Darren Myher's Blog

Tired of paying monthly or yearly fees for help desk applications that allow you to take control over a remote computer?  Wish there was software you could buy one license for but use with multiple technicians?  I’ve found just the product: Team Viewer (www.teamviewer.com).

Executive Summary:

• You only pay for concurrent use by multiple techs at once — not per session.
• No monthly or yearly fees — one flat rate license fee and you’re good.
• The applet to support the remote person does NOT need to be installed — just download and run and you’re all set.
• Need to connect again unattended — run the full installation version and set it up as a system service and you can re-connect remotely.
• Communication is encrypted.
• Has a file transfer feature.
• Clipboards work.
• Has a VPN feature.
• The product is free for limited / home use — so there’s no risk in trying it out.

If your help desk is like ours, you’ve got a pool of staff that sometimes work support, and sometimes don’t.  At any given point in time we have two techs working support, but which two changes from week to week.  I needed a piece of software I could install on all my techs computers, but only wanted to pay for one license for each concurrent user.

Team Viewer gives me just that: I buy one "Channel" per simultaneous technician that will be using the app.

Example: Technician A opens remote support sessions to a server computer and two clients to troubleshoot connectivity on the client’s network.  That’s just ONE license because only one tech initiated the sessions from his or her computer.

Technician B opens a remote session to another computer — now that’s two licenses being used.

Technician B ends their session — now Technician C starts one — still only two licenses being used because technician B’s license got freed up the moment they closed their session.

The applet the customer downloads is customizable – you can update the wording, your logo, etc.

For home use (like you supporting your parent’s computer) both of you can install the free version on their web site and support each other at no charge.  The software does detect use that "looks" commercial however — like you connecting to multiple different computers.  So if that’s what you’re doing just buy a license. 

The license is priced in euros — and works out to about $1500 CDN or US dollars.

This is the best deal going on remote control software.