Favorite remote support utilities

[Fairlight]

Only Bob Rasmussen would say something like:
> 
> What do you like?

What I've used:

Microsoft Remote Desktop
VNC (1.x, 2.x, 3.x, 4.x [4.x was after the RealVNC branch-off])
UltraVNC (current version)
GoToMyPC
LogMeIn
ScreenConnect

For my preferences, I avoid GoToMyPC and LogMeIn.  I had recent experience
with LogMeIn, using someone else's account to get at their systems.  I
don't like the security model in that situation, where someone has to give
out their password, and you can see all the different servers they may have
set up--some of which may be things best left unseen.  I would never put
my clients' servers on any such service.  I don't like the fact that it's
a one stop cracking shop, I don't like that the tracking is under someone
else's control, and a few other things about this model.  As far as actual
use, the Anzio sessions I was using were scaled -so- poorly, they were
easily misreadable.  I hate the darned thing.  And pretty much most of the
people I talk to outiside this list say that Rescue is really the only
useful way to go without pre-setup.  My colleague in Australia uses
LogMeIn, and he evaluated my preferred recommendation and actually
preferred it, and plans to switch.

I remember GoToMyPC being similar, but even worse in that (if I remember
correcctly), it installed itself as a display device driver, and required
a reboot to remove.  I don't want anything installing itself as a driver
simply to get RDP functionality, sorry.  That lasted on my system as long
as it took me to see the driver, at which point it was promptly removed.
Video drivers and video driver conflicts are one area you -don't- want to
mess around with if you can help it--especially if you use video-intensive
software, which I do.

Microsoft RDP is okay for Windows-only, on the platforms on which
it's supported (2003 and XP support it as a server, Vista didn't, for
instance--although the client is supported as far back as win95b).  It's
faster than many others, including VNC, but that's because it takes
shortcuts to achieve that speed.  Namely, it doesn't fully raster-poll
like other solutions.  Instead, it actually appears to (and I have
-some- proof of this) use Windows itself to do a lot of the work in a
more timely fashion.  Regular windows, text, etc., actually appear to
simply be replicated on your system.  The proof of this is the jump in
GDI object usage on the client system when you're connected to a remote
system, and subsequent drop in GDI object usage when you disconnect.  (You
need something like Iarsn TaskInfo to see this resource spike.)  It's a
relatively featureless client, but it gets the basic job done.

VNC is great.  I've used a bunch of versions, as listed above.  It's
stable, it's now feature-rich, it's now encrypted if you make it so (which
reads like a nightmare for UltraVNC if you read their docs).  Of all the
versions I've used, the current UltraVNC is my favourite, both due to speed
and feature set.  Advantage:  it's able to be "always on".  Disadvantages:
it -needs- to be "always on", and it also needs firewall prep.

I was going back to UltraVNC's site to get the package for another system,
and also to revisit their SingleClick solution, which I was going to try
out.  I never actually got as far as SingleClick, because Elsinore was
advertising ScreenConnect on UltraVNC's site.  I clicked on that banner,
and fell in love.

ScreenConnect is my favourite RDP to date.  It's self-hosted, so no
third-party relaying is required like other services.  You pay a one-time
fee based on the number of concurrent connections you need, and that
number is upgradeable at any time.  Price starts at $250 USD for the first
connection, and if you only ever connect to one system at the same time,
that's all you need.  You buy it once, you can use it forever, although
upgrades are covered for a year at a time.  Upgrade pricing was reasonably
scaled on an elapsed-time basis...when my first year runs out, it'll only
cost me $50 to get another year of updates, for instance, for my one
connection license.  No monthly subscriptions.  Feature-wise, encryption
is always-on and seamless (no config needed, AES-256), it has chat, file
transfers, the ability to reboot & reconnect the remote system, etc.
Multi-head support is seamless; I've used it on a few dual head systems,
and it's just seamless...you scroll from monitor to monitor with no breaks,
just one big happy desktop.  You can also scale to fit (and unscale) so
you can get the lay of the land and then go back to full scale to do your
work.  This baby is -fast-, and easy on the bandwidth.  As an example,
since it's self-hosted, it's running on my server at home--which is on
1.5/256 DSL that is on lousy lines and is usually 40%+ below rated speed
on the downlink for several years now.  After a storm one night, the DSL
was at 25KB/sec up -and- down, and I was out at a hotel.  I connected to
a system in Australia via my ScreenConnect server at home (so all traffic
in both directions was going over a 256kbit connection, in effect), and it
was -still- faster than UltraVNC running full-blast on my local 100mbit
LAN.  The huge upside to ScreenConnect is the lack of needing preparation.
You can email an invitation to a session, have open listed sessions, or
create a session with a 4-digit code.  If you use open sessions or coded
sessions, people need to get to your ScreenConnect page manually.  If you
email the session invite, they just click on a link.  Either way, once
they join, it downloads a tiny, tiny binary, and you're up and running.
No firewall prep, no password exchanges, nada.  It's a thing of beauty.
The -only- time this has not been a 100% ease was a 100% failure, in that
someone had a site with outbound HTTP entirely inverse firewalled--they
couldn't get out to the site to join the session.  That is entirely their
failing for having inverse firewalling that tight.  But that is also the
only time this is going to fail to be a 100% breeze and "just work".  It's
also cross-platform, supporting Windows, OS/X, Linux, and even Android
phones.  The only other real downside was the initial configuration.  Once
it's configured, it's a breeze to use.  But the initial configuration
sets itself up so that it's pretty much only LAN-capable, due to the way
it auto-grabs the hostname (which in my case is 'arcadia') in non-FQDN
form.  This is easily remedied, and I did so very quickly using docs in the
support section of the site.  It's just a little more picky to set up the
service itself for external use outside the firewall than I'd have thought.
The port is tunable as well, so you can do whatever you want.  At any rate,
you only have to configure it once, on the master server.  It never needs
configuration or prepwork on any client site (unless they're paranoid
enough to inverse firewall HTTP).  Oh, and it's fully brandable...you
re-face it for your company in terms of the self-hosted web portions, and
even the application title that contains your company name.  The -only-
part that's not brandable is the actual mini-client "Run" box, and that's
because the software is signed by Elsinore, which is sane and I have no
problems with that.  Actually, it's nice, because unlike other things, it
doesn't have you save it...it actually pops up and says "Run" or cancel,
which eliminates confusion.  The program removes itself and all access
once the session is terminated for good.  (I say "for good" because the
client may detach and reattach and leave the session open.  Either side may
terminate the entire session permanently, however.)  Another plus is the
lack of account setup necessary.  Unless you're going to be a -hosting-
user (ie., work at the company hosting it, and be authorised to create
sessions), you need no accounts.  Clients never need accounts.
Additionally, I've tested this personally--you can create a session as a
host, and actually then -connect- to the client end, and let the other
person connect as the host, reversing the situation.  Oh...did I mention it
can record the entire session to AVI?  :)

ScreenConnect is a fairly young product compared to others, near as I can
tell.  But it's also -really-, really good.  It has room for some
improvements, but my dealings with support (I reported a bug in file
transfers) indicate that they really care about their product, and they
-do- address bugs and feature concerns.  I think this one is a keeper.
The price seems steep, but how often do you need more than one simultaneous
connection to a remote host?  Even if you do, you -can- add the licenses.
But there are no subscriptions, period.

So...Favourites:

Always-On Required:  UltraVNC, or Windows RDP in a pinch
Always-On Not Required:  ScreenConnect  (www.screenconnect.com)

I still use UltraVNC, but if I have the option to choose in any given
situation, I'd go with ScreenConnect in a heartbeat.

mark->
-- 
Audio panton, cogito singularis.