Total remote support system questions

**Niclo Iste** · March 29th, 2008, 07:08 PM

Ok so here's the game plan. I won the dispute at work that we need remote access capabilities to fix issues for clients. I have a shopping list of things I need to figure out.
1: What would be a good system to do multiple remote connections to and should it have something more hefty than one 10/100 card (switch allows for 10/100/1000 should I go for that?)
2: What is a preferred remote desktop software? (let's pretend the one in windows is non-existant for this)
3: What is the suggested minimum speed connection I should have to do multiple vpns?
4: Should I stick with Windows as my OS for this or should I use another?
5: Is my current system and setup enough or should I go for better
2.3Ghz AMD Quadcore, 4Gb of RAM, 180BG HDD, WinXP Pro, Anyplace Control 4.4 remote desktop software, 10/100 integrated NIC (leaving out the rest as it seems irrelevent to the discussion)

**shamus** · March 29th, 2008, 09:23 PM

I use this with great success

**Ferrit** · March 29th, 2008, 09:38 PM

I am using this one with a little customized 400 k exe file that supports my logo and works with vista. Email or send it over msn or gooole or whatever they doubleclick it and bam I am in right through everything.
Your current system is more then enuff.
http://www.uvnc.com/download/

**slgrieb** · March 30th, 2008, 11:11 AM

Yet another solution: https://secure.logmein.com/home.asp?lang=en

**CeeBee** · March 31st, 2008, 08:15 AM

I prefer UltraVNC too, it allows domain authentication and encryption... for remote people, the customized 1-click UVNC is what I like

**Niclo Iste** · March 31st, 2008, 07:39 PM

Hey thanks for the suggestions everyone. Logmein doesn't believe my yahoo address is a real address so I can't even get anywhere with it. Ultravnc totally flipped out on my pc when I told it I didn't want a password and it wouldn't shut off then it froze the pc on reboot twice so not sure if any clients would appreciate that happening even if it's a once in a while thing. Maybe I did something wrong let me know because it was not a fun scenario. About to test TightVNC. Thanks again though I'm not giving up on these I wanna try them all out to see what I feel most comfortable with.

**CeeBee** · April 1st, 2008, 07:26 AM

Originally Posted by Niclo Iste

Hey thanks for the suggestions everyone. Logmein doesn't believe my yahoo address is a real address so I can't even get anywhere with it. Ultravnc totally flipped out on my pc when I told it I didn't want a password and it wouldn't shut off then it froze the pc on reboot twice so not sure if any clients would appreciate that happening even if it's a once in a while thing. Maybe I did something wrong let me know because it was not a fun scenario. About to test TightVNC. Thanks again though I'm not giving up on these I wanna try them all out to see what I feel most comfortable with.

Weird I had it installed domain-wide, 0 issues...

**Kodiak** · April 1st, 2008, 10:35 AM

I use the same thing as ferrit and I think I even got the idea from him a long time ago. Thing is with using it is if your external ip changes on your pc your using for remote then you need to make a new helpdesk to send out. One good thing is the client doesn't need any ports forwarded to make it work and it usually will pass through any router.

**arch0nmyc0n** · April 1st, 2008, 02:01 PM

I use UltraVNC too, and I love it. I have found, however, that the "mirror" driver it installs can destabilize systems. It seems to be random which system it affects and I've never been able to pinpoint why.

**CeeBee** · April 2nd, 2008, 08:31 AM

Originally Posted by arch0nmyc0n

I use UltraVNC too, and I love it. I have found, however, that the "mirror" driver it installs can destabilize systems. It seems to be random which system it affects and I've never been able to pinpoint why.

Not quite random, I've seen those issues too in the past, mostly with ATI graphics. I gave up the mirror driver since the performance w/o it was quite good on any half-decent machine.

**Niclo Iste** · April 2nd, 2008, 10:22 AM

Just thought of something can any of these let me reboot the computer to safe mode? That way the customer can start the host feature up again with little effort.

**CeeBee** · April 2nd, 2008, 12:23 PM

Short answer: no. Long answer: no, unless you edit the boot.ini file prior to reboot and set the default boot into safe mode with networking.

**Niclo Iste** · April 2nd, 2008, 02:37 PM

Ah ok thanks for the prompt answer ceeBee, boss is lookin to buy OnCall remote access software or the LogMeIn Rescue software because they are web based. I'm trying to see which is better than the other. Seems LogMeIn Rescue allows for a feature to reboot the PC in safe mode without needing the customer there at all so you can do a reboot say to totally remove a file/install/virus and then continue what you were doing without relying on the customer to log the pc back in.

**arch0nmyc0n** · April 2nd, 2008, 03:25 PM

If you didn't know UltraVNC has a viewer and is web based too. You can access it from any computer with a java enabled browser and knowledge of the ip and port it's set to. Though it doesn't have the other "reboot to safe mode" option you mentioned that I'm aware of.

And Ceebee, I've seen the mirror driver mess up on all types of video cards and chipsets. Though it does seem Catalyst 6.x was particularly beachy about it.

**lysergic** · April 6th, 2008, 09:53 AM

Get one of these
http://www.lantronix.com/data-center...nx-spider.html

next hook it into a traditional kvm with osd and you will hae bios level access for multiple machines. Software is included with the kvmip.