Netsupport or LANSchool

[TheRobins]

Morning all,

 

Bit of a decision coming up. I have been using NetOPsVision and Policy Central for a while but they are no longer fit for purpose and will be phased out over half term.

 

I have had a demo of LANSchool and must say I was very impressed with the product and it fitted our needs.

 

I have seen NetSupport mentioned a few times on here, just wondering if its worth looking at as a product and whether it would offer anything different to LANSchool itself?

 

I have had a demonstration of Impero and to be honest wasn't that impressed especially when the pricing came in. Impero did too much for me such as print management which I get via PapercutMF and it didn't enjoy the product as a whole. Looking at comments recently on here looks as if there are quite a few unhappy with it and I wouldn't want to invest in a product with that much negativity at this moment in time.

 

I suppose the question is do I stick with what instantly stood out and made me say yes, or do I go out and try to convince myself out of the purchase.

[Joanne]

Definitely trial NetSupport. I've got the DNA product and it works really well for our needs. I've found it easy to deploy and easy to use. I really like it, so definitely see how it could work for you

[Michael]

I've not used LANSchool, but use NetSupportDNA in plenty of schools - best advice I can offer is to try their 30 day free trial and go from there.

[Al_NetSupport]

Definitely trial NetSupport. I've got the DNA product and it works really well for our needs. I've found it easy to deploy and easy to use. I really like it, so definitely see how it could work for you

 

Thanks Joanne, that's always good to hear. @The Robbins, please feel free to PM me and be happy to arrange a demo or have a chat. Are you at BETT next week ?

 

Al

[TheRobins]

Hi Al,

 

I did see your product at BETT last year, not going this year as too expensive to travel.

 

I have had some refreshed pricing from your team so will be looking into this, I must admit I am still leaning towards LANSchool but will have a look over the next few days.

 

 

 

Thanks Joanne, that's always good to hear. @The Robbins, please feel free to PM me and be happy to arrange a demo or have a chat. Are you at BETT next week ?

 

Al

[Al_NetSupport]

Hi Al,

 

I did see your product at BETT last year, not going this year as too expensive to travel.

 

I have had some refreshed pricing from your team so will be looking into this, I must admit I am still leaning towards LANSchool but will have a look over the next few days.

 

Let me know if there is anything I can do to convince you otherwise , price or functionality. Lanschool tends to be a rival for NetSupport School but we also offer NetSupport DNA which adds a lot more on the IT management and safeguarding (and could be at no extra cost). (And includes NetSupport school).

 

Won't do the hard sell, but would love to convince you to revisit NetSupport.

 

Al

[TheRobins]

When you mention safeguarding, I have compared the 2 products and cannot see any real difference to be fair, both offer the same functionality.

 

Would it be possible to set up a remote demo? I am quite time limited as this is a half-term project

 

Thanks.

[Tom_NetSupport]

Hi @TheRobins, I'll give you a call to set this up.

 

Regards

Tom

[Al_NetSupport]

When you mention safeguarding, I have compared the 2 products and cannot see any real difference to be fair, both offer the same functionality.

 

Would it be possible to set up a remote demo? I am quite time limited as this is a half-term project

 

Thanks.

 

Absolutely, more than happy to arrange a Webinar to save you setting anything up. We also have a page that summaries a lot of the key safeguarding aspects, and extend beyond a pure classroom management solution.

 

This is the summary but we also have a nice video overview too.

 

 

I'll ask Tom , who i believe you have spoken with to make contact and sort a convenient time for a webinar.

 

Hope that helps ?

 

Al

[NB9457]

Got to say NetSupport are incredibly competitive with pricing and DNA is a very feature packed product! Support is really good too!

[Al_NetSupport]

Got to say NetSupport are incredibly competitive with pricing and DNA is a very feature packed product! Support is really good too!

 

Feeling the love Thank you !

[ADMaster]

What platforms are you looking to support? I've been using Lanschool for a few years and it is solid on the PC side. However it has a few quirks on chromebook, but nothing that is a deal breaker. My license is up this summer so I've been watching all of these classroom monitoring threads. I may try a few this spring.

 

I don't want to hijack the thread to much, but could someone tell me about the netsupport chromebook experience.

[jonemery99]

NetSupport all the way! LanSchool is ok for what it is but it's just not quite as good as NetSupport! We are deploying DNA and school across all schools in the MAT I support. Removing Impero and abtutor! Staff are loving it! Get them to give you a demo, there support is good too (can you tell I'm a big fan) always to provide more info if you want :-)

[DrCheese]

We've just moved away from Impero to Netsupport as Impero's track record over the past year or so has been terrible - You never felt safe upgrading as you'd wonder what new and wonderful bugs would appear! We've only trained a few teachers on netsupport so far, but they've taken to it like a duck in water & we've had no reported problems (& they've figured out on their own some of the more advanced features) Impero on the other hand had them writing many angry service desk tickets!

[TheRobins]

NetSupport all the way! LanSchool is ok for what it is but it's just not quite as good as NetSupport! We are deploying DNA and school across all schools in the MAT I support. Removing Impero and abtutor! Staff are loving it! Get them to give you a demo, there support is good too (can you tell I'm a big fan) always to provide more info if you want :-)

Out of interest which bits are 'not as good'

 

After my demo of NetSupport yesterday I am now doing a comparison, A3 sheet of paper with pro's and con's.

 

Be great to know where you see LANSchool falling down.

 

Thanks

[TheRobins]

What platforms are you looking to support? I've been using Lanschool for a few years and it is solid on the PC side. However it has a few quirks on chromebook, but nothing that is a deal breaker. My license is up this summer so I've been watching all of these classroom monitoring threads. I may try a few this spring.

 

I don't want to hijack the thread to much, but could someone tell me about the netsupport chromebook experience.

Thanks for the feedback. Looking at general interest LANSchool seems very big in the US, quite a few school districts run it as standard from my research. No chromebooks on our site here and not likely to be either, we would go either Windows or iOS for tablet devices. Currently all Win7-64 moving to Win10-64 over the August holidays. Interesting to hear your feedback on the e-safety monitoring ability of LANSchool, the only bit that hasn't explained itself to me as of yet.

 

Thanks.

[Al_NetSupport]

What platforms are you looking to support? I've been using Lanschool for a few years and it is solid on the PC side. However it has a few quirks on chromebook, but nothing that is a deal breaker. My license is up this summer so I've been watching all of these classroom monitoring threads. I may try a few this spring.

 

I don't want to hijack the thread to much, but could someone tell me about the netsupport chromebook experience.

 

Hi @ADMaster - we do publish info on our chromeOS classroom features here NetSupport School for Google ChromeOS it also contains link to the ChromeStore for both our Teacher and Student apps. You'll see the student has been downloaded a few hundred thousand times and there are lots of comments about the app, and ratings. You can evaluate freely to compare reliability. We do have a much higher public rating in the app store for the netsupport app than the LanSchool student. Much like Lanschool and others you download a gateway component to be your central HTTP connector. Our office in Atlanta ( The home of NetSupport Inc) would be able to assist and they are at FETC (next week), TCEA ( march) and ISTE (June ?) if you plan to visit any of those ?

 

I hope that helps

 

Al.

[fiza]

@Al_NetSupport - when will NetSupportDNA work on Chromebooks for the safeguarding side?

[Al_NetSupport]

@Al_NetSupport - when will NetSupportDNA work on Chromebooks for the safeguarding side?

 

Hi @fiza. As i mentioned before we already have a well-established Teacher and Student app for Chrome that provides a lot of the current activity monitoring features and it provides web monitoring etc. already. In terms of NetSupport DNA providing a dedicated agent ( with Windows comparable keyword monitoring), you'll be pleased to know it is well advanced and we expect it to be released in our next update in 2-3 months. Sooner than that we will probably be receptive to any volunteer beta testers

 

I hope that helps

 

Al.

[fiza]

Hi @fiza. As i mentioned before we already have a well-established Teacher and Student app for Chrome that provides a lot of the current activity monitoring features and it provides web monitoring etc. already. In terms of NetSupport DNA providing a dedicated agent ( with Windows comparable keyword monitoring), you'll be pleased to know it is well advanced and we expect it to be released in our next update in 2-3 months. Sooner than that we will probably be receptive to any volunteer beta testers

 

I hope that helps

 

Al.

 

Thanks Al. That is good news. More than happy to be beta testers. We have over 160 Chromebooks used daily so would be a good test.

Hopefully the next update will also include my request for restricted concurrent logons ?

[Al_NetSupport]

Hopefully the next update will also include my request for restricted concurrent logons ?

 

That's the plan

[altecsole]

I'm another very satisfied NetSupport DNA user. The eSafety aspect alone makes it worthwhile, especially as it's simple enough for non-technical staff to get to grips with; this allows us to pass on the monitoring responsibility to year heads and pastoral teams.

 

Also, the development cycle is very good, with new features and improvement appearing quite often.

[Al_NetSupport]

I'm another very satisfied NetSupport DNA user. The eSafety aspect alone makes it worthwhile, especially as it's simple enough for non-technical staff to get to grips with; this allows us to pass on the monitoring responsibility to year heads and pastoral teams.

 

Also, the development cycle is very good, with new features and improvement appearing quite often.

 

Thank you, that feedback is really appreciated

 

We have lots on the go and lots of new stuff due for release in the coming months, but at the same time we always try to ensure we keep capacity in the team, so when we cock up and introduce a bug (we are human), we can respond and fix quickly with the best possible support. Tough balance but we get it right more often than wrong.

[thimon]

This is the summary but we also have a nice video overview too.

 

 

Ok, I'm in love with that portal. PM'ing!

[Joanne]

omg those words clouds are THE BEST.