Polling the geekbase

[krrayn.livejournal.com]

I've been asked to research remote assistance applications. What I'm looking for is whether any of you have experience with something like WebX or PCAnywhere, a web-based or application-based service allowing remote support of a workstation via a graphic interface.

As background: I work for a software company providing among other things support for our application to a variety of end user types, all of them external to our microscopic company.

Some things we would like to, ideally, be able to do:

- Allow the remote user to visually demonstrate an in issue to me, the support tech.
- Allow me to visually demonstrate a procedure/solution to the remote user.
- Allow me to remotely control the remote workstation to demonstrate/effect a procedure/solution; this is a lower priority, and may be unfeasible due to differing corporate firewall restrictions.
- Minimal/no cost to the end user.

Thoughts? Recommendations?

xposted to krrayn, techsupport, and tech_support

(no subject)

[zig-mover.livejournal.com]

Emachines crap computer here in the office is malfunctioning. As soon as the Windows XP logo comes up on the screen, the keyboard locks up and the mouse won't move. When I boot into BIOS setup, they work fine. My boss insists this is a problem with the computer, and put in an RMA with Emachines (so I have a big box sitting here to put the computer into).

This is the kind of crap I have to deal with every day from customers. Their computer breaks, there's a power surge, or their house burns down, and somehow this is a problem with our DSL.

Why am I being forced to send this back? I don't know. Can anyone think of a reason why the keyboard and mouse would lock up when booting Windows? Tried USB and PS2 devices. Don't have any Knoppix cds here to check out. Tried safe mode and Last Known Good Config mode. And the network card doesn't seem to be working either, so I can't grab the boot logs off the drive.

(oh yeah, emachines computers just come with the restore CD, and my boss says we can't run that because it will delete everything.. but he thinks emachines will back up the files for us.)

VNC

[krrayn.livejournal.com]

So a lot of people think VNC is the way to go. Thanks for all the comments, everyone!

Here are my concerns:

- I don't want to burden the end user with having to download/install anything. (it would actually be a burden on me having to explain to them how to do it).
- I don't expect to always be able to get a direct tcp/ip connection to another computer, due to firewalls, NAT, etc. I certainly don't expect a customer to be able to tell me his IP address.
- It's more important for me to SEE what the customer is doing on his PC than for me to control his PC; though the latter would be an added bonus. I most certainly do not wish the user to be able to control MY PC, though I may want them to be able to see what I'm doing (If I can't control their PC directly).