Free Logmein Service Killed - What Else To Use?

JH
John Honovich
Jan 21, 2014
IPVM

LogMeIn is killing its free service/option.

What other option would you recommend?

For background, see our Remote Access Utilities review.

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Undisclosed
Jan 22, 2014

I've been using Teamviewer for several years and am happy with it. It's free for personal use, otherwise it costs for commercial purposes.

MI
Matt Ion
Jan 22, 2014

Using TeamViewer as well, have been for years, really like it. It's a bit spendy to buy the commercial version, BUT it's a one-time expense; all the similar services I looked at (including LMI) charge a monthly fee that ends up costing more very quickly.

BH
Bohan Huang
Jan 22, 2014
Teamviewer for adhoc once off. Google Chrome Remote Desktop for long term.
JH
John Honovich
Jan 22, 2014
IPVM

Bohan, thanks. Can you elaborate on Chrome Remote Desktop? I have not seen it before. It appears to be entirely free, yes?

Outside of giving the NSA full access to your PC (joke, sort of), are there any key technical limitations or issues?

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Kyle Folger
Jan 26, 2014
IPVMU Certified

I just converted all my personal LMI free accounts to Chrome Remote Desktop. Chrome must be installed on each PC. It doesn't have the complete functionality of LMI, but the feature I use the most is simply the remote screen control. CRD (Chrome Remote Desktop) works as a background service you must allow to have access to your computer. You must setup a PIN number to associate with each PC to be controlled. LMI shows me a login screen everytime I access, but CRD seems to let me in just with a PIN so I don't think it is as secure but for what I need it will work for now.

The largest benefit is the LMI Rescue equivalent where you can access any PC if the user has CRD installed and gives you an access code. LMI Rescue is expensive and isn't included with LMI Central. The downside is that you must have Chrome and CRD installed for it to function. At least both applications install quickly.

Most are upset about LMI because I believe they, unlike TeamViewer, didn't have a clause about using it for commercial use. I could be wrong, but that was my impression from my research yesterday. LMI let me know I have 6 months to convert.

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Alon Hasson
Jan 22, 2014

TeamViewer is the way to go (been using them for 4 years now). Easy to use/setup, no reoccuring payments and solid mobile app for most platforms.

JH
John Honovich
Jan 22, 2014
IPVM

For those recommending TeamViewer, one person mentioned that "[TeamViewer] doesn’t allow the PC to be unattended on the other end - not running as a service." Is that correct?

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Martin Griffin
Jan 22, 2014

John, TeamViewer allows for unattended access alright.

We currently use join.me which is owned by Logmein.

It is currently free for about 2~3 years (which could change) and we find it great as it is super easy for the customer to launch the program and give you the code. I would highly recommend Join.me.

We paid for TeamViewer about 5 years ago but after a while when a new version was released customers usually had the newest version installed which would not work with our old version which we paid for. The customer then had to download our special old version.

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Amos Wipf
Jan 22, 2014

Bomgar is very good. Can control anything you want. It is enterprise level and definately not free though.

AB
Alain Bolduc
Jan 22, 2014

Bomgar is extremely robust, but as Amos was saying earlier, it's an appliance-based tool and has a relatively high initial setup cost. All connections are secure and made and managed through the appliance. All that's required to use it on both ends is an Internet connection. It also doesn't require software to be pre-installed on the supported device and is multi-platform.

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Undisclosed Integrator #2
Jan 27, 2014

+1 for Bomgar. Yes, it's appliance-cased and has a high setup cost, but it works great.

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Sean Nelson
Jan 22, 2014
Nelly's Security

we use teamviewer as well but they have started kicking us off after 2 minutes due to suspected commercial use. the fee that they want is highway robbery. and plus if i have to pay again for an upgraded version as another poster mentioned then thats just lame.

JH
John Honovich
Jan 23, 2014
IPVM

Then you should not use it or use a competitor's product, if you do not think it's worth the price. From what you are describing, you are knowingly violating their terms and then blaming them (i.e., 'highway robbery').

GB
Galiena Boyajian
Jan 23, 2014

Miss the upvote button here. Analog upvote it is... ^

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Mike Dotson
Jan 22, 2014
Formerly of Seneca • IPVMU Certified

Our Customer Service department uses AMMYY...which still shows a free version on their web site.

JH
John Honovich
Jan 22, 2014
IPVM

Mike, thanks. I had not heard of Ammyy before. How does the licensing work? They charge per computer but is that computers initating it or how many you connect to?

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Max Shumeyko
Jan 31, 2014

We also use AMMYY admin.

Actually we at JVSG use their paid version, but they have a free plan as well.

Their free (non business) version allows 15 hours per month / 2 concurrent sessions.

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Michael Budalich
Jan 22, 2014
Genetec

I will post yet again in favor of TeamViewer. I have used that service for years and really have no complaints about it.

KL
Keefe Lovgren
Jan 22, 2014
IPVMU Certified

We use TeamViewer at our company and have no complaints about it. I think the price is fair for what you are getting back. Charge a remote configuration fee to your customers if necessary to cover your cost, you will pay for it in a short while.

JH
John Honovich
Jan 22, 2014
IPVM

Since so many have mentioned the pricing of TeamViewer, here's a pricing overview:

Business and premium only allow 1 session at a time. Corporate allows 3. If you want more simultaneous sessions, they charge $989 for each additional.

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Jon Swatzell
Jan 22, 2014
IPVMU Certified

We purchased a corporate TeamViewer license about 6 months back. Its an excellent service, the best low latency video streaming out of all the platforms we tested. Effective NAT traversal through both commercial firewalls and consumer gateway appliances.

We also encountered the gotcha Martin experienced, literally two months after we spent close to 3K for the package. Very disappointing as it really hurts the ease of use component. I had to put the old installer on tv.mydomain.com for quick browser access.

JH
John Honovich
Jan 22, 2014
IPVM

Jon, thanks. What does it cost to upgrade? I am just curious. I tried to look it up online but it won't show unless you enter in an existing license key.

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Jon Swatzell
Jan 22, 2014
IPVMU Certified

They offered us an upgrade (TeamViewer Corporate 8 to 9) for $499.50 and indicated that they release a new version every 12 - 15 months. Here's the email quote.

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Marty Major
Jan 23, 2014
Teledyne FLIR

Jon,

So they never mentioned the usability issues in their reply?

I don't see the reason to have an 'upgrade' if you are not introducing new functionality.... they are weakening their existing customers prior purchases (if I understand what you and Mr. Griffin are saying) and make you 're-buy' their (newer) product all over again to regain the usability that was key to your decision to purchase the original product?

Yeah, that kinda blows. :(

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Jon Swatzell
Jan 23, 2014
IPVMU Certified

Marty -

In my case we use Go-To-Assist as our primary support tool for customer remote sessions. They maintain a subscription model so www.fastsupport.com is always seamless. The TeamViewer product we leverage in Engineering for cases where we need optimal streaming for remote diagnosis. An example is trying to ascertain realized PTZ telemetry control latency before jumping in with wireshark to take a look at RTCP and lower level detail.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Jan 22, 2014

"Central customers will not be impacted by this change. They can continue to add free hosts and purchase as many host-level Pro subscriptions as they want.

LogMeIn Central

Please note that your Central subscription will renew at the tiered price, based on the number of Free computers in your account. "

This message applies to LMI Central subscribers. Source: LMI Rep.

AB
Alain Bolduc
Jan 22, 2014

With a base price of $299/year for up to 100 computer connections, that's still seems reasonable compared to some of the other options we've been discussing.

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Marty Major
Jan 23, 2014
Teledyne FLIR

Disregard below. I'm an idiot. :) you were referring to LogMeIn. duh.

"#6364253, Does this counter what Mr's Griffin and Swatzell are reporting? It's not clear."

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Kyle Folger
Jan 26, 2014
IPVMU Certified

Most have commented in forums and comments that they wonder how long that will be. We use Central, but it is marketed with LMI Free but Free is going away but not for Central. I'm sure it will change. Central went up in price a year or two ago.

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Harald Lutz
Jan 23, 2014
Kronfelder Videoloesungen • IPVMU Certified

Supremo

offers - like TeamViewer - free usage on personal use, and some annual pricing.

I'm personally working with it for a while, definitely worth a look.

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Undisclosed
Jan 26, 2014

We have been using Teamviewer for several years, with a paid license. As mentionned before, it is too bad that we cannot upgrade to newer versions unless we pay again. As we need to do technical support on computers that we sell, we install the same old version on those computers as they go out.

The downside of such a service is that you need the computer to have access to the Internet, and also, it must be in an environment where security rules are not too thight. In large companies, that kind of service is prohibited and if the service is found on the network, the actual port of that machine will be turned off.

When security rules do not permit Teamviewer (and all other web connections), we use VNC which requires configuration in the network, but it is much faster than Teamviewer, on the other hand it does not allow for file transfer unless you use Ultra VNC, but then, latency becomes a problem.

NR
Nick Riedman
Jan 27, 2014
IPVMU Certified

We use a product called ScreenConnect. I evaluated it against Teamviewer and it was a better fit for a corporate environment. Pricing is based per technician so you only have to purchase a few administrator licenses to take advantage of the full feature set.

JH
John Honovich
Jan 27, 2014
IPVM

Nick, thanks. Can you elaborate on why ScreenConnect was a 'it was a better fit for a corporate environment'?

btw, for those curious, here's the pricing for ScreenConnect, which looks less than TeamViewer;

NR
Nick Riedman
Feb 11, 2014
IPVMU Certified

I saw it as better because:

1) Licensing costs were much better when we evaluated against 250 users in our network. We only have 3 engineers so it was $900 vs. $1500

2) I get all the same remote features and unattended client access.

3) There were no limits on the number of attendees in meetings and remote (webinar like) sessions.

4) All web based and very easy to work with.

5) Tech support is great and very easy to contact. Different story with other vendors.

HL
Horace Lasell
Jan 28, 2014

The comments seem to universally recommend 3rd party HTML services. Does anyone use SSH coupled with SPA for secure network access?

FA
Femi Adegoke
Feb 03, 2014

TeamViewer does offer a month to month payment option (no contract needed)

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