remote admin tools over the internet? [solved]

Reznik

I'm basically on call for family tech support, but I live in a different city from my parents. Also, they have Windows 10 and I do not. If I had access to their computer and could poke around I could fix things easily, but without Win 10 in front of me it's very difficult to direct them by phone (especially since they are not tech savvy to begin with).

Are there any good legit tools we could use so they can let me access their computer to fix things? That also would not leave them vulnerable to unauthorized access (or I guess not any more vulnerable than they already are). I have Win 7 on my main desktop if that makes a difference.

Shadowfire

A lot of folks recommend TeamViewer for what you're asking for. It shouldn't leave them vulnerable to others accessing the system unless they fall for a Microsoft scam call.

Basar

Shadowfire wrote: »

A lot of folks recommend TeamViewer for what you're asking for. It shouldn't leave them vulnerable to others accessing the system unless they fall for a Microsoft scam call.

+1

I've been using it for a long time and it just works great. It's free for personal use and you need the PIN to connect.

see317

I use LogMeIn for remote tech support for work.
It isn't free, but it does provide a lot of functionality for remote administration (forcing restarts, the ability to move files directly from one machine to another, command line access, etc...). If you're only supporting one or two machines, the yearly license works out to about 13 dollars a month.

I do use Team Viewer occasionally, but I like the extra functionality I get through LogMeIn.

Third option, Join.Me. It's essentially screen sharing software, but you can take remote control over the system (with a user on that end's permission) to do what you need to do. It does have a free option for small users.

Reznik

All that sounds great, thanks guys!

I'll give TeamViewer a shot first and then look into the others if need be.

Jeix

@Reznik Teamviewer was just in the news today for account security breaches, might want to keep an eye on that.

Reznik

I just saw that. Luckily I haven't downloaded it yet so I guess I'll be moving on to one of the other suggested programs first. Thanks for the heads up.

Aioua

FWIW the teamviewer hack might not be a hack at all, just a coordinated password guessing attack.

Assuming you don't leave the client running and you don't change the password from the random string you're probably fine.

Shadowfire

Aioua wrote: »

FWIW the teamviewer hack might not be a hack at all, just a coordinated password guessing attack.

Assuming you don't leave the client running and you don't change the password from the random string you're probably fine.

Yeah, the news has been around, but I haven't heard anything from security researchers yet.

urahonky

Aioua wrote: »

FWIW the teamviewer hack might not be a hack at all, just a coordinated password guessing attack.

Assuming you don't leave the client running and you don't change the password from the random string you're probably fine.

Sounds like people with 2FA are getting hacked too.

Aioua

urahonky wrote: »

Aioua wrote: »

FWIW the teamviewer hack might not be a hack at all, just a coordinated password guessing attack.

Assuming you don't leave the client running and you don't change the password from the random string you're probably fine.

Sounds like people with 2FA are getting hacked too.

yeah it's a gd mess, and we probably won't know what actually happened until it's all over

weirdly, the reason I like teamview is their quicksupport app, since all it does it accept a connection and shuts down when it's done, you don't have to install it or anything
most of the other options remote support require installs on both ends which is a pain and doubles your exposure

and you can set the actual installed client to shutdown on close, too, which I would recommend to everyone