In my opinion Connectwise Control (formally screenconnet) kills Gotoassist with it's pinky!

[+Warwagon MVC]

A long time ago I subscribed to GoToAssist. I've been using it for many years. As of recently in my personal experience/opinion it's gone to ######.

 

Example

 

A customer installs GoToAssist opener, green bar goes all the way across then stops. Never installs. The customer then needs to be walked through uninstalling GoToAssist customer and then walked through installing it again.

 

When connecting to a customer, sometimes GoToAssist isn't running as a service. When you try to get it to run as one the screen goes black comes back and it's still not running as a service. GoToAssist then needs to be uninstalled and reinstalled

 

Sometimes 5 mins after I disconnect from a customer I go to reconnect only to find the GoToAssist icon on the desktop is there but it says The shortcut is broken. It then needs to be reinstalled.

 

I've created a thread about it on their support forum sent them logs from numerous machines which had this issue and also made a video showing the issue. I'm at my witts end. It's hard enough to get some unsophisticated user to install GoToAssist, let alone uninstalling and reinstalling it.

 

They also failed to renew a certificate (or something) which made the already Multi-Hundred installs I already had on customers machine not function without an uninstall and reinstall.

 

Another thing I Hate Hate HATE about GoToAssist and bitched a lot about was the fact that GoToAssist while fullscreen is ALWAYS on top of FRACKING EVERYTHING!!! So you would be full screen on a customer's machine. Then you would double-click a folder on another monitor of your computer and you couldn't find it. You would then have to de-maximize GoToAssist and move it out of the way to get to the folder behind it. All I asked for was a simple always on top checkmark box but it never came

 

As you can tell I'm not happy with them. So I'm looking for a replacement.

 

Thought about Teamviewer but I'm not a fan of the high cost and the fact that you have to pay for version upgrades. Plus that issue they had with people's machines getting logged into still makes me feel uneasy. They said it was from people reusing the same password, but I'm not sure if I buy that.

 

Thought about Log me in, but it's 2x the cost of GoToAssist.

 

Yesterday someone from Neowin recommended to me screenconnect (Thanks, Mark!). So I signed up for a 14 day trial and have been testing it out. This thing so far has blown me away. It has everything I've always wished GoToAssist had

 

Always on top on / off option
The ability to start a support session on one machine and reconnect to that session on another machine

Two-Factor Authentication

It's $120 Cheaper than GoToAssist (which blows my mind seeing how it does TONS more than GoToAssist)

 

So before I pull the trigger in 13 days (been using it for a day) I was wondering if anyone here has also tried and had any opinions on it?

 

Thanks

 

Pros of Screenconnect (connectwise)

 

1) Two-Factor Authentication

2) Unlimited Unattended Support sessions

3) The Support session is NOT always on top.

4) Allows you to create a support session on 1 machine and then leave it open and reconnect to it on another machine (For me personally this is the feature of screenconnect I LOVE the most.

5) Allows you to open each session on their own monitor.

6) Allows you to create your own keyword for them to use for the session

7) it's $120 cheaper than GoToAssist

8)Doesn't prompt the user for a name and support key, just a code. (I was constantly getting asked when giving a customer a support key, "What do I put in the name, my name or your name"? That was also after I told them "ignore the name"

9) Allows you adjust the quality of the support session all the way down to Low (Black and white) for really slow connections

10) VERY configurable

11) Can disable the customers mouse and keyboard while connected, for the ones that won't take their god damn hand off of the mouse. ( This feature is oddly satisfying.

 

Cons

 

Sometimes when you are connected to an unstable connection (usually with someone who has frontier) and the connection drops momentarily it doesn't reconnect as fast as GoToAssist.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Nevermind

[+Warwagon MVC]

Updated the thread

[sc302 Veteran]

Try logmein rescue. 

[+Warwagon MVC]

 

14 hours ago, sc302 said:

Try logmein rescue. 

 

 

Thanks, Sc302 ... I just looked up Log me rescue pricing. While it's a little cheaper than GoToAssist at the moment I'm LOVING screenconnect. I was just looking for other peoples opinions about it. Sort of like when you weed through the good and the bad reviews before buying:D

[sc302 Veteran]

I personally have not used it but some people like it. 

 

Using logmein rescue in a msp environment made it easy to connect to corporate customers and allowed me to run an in an elevated mode so that I could see and respond to all uac prompts without giving the user the local, tech, or domain admin passwords.  Not sure if screenconnect has that ability or if you needed that. 

[+Warwagon MVC]

44 minutes ago, sc302 said:

I personally have not used it but some people like it. 

 

Using logmein rescue in a msp environment made it easy to connect to corporate customers and allowed me to run an in an elevated mode so that I could see and respond to all uac prompts without giving the user the local, tech, or domain admin passwords.  Not sure if screenconnect has that ability or if you needed that. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

screenconnnect does run in an elevated mode which allows me to respond to UAC prompts. Screenconnect in the $540 premium subscription also allows for 1 tech (which is just me) unlimited amount of Access Agents (or as GoToAssist would call them people you can add to Unattended support) GoToAssist always said you could only have 100 but I always went way over that and nothing really ever happened.

 

I'm not going to try Logmein rescue as I'm loving Screenconnect but out of curiosity, I was wondering if you could tell me if logmein rescue allows a person to start a support session (a normal session not one permanently saved in a list) in one location and then move to a different location and reconnect to that same support session without having to recontact the customer to reconnect.

[sc302 Veteran]

I believe so, never had to switch machines during a session.  You could create a static session too so that you could connect anytime you choose, an hour later, a month later etc.  kind of how logmein pro works, you know for those problem users. 

 

If u are liking screenconnect pull the trigger. 

[TPreston]

We use SSTP to connect to the clients server and then Configuration Manager Remote Control to connect to the computer from there (All are domain joined) it works well and is free to us.

[+Warwagon MVC]

3 minutes ago, sc302 said:

If u are liking screenconnect pull the trigger. 

1

HA! That's the same words I used when a rep called me from the company yesterday asking me how I liked it. I told him I'm loving it and i'm going to wait and use the entire trial period but then more than likely pull the trigger.

[sc302 Veteran]

4 minutes ago, TPreston said:

We use SSTP to connect to the clients server and then Configuration Manager Remote Control to connect to the computer from there (All are domain joined) it works well and is free to us.

It isn't free, configuration manager remote control is part of sccm and that isn't free. Sstp is basically a vpn, which is free. 

[TPreston]

Just now, sc302 said:

It isn't free, configuration manager remote control is part of sccm and that isn't free. Sstp is basically a vpn which is free. 

It depends on your partnership its free to us.

[sc302 Veteran]

It depends on your partnership its free to us.

Not exactly sure if that is legal. Nor am I going to look into it. Usually free is for test/non production environments. I have never seen a free for partners in live/production environments. They paid something for production.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Last night I pulled the trigger on Screenconnect.

 

In my opinion and for what I use it for I think Screenconnect kills GoToAssist with it's pinky for $120 Less.

 

Thanks everyone!

[satukoro]

I only do remote support over our WAN, so I just use Microsoft Remote Assist ( msra /offerra ), then punch in the workstation number. It's simple and not that feature rich, but it's fast.

[xendrome]

22 minutes ago, satukoro said:

I only do remote support over our WAN, so I just use Microsoft Remote Assist ( msra /offerra ), then punch in the workstation number. It's simple and not that feature rich, but it's fast.

You mean LAN?

[sc302 Veteran]

You mean LAN?

Well he could mean wan if the network is interconnected through mpls or some other back end site to site network tech. Internet connected computers /= wan

Wide area network (wan) is usually used to describe connections to remote offices, not the internet. But marketing seems to like to make WAN an internet enabled port on a soho router. It isn't a WAN port, it is an "unsecured network" port.

[satukoro]

15 hours ago, xendrome said:

You mean LAN?

No I mean WAN.

[+Warwagon MVC]

What's great is this service also has Two-factor authentication .. people have been bagging GoToAssist for two-factor. Companies have been telling them "We need two-factor" and if you don't provide it will be going somewhere else, and to this day I don't think they support it yet.

 

What use to be great, is unattended support sessions always needed a second password just to connect to those, which was nice but then they even removed that feature.

 

 

[Mando]

17 hours ago, warwagon said:

What's great is this service also has Two-factor authentication .. people have been bagging GoToAssist for two-factor. Companies have been telling them "We need two-factor" and if you don't provide it will be going somewhere else, and to this day I don't think they support it yet.

 

What use to be great, is unattended support sessions always needed a second password just to connect to those, which was nice but then they even removed that feature.

 

 

im gonna have a lookie see, we use Logmein pro for remote offices that are not on our GWAN.

[T3X4S]

I just tried it, maybe I am just sleepy - but I found the handshake process very clumsy.

To me, it seems it would be complicated to try and get a non tech-savvy client to connect.

With Teamviewer, I just email them a link, and tell them to give me the User ID & Password - done.
I realize you said you didnt like the pricing options of Teamviewer though.  Its not cheap.

[+Warwagon MVC]

7 hours ago, T3X4S said:

I just tried it, maybe I am just sleepy - but I found the handshake process very clumsy.

To me, it seems it would be complicated to try and get a non tech-savvy client to connect.

With Teamviewer, I just email them a link, and tell them to give me the User ID & Password - done.
I realize you said you didnt like the pricing options of Teamviewer though.  Its not cheap.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, you just send them to (your chosen name).screenconnect.com and there is a giant join box in the middle. You just create a session with a name you choose (example with the word help) or they can create one for you. They then type in the word help (for this example, help) and click the arrow next to it and run the exe and BOOM! connected.

 

Always annoyed me with gotoassit is there was a name and support key box. They would always ask me"what do you want me to enter for the name, my name or yours". That's after I tell them to ignore the name and click in the support key box.

 

Well if you have a Test VM I can send you a session code and you could try to join it.

[T3X4S]

15 hours ago, warwagon said:

...

 

Well if you have a Test VM I can send you a session code and you could try to join it.

Next time I catch you online, I might do that.

I have a win7 , mint, and Server 2016 VM usually have at least 1 of them spinning.
I certainly would like to test it in that format.

After your OP, I created a trial account, "hosted" on my desktop and had my laptop connect - and messed around for a bit - but I must admit, I was quite tired last night...to the point where everything was confusing - damn you insomnia!

[Shiranui]

Just started reading this thread, and the product name has changed.

 

 

[+Warwagon MVC]

8 hours ago, Shiranui said:

Just started reading this thread, and the product name has changed.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes I see it's now switched to connectwise, at the moment my screenconnect page still works.

 

8 hours ago, T3X4S said:

Next time I catch you online, I might do that.

I have a win7 , mint, and Server 2016 VM usually have at least 1 of them spinning.
I certainly would like to test it in that format.

After your OP, I created a trial account, "hosted" on my desktop and had my laptop connect - and messed around for a bit - but I must admit, I was quite tired last night...to the point where everything was confusing - damn you insomnia!

 

 

 

I can imagine you were a little confused if you haven't had any sleep, if you dig down it gets very granular!