Remote control software ?

Try TeamViewer

TeamViewer - Free Remote Control, Remote Access & Online Meetings

conradsallian said:

murphybro said:

Hi. Can anyone recommend any free remote control software to use across the web on a windows 7 pro machine ? I have used gotoassist in the past but its not fee.

Thanks in advance

You can easily get your computer infected with a trojan with TeamViewer.

Consider other software, like Remote Utilities or Radmin.

Nonsense! Assuming the computer you are connected to has malware in the first place (as was the case you linked to), TeamViewer is no more susceptible than any other remote connection software.

TeamViewer is FREE, unlike the trial software you recommend, and is highly recommended here.

I am a big user of TeamViewer. I have never had any problems with banner ads.

TeamViewer

+1 for TeamViewer

Top 8 Remote Access Software for Providing Online Support

A Guy

Golden said:

~~~
Nonsense! Assuming the computer you are connected to has malware in the first place (as was the case you linked to), TeamViewer is no more susceptible than any other remote connection software.

TeamViewer is FREE, unlike the trial software you recommend, and is highly recommended here.

Maybe I'm just reading the article wrong, but that is not the infection method that Kaspersky labs mentions. You must visit an infected website and have a vulnerability that allows the drive by installation of a modified version of TeamViewer 6.

conradsallian said:

~~~
Because of it's popularity it is more susceptible to be attacked/used by malware.
~~~

Again, if I'm understanding the infection method correctly, then it has nothing to do with TeamViewer's popularity. A computer did not need to have TeamViewer installed in order for the TeamSpy group to infect it. They were installing an old version of TeamViewer onto computers and then adding their malware to allow for stealth connections. Let me repeat: the computers did not need to have TeamViewer installed in order to become infected. And nothing that I've read indicates that an infected TeamViewer computer can infect a clean TeamViewer computer during a remote control session.

While this was not an attack from a website to infect an existing installation of TeamViewer, that does seem possible. If you were to visit these infected websites, then you are just as likely to get infected with the installation of a full version of TeamViewer as any other computer user.

Sadly, the folks a TeamViewer have seen fit to allow one computer to run multiple version of the TeamViewer app at the same time. So you could have TeamViewer 8 installed and still get infected with this malware laden version of TeamViewer 6. And, until recently, the installation of a new version did not offer to uninstall the old versions. But TeamViewer is a mature product with a good team of programmers behind it; let's hope that they have already taken steps to prevent their products from being controlled by a malicious DLL.

I do like TeamViewer's method of "brute force" protection. [Exponentially longer waits before accepting another password guess. Although TeamViewer does not detail how they prevent that from being turned into a Denial of Service attack.] Remote Utilities claims to have protection against brute force and Denial of Service attacks, I just could not find any details about how they prevent such attacks so that I can decide if I think it is sufficient.

Remote Utilities is doing the same thing that TeamViewer. LogMeIn and other companies are doing: using the free labor of free users to perfect its product. Having a massive install base of free users gives these companies invaluable feedback on software conflicts, usage scenarios, configuration problems.... The free version of Remote Utilities is too limited for what I need, but it may work well for others. Unless I'm reading the feature set wrong, it appears that you cannot have multiple people connected to the same remote computer at the same time. Not many people need this, but I do.

conradsallian said:

~~~
Finally, there is also another great FREE alternative like LogMeIn Free.

I mainly use LogMeIn Free to restart a remote computer when TeamViewer has stopped responding. (Gasp, TeamViewer is not perfect, yet In fact, it is locked up right now on this laptop; I'll have to "end task" it. This is the first time I've ever seen it do that locally. But I have seen remote computers lose a TeamViewer connection and then refuse to accept a new one. Hence my suggestion to have more than one way to connect.

LogMeIn Free has some nice security features to prevent the wrong people from connecting, but it adds a video driver to the remote computer and this can cause problems. Also, the free version does not let you transfer files or boot into the safe mode and still connect. Remotely connecting to a computer that is in the safe mode is a nice feature of TeamViewer.

Alejandro85 said:

If you have the ability to open ports at the controlled computer, maybe the built-in remote desktop is a valid alterntive (not exactly "free" really, but comes include into the cost of Windows).

Another choice can be to use Hamachi (https://secure.logmein.com/products/.../download.aspx) to setup a VPN between the machines, then use just remote desktop or direct file sharing as if yuo were on the network. That doesn't require a forwarded port, and the extra encryption is always nice over internet.

Yes, the OP has W7 pro, but I'll go ahead and mention that only certain version of the Windows operating system allow for Remote Desktop Connections and the free version of Hamachi's VPN tool will not work well with Remote Desktop Connection unless the remote computer has a password AND is set to automatically log on using that password. The free version of Hamachi will not establish a connection to its servers unless a user is logged on.

It has been a while since I tested, but I think that disconnecting from a Remote Desktop Connection locks the computer in such a way as to cause the free version of Hamachi to disconnect the VPN session... so you cannot get back in.

Add to those problems the fact that the Hamachi VPN app has a tendency to turn itself off (especially on a computer that has come out of standby - but this can happen in other situations too). The support staff seems unwilling to work with me on this issue. And given the recent reduction in features for free users, I'm unwilling to give LogMeIn/Hamachi any more of my free time.

Version 1 did not do this; but version 2 does. I've seen this issue myself as well as in posts in their rather useless support forums. I've been using a script that I wrote to monitor Hamachi's status and to turn it back on and/or re-install the Hamachi service since that dies too. I have Hamachi installed on more than 40 computers and it has been a problem on each one of them at one time or another. I've been using Hamachi since before it was sold to LogMeIn (who ruined it).
/rant

DocBrown said:

I am a big user of TeamViewer. I have never had any problems with banner ads.

TeamViewer

I would not call it a banner (as conradsallian did), I would call it a popup and it causes me problems.

If I forget to use the work around to prevent this from showing on a remote computer, I can expect a call asking why it is there. Keep in mind that I'm working on friends' computers while they sleep. They contact me with a problem and I remote in and work on it when I can. These users just cannot seem to remember that this popup is normal... that it is not a problem.

The work around is to disconnect, reconnect, dismiss the popup, disconnect. As long as the connection is brief enough, the popup will not appear.


As popular as TeamViewer is on this forum, I've still not gotten a simple:
Yes, I see this too
or
No, TeamViewer works as expected
In this thread...
TeamViewer prompts for password during auto-reconnect
I've been too lazy to contact TeamViewer about it.
And it does not bother me that much, yet.
They woke me up the last time that they called me back :-(


@OP,
If you need unattended remote access (e.g. no one is present at the remote computer), then I would suggest TeamViewer and at least one other Remote Administration Tool - LogMeIn Free is a good second method of connecting. TeamViewer also has a free app for a smartphone... which will let you control the remote computer, but it is more useful to just be able to see what the remote user is seeing while talking them thru the clicks that they need to make. You might want a 7" phablet with a connection that allows for voice and data at the same time for that

If your goal is to help a remote user, then TeamViewer and LogMeIn are still good choices, but if you are controlling a remote computer where you might not want others to see what you are doing (e.g. working on a spreadsheet with personal financial data in it), then I'm not sure how to do that with these tools. Other forum members might know.

One final note: The folks at TeamViewer do monitor the connections to their servers. If they see several (maybe 6) computers connecting from the same IP address AND you use a TeamViewer account to connect to those computer - then your TeamViewer account is in danger of being flagged as being used for commercial usage. I've been thru this with charities that I support. The folks at TeamViewer have a narrow view of what non-profit usage is. I do not charge any of the organizations that I support. Anyway, LogMeIn is more charitable towards charities in their free version user agreements

You do not need a free TeamViewer account in order to use TeamViewer for free; but having one adds some nice things.