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Hey everyone!

Another LMI Central jumper here. Boy there are a lot of possibilities out there, but none seem to be the fit I really want. So here’s my wishlist, see if anything you are using comes close:

  1. If I don’t have to install anything on the management PC, that is good. LMI is great because as long as I have a web browser, I can manager my accounts. My preferred laptop runs Linux, so this made everything a snap. I can handle HAVING to download some sort of software, as long as it is readily available, but it is not the best way to go, as I may be at another client’s site, and I don’t like installing software on their PCs.

  2. Ability to let end users access their own PCs from home. I am just going to setup RDP for them I guess.

  3. When I take over their PC, I need to see what they are doing, so RDP for a management solution doesn’t work as it logs them out. I need to monitor what they are doing during a troubleshoot.

  4. Unattended maintenance. I need to be able to attach, and even power on, their PCs when they have left for the day.

  5. Ability to separate into groups, so I can break out PCs by clients. Makes managing so much easier!

I would love to hear some suggestions.

Thanks.

@GoTo

6 Spice ups
2

I just made the switch to ScreenConnect and have been very pleased with the results. You can manage your hosts from Linux or any other web browser. There is a client executable and I just checked and there is a Linux version.

Don’t know about number 2. You could buy more than one license for ScreenConnect and let them use that. Don’t know how many clients you have and how the numbers work out.

3 - you can see what they’re doing just like you sat down in front of their PC.

4 - it’s unattended for sure. Don’t think there is a way to power on remotely. Maybe Wake on LAN.

5 - haven’t been using it long enough to answer that. That was a nice feature in LogMeIn. I usually name my hosts like Acme - Accounting - Jane. It’s very easy to search in ScreenConnect but don’t know about the grouping.

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Take a look at Remote Utilities.

  1. You can install the Viewer module or use the portable version without installation (not to be confused with mobile version, which is also available). There’s no client for Linux though, but you may try the Wine path

  2. Each user can generate their own free 10-remote-PC license and access up to 10 remote PCs on their own. More about this in our blog post about Central vs. Remote Utilities .

  3. You connect to the same desktop as the user and no locking occurs. You can optionally blank the remote screen though.

  4. Unattended access is provided by the Host module. There’s also wake-on-lan feature.

  5. You can create groups in the address book in the Viewer.

Hope that helps.

4

Look at LiteManager solution.

5

You may also be interested using Lepide remote admin tool that is available free and allows IT Administrators to remotely administer single or multiple computers in the entire network simultaneously spread across multiple domains.

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We pay $499 for 100 computers with LMI Central Basic. So $4.99 a year per computer. Seeing as we pay almost $15 per year for antivirus I think that is a VERY fair price for a great product with the Central features (namely organization of computers, multiple sessions, unlimited techs and ability to give access to users per computer). No, I don’t work for LMI but I am getting tired of hearing everyone cry over the pricing. It is on par with every other decent product yet it offers superior features IMO. If the pricing is too high for you, then go use VNC with a proxy. It’s free and works.

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Hi Doug,

Splashtop Business for Remote Support could be the cost effective alternative to your LogMeIn Central (we actually have 10k+ logmeout refugee coming to us in past several months since LMI raised its price again)… Splashtop Biz for Remote pricing include free secondary user for remote access… you will see it’s much cheaper than LMI Basic, yet, our feature sets matches LMI Plus (ie., we include file transfer, HD performance…in fact, Splashtop is faster).

STB-RS-PricingChart.jpg

  1. Splashtop Business supports using your Chrome browser on Linux. (or any other platforms with Chrome browser). Then, Native clients are available for Windows, MAC, iOS, Android, etc…
  2. Splashtop Business for Remote Support offers easy configuration to enable remote access by end user, across any networks… RDP is more complicated where you might need to do port forwarding, etc…
  3. Splashtop Business allows configuration so remote session doesn’t break the local user using the computer
  4. Support unattended and WoL (assuming their PCs does connect to ethernet w/ WoL capaiblity)
  5. Support grouping

Give it a free test drive: Splashtop Remote Support | Computer Access & Management for MSPs

I’m here to answer any question.

@Splashtop

1 Spice up
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Sadly, I tried Splashtop. Connections were often impossible with some sort of “Failed to initialize video device” or some such thing. Never had these errors with LMI. And with a couple dozen clients, I can’t be running around to each machine and tweaking this “video device” thing.

Wound up staying with LMI, and just pushed a little more cost to my customers. LMI may suck as a company, but the product is easy and flawless to install and works…

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Hi Doug, surprised to hear the experience. When did you last tried Splashtop? There has been significant enhancements throughout the past year. The server video issue was resolved a while ago… Splashtop had been optimized for PC graphics acceleration and servers turned out to have weak graphics causing some issues. We have done a new architecture for server graphics now and should work well. Thanks for the feedback. We continue to work on improving the product.

1 Spice up