers.

My favorite is Techinline http://techinline.com/. You don’t need to waste your time installing because it’s web-based. One of the easiest and most reliable remote desktop tools that I’ve seen on this market. Plus, they have very pleasant paying plans. Professionals should take a look on their price list, you’ll love it!
http://techinline.com/BuyNow.aspx
Hope it was helpful!

So, for personal/family remote support, I used to use CrossLoop, like you. Now, I’ve instituted a strict “I will not support your computer unless *I* build it” policy and with that I’ve used LogMeIn to great success.
However, in a professional capacity I’ve run across a very impressive GoToMeeting/Live Meeting/Webex competitor- Nefsis
It provides practically everything GTM, Live Meeting and Webex does, with the added support of individual webcam feeds. You can really tell that it was written by nerds for nerds. As an organizer, you are able to control every participants sound and video feed settings, stream settings and run remote pings and traceroutes. It isn’t cheap- and it doesn’t include a voice/computer audio bridge- but I use it to run developer sprint planning between 50+ in-house devs, 20 home-shore devs and 20 devs out of India and it works pretty flawlessly. I also run our all-hands company meetings with it with MUCH less headaches than what Webex and GTM inflicted.

Luke Maciak wrote:

I need to learn how to do that.

It helps knowing that I’m really not the best choice; if the machine is fixable, I can almost certainly do so eventually, but it will likely take me longer than someone who is a professional in one way or another.

Plus, I’ve been burned pretty badly almost every time I’ve helped in the past (the usual being “whaddaya mean my [service login info] is gone…. you said I’d lose all the data on my computer, not all the data on my internet”) and have no desire to go through that again. :P

@ Jason:

I never used Screen Connect. I will need to check it out. Thanks for the tip.