Anything better than TeamViewer?

Hi all,

I'm finding I have to support my parents' PCs on a rather frequent basis and as it's a 2-hour drive to their home I'm thinking that TeamViewer may be the ideal solution.

I've never used remote-control software before so I thought I would ask my fellow Wilders members if they know of anything better than TeamViewer for my intended purpose (their PCs are running WinVista whereas mine is running Win7. and we both have fast internet connectivity).

Wendi

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Edit: Some features which would be quite important for my use are:

- The client (host) sofware has to be very easy to install and/or run.
- My parents have to be able to see what I am doing (on their monitor).
- The ability to transfer files (via the remote-control software) would be huge!

 

I have the same issue. My parents live on another continent so drive would be impossible. Having said that I have been using Teamviewer for the past ~ 5 years or so. I do not really like the UI that much but it gets the job done. There is however another remote control player around: Log me in ignition. It has a free version I believe. I will be soon testing it.
And yeah I don't like the Teamviewer because it feels like Skype these days.

 

I think TeamViewer is one of the best, however I often use also Ammyy Admin
http://www.ammyy.com/en/
which has less features, but it's easier to use

Stefano

 

Would you please give me an idea as to the features Ammyy Admin lacks (if any) which would be beneficial for my intended support? ...and what about the 3 features I listed in my original post?

Thanks!

 

TeamViewer have all the 3 features you´re looking (although the first is highly subjective).

As a side note, i have seen Ammyy Admin been detected as malware, by Emsisoft and another scanner that i don´t remember (probably because is very used in scams, AFAIK). So, maybe is possible that your parents AV interfere with Ammyy.

 

Thanks for that 'heads-up' on Ammyy! If and when I use it I'll just have my parents disable their Norton AV.

Wendi

 

there are other softwares around but teamviewer has to be the best because its free for personal use,has many additional features like webcam and chat so you can talk while assisting.

and it meets all your 3 requirements. In addition to all this it also has cross platform capabilities.

I have been using teamviewer since the very first version without any problems.

 

Thanks Pete, but I prefer 'free' as this would not be for commercial use and is certainly 'not for profit'.

Wendi

 

I would stay away from ammyy.
This thread will explain why.
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=280935&highlight=ammy

 

Thanks for the recommendation, but unless I'm missing something I don't see chat as a big deal (there's always the phone)!

Wendi

 

It seems to me that this scam was not the doing of Ammyy and that it could have been carried-out with TeamViewer or whatever. Is this not so?

Wendi

 

I have just been alerted to a potential problem with TeamViewer, in that it has a tendency to drop the connection after a while. That would be a major inconvenience (for sure), so I'm wondering how many of you TeamViewer users have experienced that?

Wendi

 

In my opinion the main disadvantage of TeamViewer is that the free edition drops your connection sometimes.
It occours when you use TeamViewer "too much" or with "too many" different addresses. At a certain point it thinks you are using it as a professionals and closes telling you to purchase a license.
I don't know the exact tresholds for this behaviour, which is not permanent, i.e., if you stop using it for a while it will let you reconnect.


Afaik Ammyy is not malware.
It currently gives false positives with 3 antivirus programs (just checked on virustotal).
It's simpler to use, not that fast tough. It doesn't have file transfer ability. Also Ammyy is known to behave like TeamViewer after a while but it never occurred to me.


Another option is to use LogMeIn (https://secure.logmein.com/). It works via web. A free personal account is available for everybody. It again lacks of file transfer capabilities.


Finally in the past I used also UltraVNC. It has all the requested features, but it's slow. Also, your parents must have a public IP. For my mum I made a batch file that:
- sent an ipconfig/all result to a file
- mailed me that file (via a command line mailer program)
- started UltraVNC server
All she had to do was click on a icon and I could do the rest.

Stefano

 

First time I hear of it. Never experienced it or any other issues with free version.

 

FWIW:

UltraVnc Nat 2 Nat Connections
http://www.uvnc.com/addons/nat2nat.html

I haven't tried it and thus don't know if you can run your own Nat Helper or manually plug in IP Address & Port information to the NAT Server Connector and NAT Viewer Connector.

 

Cudni,

Your feedback is most appreciated. It may be that Stefano's TeamViewer disconnect experiences were due some other internet connectivity issue.

As I regard file-transfer capability quite important to properly support my parents computing mishaps, I believe I'll go with TeamViewer.

Thank you!
Wendi

 

Where I work we use the corporate version of Teamviewer along with the corporate version of LogMeIn Rescue. Teamviewer will disconnect sometimes but reconnects itself pretty quick. In my opinion its reliable and simple to use for both the tech and the end user. Even with both at my disposal I usually connect with TV as opposed to LMI due mainly to personal preference. FWIW I do Tech Support for a local business and use this all day everyday.

 

Thanks. Your endorsement seals the deal.

 

Wendi,

I agree with your decision.
The inconvenients I experimented were due to TeamViewer itself, not other reasons, but they happened in a period I remotely connected to my mother, brother and niece computers quite often to solve a sort of "family network" problems.
In that case eventually TV came out with a message saying that I was connecting to too many addresses for a free user.
If you'll use it only for your parents it's unlikely it'll give you problems.
Also what I describe happened a couple of years ago, so I don't know, maybe the new version behaves differently.

Stefano

 

I used teamviewer for the 4 years my son was away at college (ending in 2010). It worked perfectly - had the features you are seeking - and never disconnected.

It was a life saver.

 

Very same situation here (but with my daughter) - TeamViewer just works!