How to remotely administer PCs?

[CSMR]

Currently I administer my semi-extended family's Windows PCs, but at present I can only do this when I visit them or they visit me.

Installation of software, repair and maintenance, backup.

Is it possible for me to log on to an administrative account on their systems over the internet?

 

[lxskllr]

LogMeIn and Teamviewer both work well. I have a preference for LogMeIn, but I use Teamviewer due to GNU/Linux support.

 

[Dahak]

Same here, for my personal machines, i use LogMeIn, for my work/client machines Teamviewer

 

[MiniDoom]

dameware

 

[xSauronx]

dameware

while awesome....for remote family support, really? its expensive, and not built to be remote controlled over the WAN through firewalls/routers, afaik. its more for LAN environments.

logmein, teamviewer, and crossloop (fast access for short-notice support if you dont already have something installed) work really well for the OPs situation

 

[CSMR]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Logmein and teamviewer look like the best ones to evaluate.

 

[jaytone1]

Log me in, the best

 

[blurredvision]

For your purpose, I see no reason to use anything other than LogMeIn.

 

[JonathanYoung]

If you can get it to work, Remote Assistance actually worked quite well for me on Windows 7. We even used it to train a remote user during a seminar.

 

[IamDavid]

Use the built in one. Works good.

 

[Gillbot]

LogMeIn and Teamviewer both work well. I have a preference for LogMeIn, but I use Teamviewer due to GNU/Linux support.

This ^

 

[WilliamM2]

join.me works well, and is free. It's based of logMeIn. I always seem to have connection issues with Crossloop these days, although it used to work really well.

 

[mikeymikec]

If you can get it to work, Remote Assistance actually worked quite well for me on Windows 7. We even used it to train a remote user during a seminar.

I prefer Remote Assistance as it doesn't leave a potential security hole open. However if the person needing help isn't that computer literate (handling a file to send as an attachment, for example), it can be a bit tedious to initiate a session.

 

[CSMR]

Does Remote Assistance allow administrator access? In my scenario, the users of the remote computer do not know the admin passwords, while I do.

 

[mikeymikec]

I'm not sure it would allow logon/logoff because the user-end has an app to allow them to end the session or end your control over their computer (and allow you to just view), but it allows you to use UAC prompts and enter passwords etc.

 

[InfiniteLurker]

I'm not sure it would allow logon/logoff because the user-end has an app to allow them to end the session or end your control over their computer (and allow you to just view), but it allows you to use UAC prompts and enter passwords etc.

If the remote user is not an administrator, I think they need to enter the admin password to allow the Remote Assistance user to interact with UAC prompts. I'm not 100% sure though, it's been a while since I used it.

 

[dawks]

I'm not sure it would allow logon/logoff because the user-end has an app to allow them to end the session or end your control over their computer (and allow you to just view), but it allows you to use UAC prompts and enter passwords etc.

Yea, with Windows XP at least, a user needs to be at the computer to initiate a Remote assistance session. I've NEVER gotten Remote Assistance to work properly.

One of the annoyances I've run into with TeamViewer is that it blanks out the screen whenever a UAC prompt comes up, so if you're using TeamViewer and try to install something, its impossible to do it remotely. They have an option to enter admin credentials when connecting which should help to over come this problem, but its never worked for me. I've tried to use TeamViewer to remotely install LogMeIn, but it just wont work since LogMeIn requires a UAC prompt (if not logged in as admin).

LogMeIn is a much better option. You don't need to open ports on the firewall, or have to remember the IP address. You just login to the LogMeIn website and if the computer is online, you can connect (LogMeIn takes care of IP stuff).
Its slow, but it works. LogMeIn free works great. I have it installed on about 80 computers and use it daily.

LogMeIn also has Hamachi, which is easy VPN software. Install it on two or more computers and it assigns them 25.x.x.x IP addresses on a private network and you can share files between them. You now have to be logged in for Hamachi to work. It used to run as a service until they go a little greedy back in November.
I actually use Hamachi to tunnel Remote Desktop on occasion. Remote Desktop (Requires Win Pro+) works better than LogMeIn, but needs a hole in the firewall (very insecure) and you have to know the IP address.

 

[lopri]

Jesus why is LogMeIn client (or server, I should say) so damn expensive on mobile platforms? I saw $30 price tag on Play store and thought that was a lot considering competing products, then I looked it up on iTunes and it's frigging $130!? (or subscription)

OK some of you already pointed out LogMeIn's superior features, but that doesn't seem to be convincing enough for me to pull the trigger. Is someone willing to engage in an art of persuasion? I am open-minded.

 

[lxskllr]

Jesus why is LogMeIn client (or server, I should say) so damn expensive on mobile platforms? I saw $30 price tag on Play store and thought that was a lot considering competing products, then I looked it up on iTunes and it's frigging $130!? (or subscription)

OK some of you already pointed out LogMeIn's superior features, but that doesn't seem to be convincing enough for me to pull the trigger. Is someone willing to engage in an art of persuasion? I am open-minded.

I never used it on Android. The biggest reason I like the desktop client is I can see what's online through a web interface. For family, that means I can do it at 2am if the computer's online. I can do the same with Teamviewer, but there's no interface. I just try to login, and hope for the best.

 

[Gillbot]

Jesus why is LogMeIn client (or server, I should say) so damn expensive on mobile platforms? I saw $30 price tag on Play store and thought that was a lot considering competing products, then I looked it up on iTunes and it's frigging $130!? (or subscription)

OK some of you already pointed out LogMeIn's superior features, but that doesn't seem to be convincing enough for me to pull the trigger. Is someone willing to engage in an art of persuasion? I am open-minded.

The logmein suite itself is all free, but I paid $40 for the iPhone app because it was well worth the money considering the rest of it all is free.

 

[Sureshot324]

Windows remote desktop is much faster than logmein or any of those other tools. Unfortunately before Windows 8, home versions of Windows didn't have remote desktop server, although there is a way to trick windows into enabling it.

 

[spikespiegal]

Windows remote desktop is much faster than logmein or any of those other tools.

Even assuming this statement is correct, which it only partially is (see bottom), and you copied the RDP hive .DLLs from Windows Server to Windows Desktop versions (creating a likely brick during a service pack) please explain how you would grab the foreground 'console' session?

Most people doing assistance/remote work on Windows home machines want the console. They don't want background session.

I've had great luck with LogMeIn and TeamViewer. Both seem robust and work across most types of Firewalls. My previous fav used to be tightVNC....with all it's quirks. Problem is that VNC is increasingly buggier from Vista unwards. I can't even to get it to work with Win8 at all, likely due to all the extraneous Metro shell APIs going on.

The sad thing is that all versions of Windows from Win2k onwards have pretty robust built in Terminal Server / RDP capabilities better than any of the tools above. Microsoft however has chosen to 'gimp' this capability in all but Server versions so as to comply with their retarded relationship with Citrix. Imagine for instance if all versions of Win8 had console remote capability as a service ready to go and how much in demand it would be. It's there....just disabled at the kernel level.

 

[lopri]

I was wondering about just that, too. All these RDP apps come coupled with PC clients - why don't they use Window's built-in RDP capability? What is the limits of Windows RDP? (works only on the same network or something?)

@Gillbot: $40 is one-year subscription, right? LogMeIn Ignition is one-time purchase ($130) but it's the same thing as LogMeIn, i suppose?

 

[Dahak]

I was wondering about just that, too. All these RDP apps come coupled with PC clients - why don't they use Window's built-in RDP capability? What is the limits of Windows RDP? (works only on the same network or something?)

Have to mess with firewall settings to much, cant do easily multiple pcs behind the same fw
have to remember external ips etc...

 

[Sureshot324]

Even assuming this statement is correct, which it only partially is (see bottom), and you copied the RDP hive .DLLs from Windows Server to Windows Desktop versions (creating a likely brick during a service pack) please explain how you would grab the foreground 'console' session?

Most people doing assistance/remote work on Windows home machines want the console. They don't want background session.

I've had great luck with LogMeIn and TeamViewer. Both seem robust and work across most types of Firewalls. My previous fav used to be tightVNC....with all it's quirks. Problem is that VNC is increasingly buggier from Vista unwards. I can't even to get it to work with Win8 at all, likely due to all the extraneous Metro shell APIs going on.

The sad thing is that all versions of Windows from Win2k onwards have pretty robust built in Terminal Server / RDP capabilities better than any of the tools above. Microsoft however has chosen to 'gimp' this capability in all but Server versions so as to comply with their retarded relationship with Citrix. Imagine for instance if all versions of Win8 had console remote capability as a service ready to go and how much in demand it would be. It's there....just disabled at the kernel level.

I'm not really sure what you mean. You can set rdp to log in to the current session instead of a separate session, so you can see whatever windows were open on the pc you're connecting to. My method of enabling rdp server on win 7 home isn't technically legal so I don't want to go into detail here. In win8 pro has it, so no need for a crack.

A lot of firewalls leave the rdp port open, but if it's closed, you can install an ssh server and tunnel in. Admittedly harder to set up than logmein.

Rdp is light years faster than logmein or team viewer since it only needs to transmit the positions of all the windows and other ui widgets, whereas those other programs have to transfer an image of the entire desktop. What do mean ms gimps rdp because of citrix?