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Enterprise IT Planet
- EIT Planet Staff
Jul 27, 2006
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Laplink RemoteAssist is a tool that allows a Windows-based help desk technician to connect to and troubleshoot a remote Windows PC. While connected, the technician can use their own mouse and keyboard as if they are at the remote PC; and an additional "Remote Desktop Mode" allows the technician to actually login to the remote PC itself for extended capabilities. Both the technician's and the remote PC must be Windows 2000/XP/2003 machines; for Remote Desktop Mode support the customer's PC must be Windows XP Pro or Server 2000 / 2003.
To use the utility, the technician first installs and loads the RemoteAssist application on their own PC. They then open a new session, and verbally instruct the customer (E-mail, chat, phone, etc.) to connect to the vendor's Web site where they (the customer) can download the necessary programming component to their PC. The customer's PC requires no additional or pre-existing software components before downloading the tool. Once the user has downloaded and activated the remote component, they (the customer) enter a password--which is generated and supplied by the technician--to facilitate the actual connection between the technician and the customer. The technician then completes the connection by choosing a connection mode: Remote Screen Sharing, which allows the technician and the customer to control the customer's mouse and keyboard; or, if the technician has administrative access to the remote PC, Remote Desktop mode, which allows the technician to log into the customer's PC (via MS RDP). When in Remote Desktop Mode, the customer's account is locked until either the tech or the customer terminates the session.
Communications between the customer and technician are protected via SSL (128-bit). Features available to the technician include the ability to logoff the server while leaving the support session open (so that, for example, a new technician could login into the same PC and continue assisting the customer); transfer files to or from the remote PC; and open an unlimited number of new sessions and support multiple users simultaneously. Session logging capabilities are available to both the technician and the customer.
According to the vendor, the product is able to work through firewalls on both the customer and agent side of the session; and when the session is ended "no trace" of the session is left on the technician's computer (here a "session" is defined as the remote control connection itself; the logging information described above does remain on the technician's computer).
Licensing for the product is for annual use and is based on the number of technicians requiring access; each technician can support an unlimited number of customers. For the standard edition, in which the server component is hosted by the vendor, pricing is $750/year per technician (with volume discounts available). Also available are a Premium Edition, which enhances the product with Laplink Gold functionality (including support for remote access to unattended machines, system snapshots, remote reboot, and remote/local synchronization features); and an Enterprise Edition, which allows the organization to self-host the platform in single or multi-server configurations (with up to 50 concurrent sessions supported per server).
Contact Laplink Software for further information.