Remote support

Team Viewer (http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx) makes a good product. Cross Loop (http://crossloop.com/) is also another. Then of course there is WebEx (http://www.webex.com).

Use VNC, ITS FREE FAST AND RELIABLE.

Tight VNC is the flavour to go for IMHO.

You can use it even if the customer is behind a firewall by use the reverse connection to a listening viewer.

To set up do the following:

Get a DynDNS account (free) that points to your IP and use one of their recommended clients to update DynDNS.

Install Tight VNC on both yours and the client machines.

Set the server to run as a service on the clients machines. you may have issues doing this if they are running Vista, but don't worry about this.

On your machine have the listening viewer running, this listens for incoming connections on port 5500 so configure your router/firewall to forward your ports accordingly.

To make things simple for your clients create a BAT file that will automatically connect them to your listening viewer. vncconnect host.dyndns.com

I use this solution every day and it works very reliably.

 
Reference to contacting Expert via Skype deleted by modus_operandi, EE Moderator
At present, site rules do not allow use of email/private communication to resolve questions

by the way if you have issues installing this on a vista machine then just add a line to the bat file that will run the the VNC server. (winvnc.exe)

Heres a step by step guide that explains things better than I did :0s

http://brettschneider.us/ReverseVNC_Instructions/reversevnc.html

You could run a web server on your pc to distribute the file made using the above mentioned guide, so for instance you could send the link in an email to the client telling them to run the file that would instantly connect them to you.

ex: yousite.dyndns.org/vnc.exe

Oh and 1 last thing instead of the "Quick batch Compiler" the guy in the above guide uses I prefer this:
http://www.download3k.com/DownloadLink1-Bat-To-Exe-Converter.html

Thank you very much for your advice i will be trying these later on.  you guys are great.

Nigel

I have tried VNC which works fine for some types of connection but was looking for something like the Webex,logmein type of software. my problem is that i have a requirement to support ppl when remote. ie in a web cafe on holiday or the likes.  It needs to be web driven i guess. I would like to put a link on my website for ppl requiring support to click to invite us. (Thus to pass through the firewall).  I know I may have to pay a little. I would like NOT to use the general public ones such as logmein etc.  Maybe there is some open source stuff (maybe something with vnc) that can be adopted to look like it is my software.  Hope this makes sense.

Thanks for your time

Nigel

I have just been looking into something called echovnc. I haven't had time to test it at all but it seems to be perfect for you, have a look: http://echovnc.sourceforge.net/fom-serve/cache/1.html

I have just been looking into something called echovnc. I haven't had time to test it at all but it seems to be perfect for you, have a look: http://echovnc.sourceforge.net/fom-serve/cache/1.html

Thanks Rob I am just looking at this now. It looks like you may have it.  I need to see how it is set up. I can host it myself.  Are we allowed in any way on this site to communicate away from this site ?

mmmmm it looks like it is not web based in the way I need.  Image yourslef in a cybercafe and you need to connect to a PC. under a many circumstances you will not be allowed to start downloading and installing programs.  Maybe If I was a web developer I may know how to code this up into working in some way. Alas I am not.
I will vontinue to look. Thanks for your help

You could always RDP into another machine that has the listening viewer from the cafe.
Whenever I setup remote access for a client I have 1 PC that I RDP to and I use VNC to remote connect to whomever needs help, it works very well as RDP is fast. Some clients dont like me having access as and when so they have to use the VNC method I told you about first.
Or you could run the echovnc from a USB drive as it doesnt require anything other than the exe to work and the cybercafes ive seen havent been to good on locking the pcs down.

I'm afraid that I'm not allowed to give out contact detail (I've tried and been told off :os )

Thanks Rob.  I am having pressure to go for a web (IE) based solution rather than Application. We have used the logmein evaluation which they like. (not my choice).  I used another product from Data Apples
called beyond remote support. A link is on www.ndaserives.co.uk/support.html which as you would see requests a small exe download before inviting me to connect.  The problem with this one is that it is not a web based one and needs port forwarding.  I know I may have to pay something but dont expect to pay £500 + per year I thought that there maybe something developed maybe using VNC that is web driven and will be sold to me that maybe has my name on it and could be web driven.  A company I have done business with have one that looks like it is VNC based.  I have a month to come up with something before I will have to conceed and pay the 50 pounds a month.

Regards
Nigel

Thanks a lot I am going to bulid a web server to act negociate the connections