Best remote support on budget?

[ohio_grad_06]

So that's the question. I now work with an IT Department for a Church organization. We have a contract to support a Bible College that is affiliated with our organization. They had a previous IT tech, who left them. So our department took over last year.

We have been doing support via teamviewer, but as you know, teamviewer can be pricey. Plus, my boss is not a fan of it. Looking for the best bang for the buck.

The college has a part time tech that they hired, but our department does their over arching support. We are trying to quickly find a new solution as teamviewer that we paid for last year has expired.

Saw that Splashtop seems popular here. Some of the other options being considered are ConnectWise Control, Remote Support, RemotePC, and VNC connect.

I think we also looked at Logmein. Any thoughts on these or any others? Getting an idea for pricing and others experiences.

Our usage is that we connect now anyway, from one server here to their main server where they run their AD, have a hypervisor attached, etc. so it kind of does it all for them. We usually remote into that machine and can find the hyper v machine we need to work with and log into that and do what is needed.

Thanks for the input!

 

[fencepost]

Just covering college-owned systems on a local LAN or WAN? All Windows or a mixture? Linux boxes and if so shell-managed servers or user desktops? How many systems overall?

If you don't need a lot of simultaneous remote control sessions I'm going to suggest looking at SimpleHelp (simple-help.com) - run it on a server within the network, all 3 OSes for clients, etc. Main issue is that it's priced per simultaneous session, so you'd probably be looking at $450 for a single session for the first year (renewals for updates after the first year are 40% of the original cost, and there's a cheaper option that's only $300). On the other hand if you need multiple sessions at once then Splashtop may be a better option.

 

[Markverhyden]

I'd setup a VPN then use the native OS remote connections.

 

[HCHTech]

I'd setup a VPN then use the native OS remote connections.

Agreed. Surely both locations have a firewall - setup a site-to-site VPN and you can RDP to the computers you need to at no additional cost for tools. If you'd like to remote in while someone is working so you can both watch the screen, then a single-seat Splashtop tech license is about $300/yr - way cheaper than LMI.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

theres that cloudberry remote assistant beta going on, i havent personally tried it but might be worth looking into.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

So this is a two edged sword. The college in question is in the process of moving this summer. They need to keep running until at least May where they are. But I'm not sure their current firewall supports VPN. However, they have ordered a new firewall for the new campus. Waiting on Spectrum to come out and install their new connection also there. So when that happens, we'll probably try to configure the new/future site with VPN.

The college, even though affiliated with our organization, traditionally had to stand on their own and usually had to do things on a shoestring budget. So their current IT infrastructure is a work in progress. Not bad for what they had to work with, but they are outgrowing it. The good thing is some things are going forward. Our IT team is now trying to help them get to a better place tech wise as they go forward, and helping them manage things a little better. Just right now, we need something to at least work until we can get that VPN configured.

 

[ChrisTech]

+1 for Splashtop

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Thanks for all the feedback. We are going to try a trial of splashtop(if the test laptop ever decides it will cooperate.....)

 

[Diggs]

I wave the SimpleHelp flag. No monthly fees. They also have free trials.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Just wanted to thank everyone for the replies. We ended up going for Splashtop after starting the trial. Less than half the cost of teamviewer, seemed to have more features for us. We are non profit, so we got a 15% discount of a price of 299 per year for unlimited techs and 25 computers. So for us it's a great deal.

We will probably be setting up a VPN once the site is completely moved and then we will review if we need to continue splashtop. But for now, looks like a relatively cheap/easy solution, and works pretty good from what we can see. Thank you all for the feedback!

 

[StrongNPretty]

That's awesome! How has Splashtop been working for you so far? I've used LogmeIn for a few years now and am happy with it. I also like Dameware.

Just wanted to thank everyone for the replies. We ended up going for Splashtop after starting the trial. Less than half the cost of teamviewer, seemed to have more features for us. We are non profit, so we got a 15% discount of a price of 299 per year for unlimited techs and 25 computers. So for us it's a great deal.

We will probably be setting up a VPN once the site is completely moved and then we will review if we need to continue splashtop. But for now, looks like a relatively cheap/easy solution, and works pretty good from what we can see. Thank you all for the feedback!

 

[Your PCMD]

I wave the SimpleHelp flag. No monthly fees. They also have free trials.

Right, but they have yearly fees.

You can purchase an additional year of support and access to upgrades at the per session renewal cost of $120 for Standard and $180 for Business licenses.

Granted, thats a hell of a lot less than TV or the like. However, you don't have to upgrade, but this is what companies do to keep recurring revenue - put out updates, even if its a single update but then you have to decide if its worth the extra $$$?

To be fair, I am testing SimpleHelp right now in order to look for a more personalized (branded) remote solution. So far, I like it.

 

[Diggs]

Right, but they have yearly fees.

What? Not in all the years I've used them. You get a year of free support and upgrades and then after that year if you want to upgrade to a new version you pay for the new version. If not, your old software lasts forever with no additional fees.

 

[Your PCMD]

Right, but they have yearly fees.

What? Not in all the years I've used them.

However, you don't have to upgrade

Did I miss something? Anyway, I have been testing it for a few days now on my Windows 2016 server and I do like it, but I want to put it on my Dell R210 with Ubuntu 18.04 and see how it goes performance wise. After that, I'll make a decision on whether or not to drop my Anydesk.

Have not seen where it has unattended access nor if you have the ability to save an address book like my Anydesk does. Having the ability to log into a clients machine for MSP purposes after hours is a must have for me because I cannot do a lot of things during business hours.

 

[Diggs]

Have not seen where it has unattended access

Just download the module from your server at the client and it runs as a service -

https://simple-help.com/remote-access-guide

 

[Your PCMD]

Just download the module from your server at the client and it runs as a service

Yeah, I figured that out no issue. However, I cannot log into a machine unless the "seat" accepts it. See, with AnyDesk, I can log into a machine at anytime by simply inputting a password, with SH, it doesn't do that for some odd reason. Also, under the branding, its getting me frustrated. I've replave the banner with my own, but that damn icon for the browser will not replace with my own. I find SH support forum very lacking.

And now I am having issues with ports. I have the firewall set to 8008 as following their guide suggests, but when I add the other 2 ports 80 and 443, it completely loses connection. and the Status Test flags all go red.

Nevermind, I fixed it, dumb me did not add the ports in the Network Settings within the admin panel. Sheesh, is today Monday?

 

[Porthos]

Sheesh, is today Monday?

Might as well be.

 

[Diggs]

Yeah, I figured that out no issue. However, I cannot log into a machine unless the "seat" accepts it.

From your "Tech" app/panel click on the Access tab and all the machines you have monitoring running are listed. Click on the one you want to remote into and you are connected. No password involved as it is uniquely connected to your server. I assume you found the support page on what you can have monitored?

https://simple-help.com/management-guide

 

[fencepost]

It's full price for the initial license which includes a year of support & upgrades. IIRC after that you can continue to use what you have indefinitely, but if you want continuing upgrades then it's the lower price (1/3 original?) annually as ongoing maintenance. You can presumably stop that maintenance at any point and simply no longer get/install upgrades.

I believe that also covers up to 1000 seats, which over a long time period makes it really absurdly dirt cheap as a way to get remote monitoring and powershell scripting. As low as $0.48/year per machine for the first year and $0.18/year/machine for subsequent years? Admittedly though you'd likely have more than one license going with 1000 endpoints.

 

[cypress]

Yeah, I figured that out no issue. However, I cannot log into a machine unless the "seat" accepts it. See, with AnyDesk, I can log into a machine at anytime by simply inputting a password, with SH, it doesn't do that for some odd reason. Also, under the branding, its getting me frustrated. I've replave the banner with my own, but that damn icon for the browser will not replace with my own. I find SH support forum very lacking.

And now I am having issues with ports. I have the firewall set to 8008 as following their guide suggests, but when I add the other 2 ports 80 and 443, it completely loses connection. and the Status Test flags all go red.

Nevermind, I fixed it, dumb me did not add the ports in the Network Settings within the admin panel. Sheesh, is today Monday?

Curious, if it isn't just me but are do you have issues with AnyDesk when the version updates? Like the icon from the previous version still stays in the taskbar along with the updated version? Feel like that is a bug that I just can't get rid of. Happens on every machine that the version is updated to.