Remote offsite support software (teamviewer alternatives)

[timbo343]

We are due to get a load of Staff laptops running Windows 10 and i'm looking at some Remote offsite desktop software where we can jump on to the user's PC when agreed with member of staff to assist them.

 

There are 3 of us in the office that would need licensing.

 

I've looked at Teamviewer and the costs are very expensive. Logmein123 (logmeinrescue) is even more expensive.

 

I thought about Impero as we are an impero school but only if there was a way for the end user to provide a pin to us so we didn't have unattended access.

 

Does anyone run anything like this at the moment as using the free version of teamviewer is obviously against their terms.

 

Google Remote Desktop? Can this be locked down so only those permitted to provide support and view/control the device.

[network41]

Quick Assist , built in to Windows 10

[highsky]

+1 for Quick Assist.

Impero has the option to prompt for the end users-staff to allow access.

You can create a group and assign access to your team.

[bald_pig]

+2 for quick assist!

[chrisakak9]

You could also look into itarian. this is free for a limited amount of users and has remote control for remote access.

[Katy]

Another vote for Quick Assist - only limitation is you can't do anything involving UAC prompts, but I found teamviewer had the same problem (and wouldn't even let me click on an elevated window if I'd managed to trick my way round a UAC popup). Maybe just that I was using the free version (as they let anyone use the free licence for a while over the closedown) and it was just running as the logged in user I suppose...

[timbo343]

Cheers everyone.

 

Will look into itarian and quick assist but found another system since which is open source called DMService https://www.dwservice.net/en/. The only issue is that the end user must select Run rather than install to be prompted with the usercode (id) and the password.

[Katy]

I knocked up some screenshots/instructions for staff back in March, shows what they'll see etc on Quick Assist if you've never used it http://support.akslytham.com/

It's probably somewhere in the start menu but it's installed by default with Win 10 which is nice.

[timbo343]

Could quick assist be locked down to prevent staff connecting to staff so that only administrators can connect to clients?

 

I'm looking at using intune as a MDM only to manage these devices as we are mainly a google school but teachers want MS devices.

 

These devices wont see the OnPrem domain just yet so be nice to use intune to lock them down.

[aicrd]

I use the open source remotely. Works really well and is super easy to deploy on Windows Server. Got mine running in Google Cloud on Ubuntu at the moment.

 

All the remote control is browser based and you have an option of either using the one time run client for support or installing a client and having unattended access to the machine.

 

https://remotely.one/

[thimon]

@Katy we use Quick Assist with UAC working, from memory there’s several GPO settings you need in place first. Luckily we had those settings in place before remote working / learning happened.

[bald_pig]

I know that UAC on quick assist is possible if the person logged in is an admin, so it should be workable.

 

Worst case, runas in command prompt!

[thimon]

Maybe by default, however we’ve got AUC working for all users, allowing us to make admin changes when remoting into school devices with staff and student logged in (both on and off site).

[free780]

UAC does work on quick assist as long as you it's not the secure desktop with a non admin user logged in.

 

Ideally you want an always on VPN so you can authenticate against a DC, unless you have cached admin credentials on each laptop[emoji15].

Ideally have LAPS deployed if you need to elevate.

Or use JEA where a virtual admin is created when needed.

Edited August 27, 2020 by free780

[DaveMurphy]

I use ConnectWise and have the agent installed and pushed out through GPO.

[timbo343]

Just tried Zoho assist, the free version looks good for what we require

[keyboards]

We're using Senso for this and a range of other things