Free Remote Support Software

October 10, 2007

remote control support

Many businesses benefit from remote support software which enables IT departments and computer support companies to resolve computer issues. For businesses that are big enough to have a central server, this can be achieved easily with little expenditure using software like VNC or Remote Desktop. Smaller businesses typically need to purchase software like Log Me In or Go To Assist. That was until CrossLoop came on the scene.

CrossLoop is an ideal solution for businesses:-

  • That don’t have a central server
  • Don’t want to mess around with router configurations
  • Require a secure connection
  • More than one PC in their network
  • Require remote support while out of the office
  • Don’t have a static IP address provided by their ISP (As a business you will benefit from having a static IP address)
  • or are not willing to purchase remote support software

CrossLoop does have a couple of disadvantages over other paid solutions. Such as, you can’t transfer files (now comes with file transfer!) and you need someone else to confirm access code at the other end. Although with one of my clients, I prefer this level of security because of the nature of the sensitive information they deal with.

How does remote support software work?

Here is a quick explanation of how remote control software works in businesses that have server and those that don’t.

how remote support software works with businesses that have a central server

Think of the server as a secretary that re-directs your telephone calls to the correct person (computer) within the business.

how remote support software works with businesses that don't have a central server

For businesses that don’t have a secretary (server), the computer support company needs a virtual secretary (CrossLoop, Logmein etc) to assist them with the location of the person (computer) to whom they are connecting to.

How to use CrossLoop

Here is Terinea’s quick guide to using CrossLoop.

  1. Download and install CrossLoop, from
    http://www.CrossLoop.com/download.html
  2. Run CrossLoop - requiring remote assistance. Alternatively if you’re joining a hosted CrossLoop session jump to step 3.
    1. If you’re requiring remote assistance, click on the HOST tab and provide the person connecting to you with the Access Code.
      crossloop host tab
    2. Once they have the access code, press “Connect” and wait for them to connect.
      waiting for connection, crossloop
    3. Once the connection has been made, you will need confirm by clicking on Yes.
      confirm connection crossloop
  3. Run CrossLoop - joining a hosted CrossLoop session - Providing support.
    1. Click on the JOIN tab and enter the access code provided by your friend (HOST).
      image
    2. Click connect and wait for the host to confirm connection (Step 3 Above)
      image
    3. After a couple of second the process should be complete, enabling you to control the remote computer
      Crossloop connected

File Transfers and more

Alternatively you can watch an eight minute video that explains the process in more detail, although I prefer Robert Scoble video below. It is also worth visiting CrossLoop’s excellent user guide page that explains the process in more detail, including how to transfer files. I have also made this page available as a PDF.

CrossLoop, Windows Vista and Windows Defender

Windows Defender and Crossloop

When using CrossLoop on Windows Vista, a screen a like above may appear, click on the Ignore button. Windows Defender seems to think its some type of spyware. I can re-assure you, it isn’t!

To stop this from happening again, click on Start bar (Windows logo) > Control Panel > Security > Windows Defender. Under Review potentially unwanted items, click on Review items detected by real-time protection. Once the screen below appears select Always Allow from Action and then Apply Actions.

crossloop window sdefender

What remote access software do you use?

Author: Support @ 6:21 pm
Tags: , , , ,
Category: Downloads, Network and Security, Windows



Fixing Computers for Beer!

September 20, 2007

416610_3644 

Like most people involved with computer support, my first experience began when fixing PC’s for friends and family. Usually this resulted in payment with free beer, not bad when you where 17! Ten years later I still find myself fixing friends and family computers.

So here is quick guide to what I would install on a personal PC, maybe one you’ve formatted and re-installed Windows because it was running very slow. I say personal PC because AVG Anti-Virus Free version can’t legally be used in business without paying for the commercial version.

  1. Partition and format the drive into two. One for the Windows System and the other for files and documents. That way you can wipe Windows without losing your files.
  2. Install Windows XP and configure
  3. Install hardware drivers
  4. Install service packs if required (SP2 for full wireless capabilities)
  5. Run Windows updates, twice only
  6. Install Microsoft Office if required, other wise install free Open Office
  7. Run Office updates and enable office and window updates to download together 
  8. Install Firefox, make sure you rename the shortcuts as “Internet” else they will hunt down IE and start using it again.
  9. Thunderbird for Email
  10. Install AVG Anti Virus and AVG Spyware - Free Versions 
  11. Enable Firewall and Windows Updates (Set as download and install at shutdown only)
  12. Install 7zip for zip files and other compressed files, an excellent free alternative to WinRar and WinZip
  13. Install CrossLoop for remote support
  14. Install Foxit, lightweight alternative to bloated Adobe PDF Reader
  15. Install VCL Player, multimedia player for various audio and video formats
  16. Install iTunes if they have a iPod
  17. Install CCleaner and clean up the installation files left from windows updates
  18. Run Defrag
  19. Maybe install some type of free Online Backup Service

Family PC

image

If the computer is for Family use, make sure you read Improving Windows XP for Families  by Robin our Managing Director.

What software do you install on your friends and family PC’s?

 

Author: Support @ 11:00 am
Category: Downloads, Geeky Stuff, Open Source, Windows



Extending Window Live Writer Features

September 18, 2007

windows live writer

I’m a great fan of Window Live Writer, but sometimes I feel its missing one or two features that could make my day-to-day blogging life easier. Luckily Windows Live Writer features can be extended in a similar way to Firefox .

Before you install any plugins make sure you have the latest version of Windows Live Writer as many new features have been add since the first release last year.

  1. Acronyms - Although I do my best to avoid jargon sometimes you need to use acronyms for things like HD, CRM , TB etc. Instead of having do the following, TB (TeraByte), you can just hover over the acronyms and tooltip should appear.
  2. blog this
    Blog This for Firefox -  A Firefox add-on that adds a button to the browser, that when pressed pre-populates WLW with the web page content.
  3. file upload with WLW
    Insert File(s) - Allows you to upload files (none images) to your blogging platform, instead of using FTP client.
  4. flickr
    Flickr4Writer - Integrate your Flickr services into your blog posts
  5. image
    del.icio.us bookmark plugin - Integrate your bookmarks from your delicious account.
  6. Website Capture Plugin - Create small screen shot image of a website by providing website address.
  7. AdSense Code Drop In - This plugin allows you to easily insert AdSense code straight into your blog post.
  8. image
    Insert Code for Windows Live Writer - This plugin allows your code (programming code or markup language) to maintain its format as it would appear in a editor.
  9. image
    Insert Symbol Plugin - Make inserting symbols into your blog posts an easier task.
  10. image
    Template Plugin - Start your blog post with a pre-written template.
  11. image
    Text Template - Similar to the Template Plugin that allows snippets of code or regular text to be quickly inserted into your blog post.

You can also find more plugins for Windows Live Writer at…

Windows Live Gallery

and

Windows Live Writer Plugins

 

Author: Support @ 8:00 am
Category: Downloads, Geeky Stuff, Windows



Waiting for Microsoft, Windows Server 2008

September 4, 2007

Another operating system, another delay….

Microsoft has now pushed back Windows Server 2008 release to manufacturing to the first quarter. Release to manufacturing had been expected by the end of this year. The change foreshadows that the new server software will not likely be broadly available for its scheduled Feb. 27, 2008 launch.

Come on Microsoft, I’ve a small client with five machines running Windows Vista and Office 2007, with plans to be ten next year. It would be a shame not to deploy Windows Server 2008 which is optimised for the latest desktop and office products. I really don’t want to install 2003, nor do I want the network to fall over because the work group has hit the 10 concurrent share limit.

So here are some pointers if your planning to roll out 2008 next year

image

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/server/windows_server_2008_delayed_again.html

Author: Support @ 8:00 am
Category: Business, Windows



Improving Windows XP for Families

August 14, 2007

the family computer

Now you’d think that ‘Windows XP Home’ would have been created to do what it says on the tin, be a system tailored for home users, in particular families with kids! Unfortunately without downloading a rather simple and free application from Microsoft, Windows XP is rather a poor offering.

In a family you would expect there to be a range of ages and that for some of the people using the computer you would want to restrict from being able to do things. ie. Not being able to install new programs, but it would be nice if they could run programs that had been installed - wouldn’t it?   Well what a nightmare that can become when you’ve got kids!

The Family PC

You set up your PC, give everybody their own login account, that way little Billy can’t get upset when little Maisie changes the desktop background to a pink puppy. Each of the kids are set to be a ‘Limited Account’ whilst Mum, Dad or both are setup as ‘Computer Administrators’, that way Mum or Dad can install programs and then the kids can play them, right? Wrong! Unfortunately there are a whole load of games out there that the kids are going to want to play and they are not going to work unless they are started as by an Administrator which could get to be a bit of a grind when the kids are changing from one game to another and constantly harassing Mum or Dad to come and start the program for them. Not only are Mum and Dad going to get thoroughly fed up but also the kids are going to learn that computers are not very user friendly. Why they can go and use their playstation or DS and it’s easy!

Windows SteadyState

Windows SteadyState There is no easy way around this in Windows XP, there are no nice easy little settings to go and set to make things run as you would want them to run. But there is something else that you can download, for free, and it’s quite easy to setup. What is it? It’s called Windows SteadyState which supercedes a product called ‘Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit’. Just download it, install it and then run it. 

 

Windows SteadyState You can set the kids accounts back to being ‘Computer Administrators’ but you can now use this tool to limit what they can do. I would recommend that you set the kids accounts back to being ‘Computer Administrators’ before using the tool. The basic settings that I have found have worked to begin with are to set the settings to ‘Medium restrictions’ for both the ‘Windows restrictions’ and ‘Feature restrictions’ tabs for each of the kids accounts. You have the option to fine tune these settings in the right hand panel on each of these tabs.

Some other uses for SteadyState

Wait, its not just for families…

In the classroom

Classrooms and computer labs can offer groups of users a consistent and reliable computer learning environment more efficiently, while increasing the productivity of the teaching staff.

In an Internet café

Internet cafés, kiosks, and other businesses offering commercial access to shared computers can help increase customer satisfaction while reducing computer down time, administrative costs, and total cost of ownership.

At the library

Libraries and community technology centers can help protect computers against tampering cost effectively. They can customize shared user profiles to meet the needs of different patrons.

I hope that this will help some of the people out there that have been struggling with Windows XP’s lack of built-in easy to use features that would help it do what it says on the tin.

Robin

 

Author: Support @ 8:00 am
Category: Network and Security, Windows



12 Ways to backup your data

August 8, 2007

image

Everyone knows backing up your documents and files is something we should do on a regular basis, but quite often this task gets pushed to the bottom of the todo list. You might already have a system in place but would it fail if your office was in a fire? When was the last time you checked your backup’s actually work?

Over the coming weeks I will cover a range of topics on backup solutions to make your life easier. This weeks post is about the various types of backup solutions currently available. 

Still not convinced you need to read this post? Check out the story behind the picture above!

  1. Online
    Online backup is quickly becoming the most popular form of backup for individuals and small businesses. A backup program constantly monitors your document and files. Any changes to these files are copied, compressed, encrypted and then uploaded to the backup solution provider via your internet connection. 
    Example : http://www.jungledisk.com/
  2. Local and Online
    One of the draw backs to online backup is what happens when you need to recovery all your data quickly. Even with 8MB broadband connection it can take well over an hour to download one gigabyte of data. Some companies provide you with a small backup machine that takes a local backup and then uploads. If your data is lost you can restore it from the backup box. If your server and the backup box are destroyed the service provider will send an engineer on site with a replacement box with a copy of your data that was last updated.
    Example : http://www.datafort.co.uk/datafort_deluxe.asp
  3. Backup Media

    Tape technology has been around for over 50 years and is still widest used form of backup for businesses. Although the initial outlay can be expensive, tape drives still offers the quickest and cheapest way to backup large amounts of data. Currently the largest capacity tape is around 800 GB, but if you need something bigger, a tape library system can combine a series of tapes to provide a massive 80TB (80,000 GB’s) of data. Tape backup solution also provides an easy and cheap way to archive large amounts data for legal requirements that many businesses face. A typical tape solution will start from £300 ($600) and with tapes cost anything from £5 ($10) upwards depending on the capacity. 
    http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/storage/tape/ts3100/index.html

    CD/DVD media are generally quicker and cheaper than tape technology. Although the average business will backup well over 8.5 GB capacity of DVD media can currently handle. Yeah you can span data over multiple CD/DVD’s but as I will mention next week, Keep it simple. You might want to consider DVD media for monthly archiving for a companies that utilise an online backup system.

    HD-DVD and Blu-Ray media is another option that offers up to 50 GB of storage, but until the technology matures I wouldn’t consider this viable backup solution just yet.
    http://www.blu-ray.com/ | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD

  4. Peer to Peer, online backup 
    Another online backup solution is Peer to Peer or P2P technology. Your data is encrypted, compressed, split into many bits and then uploaded to multiple locations all over the world. You can backup as much data as you’d like, but for every megabyte you want to save you need to provide another ten megabytes of space on your local PC for other people’s backups. In principle your data is backed up ten times!
    Academic Paper : http://www.mit.edu/~cbatten/work/pstore-tr02.pdf
  5. Peer to Peer, local backup
    Instead of your data being distributed all over the internet the same concept can be applied by using spare hard drive space available on your desktop machines within your business network. 
    Example : http://www.peersoftware.com
     
  6. Backup Buddies 
    Similar concept to P2P backup, but instead of backing up to multiple anonymous locations, you and a friend backup each others data over the internet. Again your data is secured through encryption, compressed and transferred via your broadband connection. You can have more than one backup destination which can be a local PC, another PC over the internet or you can use solution providers servers.
    Example : http://crashplan.com/
  7. Portable Storage 
    USB hard drives and keys are one of the most common forms of backup for individuals and small businesses. Most operating systems come with some type of backup software that allows you to automate the process.
  8. Internal Hard Disk
    Exactly the same as the portable storage but the hard drive is inside the computer. Such a solution can often be cheaper, offer greater speeds and can configured for disk mirroring (RAID technology).
  9. Network Attached Disk (NAS)
    NAS drive are very similar to your USB drive with the added advantage that they don’t require USB connection to your machine. Instead, you connect them to your network and set them up as a mapped network drive on your machine. All users of the network (Linux, Mac, Windows) can place data on this storage space. This type of storage offers small businesses an excellent backup solution. Prices start from as little £100 ($200) for 200GB capacity NAS drive.
    http://www.whatpc.co.uk/personal-computer-world/features/2166311/living-nas
  10. Storage Area Network (SAN)
    Similar system to to NAS drives aimed at backup Terabytes (1000’s GB) of data for large enterprises.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storage_area_network
  11. Shadow Copy
    Some operating systems such as Windows Vista allow you to enable a feature called Shadow Copying. The system takes snapshots of your files when changes are made to them. This allows you can roll back to pervious version of a documents and files without the need to implement the recovery process from your backup solution. This should be in addition to your backup solution, not the backup solution!
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_copy
  12. Offline Synchronisation
    The operating system takes a complete copy of all the files available on your shared network drive. When your away from the office or your file server is unavailable you can continue to working on your documents and files. When your network drive becomes available again your files are synchronise back to the file server. Again like the Shadow Copying this should be in addition to your backup solution.
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312171

 

Author: Support @ 8:00 am
Category: Apple, Business, Geeky Stuff, Hardware, Network and Security, Windows



Plan your projects using Mind Mapping software

July 31, 2007

mind map software

Last night I was speaking to one of my clients about their ideas for software system they would like developing. Although my client had done an excellent job of laying out her ideas using Excel and Word, I feel that actually with all it’s features Microsoft Office had let her down.

Yeah you can use some of the organisational charts in Word and PowerPoint, but they lack certain features and to be honest, not very inspiring from a creative point of view. Microsoft does have a program called Visio which is very good, but again I feel it could be a little more inspiring, easier to use for non-technical users and then there’s the price, £200 for the standard version and £400 for the Professional!

Mind Mapping

An alternative application which might of helped my client when planning her software system could of been Mind Mapping Software. You start with a centralised idea and branch out ideas and as you formulate your project the map grows. The idea is not be accurate or too formal, just a quickly way to get your ideas recorded. 

image

There are a number of commercial applications such as MindManager and IMindMap, but I would suggest you start off with FreeMind an open source Java based program than can run on Windows, Linux and Mac.

image

Just recently I came across Mind42 which is an online Mind Mapping application that runs via your web browser. Once you have produced your map you can then import it into other Mind Mapping programs, Microsoft Word or insert it into your website or blog. You can also invite other people to collaborate with you while you develop the map. If that’s not enough Mind Mapping software, check out peterussell.com.

I should of mentioned these two programs in last months post, “Plan Your Website, Save Money and Time” as this would proven useful way to map out your website.

Your Apps

What planning/project/sketch-up programs do you use? Are there programs that you get your clients to use because it gently guides them to think in a more systematic approach?

Update

Mindomo Is another online Mind Mapping Software, thanks to Greg for this one

Author: Support @ 8:00 am
Category: Apple, Downloads, Open Source, Windows



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