EUROPE'S LARGEST IT MAGAZINE 18.11.2019 24 Solve PC problems professionally Remote Support Software Review PRODUCTS AnyDesk ISL Online pcvisit Remote Utilities RescueAssist SupRemo Teamviewer VNC Connect ISL Online Score EASE OF USE FOR REMOTE USERS FEATURES WWW.ISLONLINE.COM Excellent Good Passable Bad Very bad Reviews & Service | Remote Administration Image: Albert Hulm Long Reach Remote administration for experts Plenty of programs can be used to emote administration software, with the person who will be doing the work access other PCs remotely for assis- Rwhich an expert or an assistant can in the end. An important criterion for us tance, but not all of them are a useful access a remote PC to solve a problem when selecting candidates was therefore option for commercial users. We also there, might be aimed at a wide variety that even novice users should be able to found big differences in the ease of of target audiences. While some time get to grips with it as quickly as possible. ago we looked at solutions that are free That is, easily manage to download and use for the person seeking help. of charge for private customers and that start the connection tool, enter an access require mobile access apps [1], the focus code that they are given by the support this time is somewhat different: software technician, and then just send a few con- By Jan Schüßler that commercial users can use to help firmations that the expert is allowed to their customers. connect to the computer. By default, the At first glance, the market for such tool should not require any installation or programs is huge. However, not all prod- configuration. This eliminates Windows’ ucts are actually easy to use, especially for own remote desktop connection and VNC 114 © Copyright by Heise Medien c’t 2019, issue 24 Remote Administration | Reviews & Service products that are not capable of connect- mote maintenance for various corporate from which the customer downloads a ing across NAT boundaries and therefore or private customers and perhaps employ connection tool. Some providers have require a VPN. Google’s Chrome Remote a small numberof people. special landing pages where the customer Desktop is also eliminated - it requires a seeking help simply downloads the tool Google Account. In addition, at least the The Candidates and sometimes must even enter an access customer side of the software should of- With these criteria in mind, eight prod- code given to him by the technician. Al- fer a German language interface. ucts made it into our test field: AnyDesk, ternatively, some clients allow the techni- For the technician or service provid- ISL Online, pcvisit, Remote Utilities, cian to send an invitation email. er, functions such as connection logging LogMeIn RescueAssist, Nanosystems Su- for later billing are a welcome addition. pRemo, TeamViewer and VNC Connect Granting Access As is the possibility of being able to call on from RealVNC. The connection is established by enter- manufacturer support if problems arise. From a technical point of view, such ing a numerical code, usually eight to In contrast to our last comparison software consists of two parts: a host, twelve digits long, which, depending on for private customers, some available fea- also called a server, and a client. Contrary the provider, is either communicated by tures are not as important. For example, to what the names might suggest, the the customer to his technician or vice because a professional technician usually host is the piece of software that receives versa. The customer may then have to ac- carries a decent enterprise laptop with the remote access connection, so it runs cept a UAC query to allow access to the him when he’s on the road, we consider on the computer of the person seeking screen and to give the remote expert con- the availability of client apps for Android help. Because this software often runs at trol over his system. and iOS to be optional. It can help in an the client (as in the client of the support The providers handle these permis- absolute emergency, but is not an essen- company), some manufacturers confus- sions differently. In the standard config- tial criterion. That’s why we look to see ingly refer to this as the client module. uration, AnyDesk, RescueAssist and VNC if such apps are available and test them On the other side, the expert uses the Connect do not run with admin privileg- briefly, but don’t put them through their client program, sometimes also called a es; the technician can request them with a paces in earnest. For commercial custom- viewer, to access the system of the person single click, which requires the customer ers, it is also irrelevant whether they can seeking help. Some manufacturers strict- to interact again - he has to approve the use the product free of charge indefinite- ly separate host and client into different privilege escalation on his end with a UAC ly - most products exclude business use software packages, in other cases both query. In the case of pcvisit, the standard from their free offers. functions are contained in one program. administrator rights lead to a somewhat Enterprise customers have other re- Sometimes both options are available, strange situation: If the technician wants quirements on top of this, such as the pos- such as with Team Viewer, where the to set up permanent, unattended access, sibility of having software automatically standard program includes both features, a dialogue asks the customer whether he rolled out and configured for hundreds or but a simple QuickSupport module is also wants to allow this process - which the even thousands of workstations via group available for inexperienced end users. technician can simply agree to himself. policies. This also isn’t our focus here - The usual procedure for a remote AnyDesk is the only provider whose our target audience are independent IT admin connection is that the technician solution allows the customer to deselect supporters who regularly carry out re- first provides his customer with a URL various permissions (input, sound, ses- LogMeIn’s RescueAssist runs entirely within the browser - handy if you often switch the device you are helping other people from. c’t 2019, issue 24 © Copyright by Heise Medien 115 Reviews & Service | Remote Administration sion recording, etc.) before allowing the connection. Features Beyond mere remote access, the candi- dates in question offer a varying degree of additional features. Chat functions, a module for file exchange and a shared clipboard are standard, but only Any- Desk, ISL Online and TeamViewer can AnyDesk ISL Online move files back and forth. A function that sends the key combination Ctrl+Alt+Del Prices for AnyDesk start at around The entry-level price for the remote can also be very helpful. All candidates of- 100 euros per year for the basic administration solution ISL Online fer it, but it did not work with AnyDesk package (one user with one simul- from Slovenian provider XLAB is 95 (button grayed out) and RemoteUtilities taneous session). For 200 euros euros per year. In return, the custom- (no effect). per year, the Professional rate is er gets a licensing package with 500 More rarely seen is the ability to available: This conveys the right to minutes of connection time - ten min- draw something on the remote screen use the software on any number of utes per week - which are billed by (AnyDesk, ISL Online, TeamViewer, VNC devices. One simultaneous session the minute and can also be used for Connect), an option to send session invi- is included; each additional session several simultaneous connections. If tations by mail (ISL Online, pcvisit, Res- costs an additional 100 euros per you pay 339 euros a year, there are cueAssist, TeamViewer) or video telepho- year. Also included are session log- almost no restrictions - but only one ging including a REST-API, central simultaneous session is allowed. You ny features (ISL Online, TeamViewer). deployment and white label custo- may pay 99 Euro on top for an un- Surprisingly, not all candidates offer the misation (add a company logo, de- limited number of simultaneous con- option to save sessions as video files - it is activate incoming or outgoing con- nections - but per workstation. Large missing in SupRemo and VNC Connect. nections). If you pay 500 euros per customers can also purchase licens- With pcvisit, the recordings are made in year, you get a universal license for es for self-hosting the software. Flash format - in 2019 this seems almost any number of simultaneous ses- ISL Online makes it easy for the like a joke. sions. All price models are annual person seeking help: After going to a Only ISL Online, LogMeIn and Re- contracts. dedicated landing URL and entering alVNC operate dedicated landing pages If a client attempts to estab- an eight-digit key, the user down- where end users can download the remote lish a connection, the software not loads the ISL Light Client (which is maintenance program easily. With Any- only asks the user in front of the technically the server). After the soft- Desk, pcvisit and SupRemo, the programs target PC for permission, but also ware has been started, the rest of the can be downloaded directly from the reg- which permissions he wants to connection is set up automatically. ular homepage of the manufacturers with grant - individual functions such as The user only needs to agree to a one click. With RemoteUtilities, the user file transfer, shared clipboard, ses- UAC request. To set up unattended must first click through to the download sion recording and remote control access, however, the full ISL Light page and then download one of the three can be prohibited.