I need to setup a kind of helpdesk at work. I am the only IT person on site, but have a CAD technition who helps me with AutoCAD related support. We have about 75 users.

A quick troll of Google revealed a product called Ilient SysAid. I have been running it all weekend in a test evironment (WXPP, W2k3Std, domain).

Features:

Free, gratis, no charge (Upto 100 users)
Deployment from central point
Asset Inventory with software lists (like that one)
Catalog of assets with purchase date, licenses and expiries.
Self-Help FAQ area
Web based (no iis or anything needed, its all self contained)
Built in VNC for remote support.
This one I like, screenshot on service request.
Doesn't need to run on a server. I'm testing it on a WXP client pc as the host.

Ok so that is the first one I find and I like it. Easy to setup (about 5 minutes after install), lots of useful features and the deployment is so easy.

The only niggle I have is that it only allows for 2 admins.

My question, though, is what other products should I look at? (please read the topic description befor posting). It should be easy to setup and maintain, and need not have to run on a server.

^ Dameware is nice, its not free but I've been using the Eval forever. Also, LANguard Security Scanner is nice, it scans for missing patches and also lets you deploy custom software, as long as its a DOMAIN enviroment. I am a Network Admin for a company as well, about the same amount of users as you...maybe we can help eachother out ?

Also, I went to the site for "Ilient SysAid" and it is not free? Where did you find it for free?

It's well hidden

http://www.ilient.com/free-help-desk-software.htm

Only 2 restrictions with the free version:

100 clients max.
2 Admins max. (although any client can be assigned a request to deal with, admins can change settings on the site)

BTW it uses Tomcat for the web sever. Very, very neat.

sweet im checking it out now!

I used to work in tech support and we used an application called HEAT:

http://www.serversys.com/heat/heat.html

http://www.liberum.org/

it's what we use at my college.(used to be tech support there) great and it's free and totally customisable

We use Helpbox from Layton Technology www.laytontechnology.com it works with either sql or access backend databases and is without doubt THE most customisable web-based helpdesk system ever. Admin users can add new fields and change form layouts etc easily all from within the web gui - awesome!! and reasonably priced too.

UKALFIE: Please could you read the heading of this thread. I'm looking for freeware. Helpbox would cost me £1000 + I would have to buy SQL (more £'s).

at toshiba we use GWI intergrated with lotus notes. its ok could be better, also we use remedy for the unix side.

http://www.gwi.com/websites/index.asp

Check out Cerberus @ http://www.cerberusweb.com . The helpdesk is very good and allows for multiple admins in the free version but only one incomming email.

Ahh yes....every IT admin would like enterprise helpdesk management software...and they want it to be free. Some people have a harder time then others grasping the concept of paying for software, but i'm not here to post on that.

I would suggest looking at http://www.liberum.org/ as posted above. I have used it before and its pretty good since you can customize it. That I think is it's most compelling feature.

I have no problem paying, and I'm not looking for an enterprise help desk either (<100 users). I came across this piece of freeware and thought it was good. But I wanted to check out others before going ahead with it. See what else is out there.

I spend a lot of my company's money on software every month. But I also use a lot of freeware (Skype, VNC, Apache, php, MySQL, Linux, Gimp, ........ ). I could just use email and telephone like I do now, and an intranet site for a knowlage base. I just don't have the skills to build my own automated system at the moment.

This company offers the product for free and as a purchased product. The purchased product doesn't suite my needs. They don't ask for any money or any details from you. I don't make any money off it or reduce any of the time I spend at work. In fact I spent a weekend testing it to see if it would work for me. My own time.

I am not trying to get around paying. I just, for this project, didn't want to shell out huge amounts of money to companies that offer similar products at over inflated prices, who have stop supporting versions just because you haven't shelled out more money to buy their updated version that fixes bugs that should have been covered in the first place. I have enough of that from Bill.

Thanks to all those who submitted suggestions. I am looking into them and also some that require payment. Although I am finding it hard to go to the director and say "This is a good package and its free, but I think we should get this other one that costs a few hundred. We don't want to be pigeon holed. And while we at it, lets take down the Linux server that we are running the intranet on and put in a brand new W2K3 server, it will only cost another few thousand. What's that? I'm getting a raise? Thank you boss."

Hi,

Thank you all for discussing this !

My name is Israel, I'm from Ilient and i would like to comment about our free version:

We develop and sell commercial product and also believe that you need to pay on software.

We found out that for a small company its almost impossible to purchase an enterprise help desk / inventory solution. If you have 1000 users , 8 technicians and a manager it is obvious that you need such solution. However if you a single admin serving 100 users you need to jump from problem to problem but the company will not let you good tools (and budget) to handle your IT.

This is the main reason for making the free version that have almost all of the full version features. Thousands of companies/schools/non-profit-orgs all around the world already taking advance of this version.

If you have any question/comment you can post it here or send me email using the form in Ilient site ( Is it safe to post email address here ? )

Best,
Israel

Ilient web site