Favorite Software For Remotely Supporting Video Surveillance Systems

By: IPVM Team, Published on Feb 07, 2018

Being able to remotely support video surveillance systems is important both to reduce costs (eliminating truck rolls) and for expediting problem-solving. There are a variety of applications and services available to facilitate report support.

150+ integrators told IPVM what they use and why. 5 options were most cited, in alphabetical order, GoToAssist, LogMeIn, RDP/VPN, ScreenConnect, TeamViewer. However, the 1st place choice received more votes than the other 4 combined.

See our statistics and analysis inside.

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#2 - *******

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#4 - **********

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Comments (35)

Luis Carmona

IPVMU Certified | 02/07/18 01:52pm

Maybe doesn't generate the comments more controversial topics do, but great information none the less as a "box of tools" resource for support services.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Luis Carmona | 02/07/18 01:59pm

Luis, thanks! We have 5 - 10 posts like this still in the queue. Right now, with all the acquisitions and related fallout, we are holding some back. I am betting a week or so from now, those things will die down and we will be back to more tech topics.

Luis Carmona

IPVMU Certified | In reply to John Honovich | 02/07/18 03:02pm

And don't get me wrong, the controversial topics can be interesting and informative too, if sometimes sad. Like a train wreck. But a cool train wreck....... It's a guy thing. :)

Undisclosed Integrator #1

02/08/18 01:37am

We use Remote Administrator www.radmin.com its very good :)

Phil Stewkesbury

02/07/18 03:09pm

We use Splashtop SOS

Feature rich, works well, good value ($199pa/technician) and lots of ongoing development.

Also, very simple for the end-user (you can even re-brand with your logo & instructions to avoid end-user confusion/fear).

Jon Dillabaugh

Pro Focus LLC
In reply to Phil Stewkesbury | 02/07/18 06:03pm

Phil, I as well, use Splashtop. I, however, use the non-SOS version, which is less costly, at $60/tech/yr.

Seth Walker

In reply to Jon Dillabaugh | 02/15/18 11:36pm

x3 for Splashtop. Surprised no mention of it above.

On another note, glad to see LogMeIn at the bottom of the list after they screwed their loyal customers over.

Ethan Ace

IPVM | In reply to Seth Walker | 02/15/18 11:37pm

Jon was actually the only person in the survey to mention Splashtop. I'm surprised more people aren't aware of it. We at IPVM actually use it internally to access all our machines.

When we first started using it, it was a bit painful switching from LogMeIn. It was kind of clunky and slow. The updates in the past year improved things greatly, though. I have few complaints, now.

Seth Walker

In reply to Ethan Ace | 02/15/18 11:42pm

Same boat. It was quite a feat moving all my users over, but in the end it was definitely worth it. It's a pleasure to work with their support and the fact that they will implement your suggestions to upcoming updates is impressive. I can't wait for more MSP type options to come to the platform.

John Scanlan

IPVM | IPVMU Certified | In reply to Ethan Ace | 02/16/18 03:20pm

Agreed, and the mobile app provides solid remote access too. The image below is my iPhone connecting to a Windows 10 / Exacq machine:

Undisclosed Manufacturer #2

02/07/18 03:22pm

I love the tried and true Team Viewer (even though team sounds like teen on the phone and may cause some concern), however, the restriction on commercial use, even when I use it for personal use and it flags my machine....

I have been using AnyDesk, which is almost the same....

I love programs that have portable versions that don't install on the machine (unless you need it...).

Scott Sheldrake

02/07/18 03:36pm

One huge advantage Teamviewer has is support for Linux. 90 per cent of our systems run Ubuntu Linux and we never have to worry about remote support. Lack of Linux support in a remote access tool is a deal breaker for us.

Lasse Sørensen

02/07/18 04:09pm

You all really need to try Pulseway. It is a lifesaver, not only a RDP client, but also offers Ping respons alarms, service down alarms, CPU max alarms, HDD space alarms, and a lot more alarm features. Slack integration, Kaspersky integration I could keep on all day.

And a really nice mobile APP.

I have been using it for 5 years now, and I havn’t seen any downtime ore other fails to connect to the 35 connected servers.

/Lasse

Undisclosed Integrator #3

In reply to Lasse Sørensen | 02/07/18 04:28pm

We tested Pulseway, not for remote support but for systems monitoring, and found it was very powerful concerning the information it was able to collect. However I found it woefully weak on reporting capabilities, especially email alerts that were nothing more than generalized information, which was very important to us.

Joshua Hendricks

Milestone Systems
In reply to Lasse Sørensen | 02/08/18 12:17am

I'm a big fan of Pulseway. Easy and inexpensive remote monitoring, mobile app support with push notifications (I don't bother with email notifications), and a lot of flexibility for creating your own notifications on specific services/ports/ping response times, storage status etc. And it's relatively easy to extend and add new functionality.

I didn't realize it was an RDP client though. Does it tunnel RDP through their cloud service or would you need to also use VPN?

Undisclosed Integrator #3

In reply to Joshua Hendricks | 02/08/18 01:10pm

It tunnels, so no VPN required as long as the agent can reach the Internet.

Luis Carmona

IPVMU Certified | 02/07/18 04:44pm

"We used to use LogMeIn, but after they decided to more than double their prices in a single year, we found an alternative."

This caused a firestorm in IT circles.

LogMeIn - Goodbye

Jon Dillabaugh

Pro Focus LLC
In reply to Luis Carmona | 02/07/18 06:01pm

That was my comment above. It was like LMI was bought out by Valeant or something?

Undisclosed Manufacturer #4

02/08/18 05:15am

Screen Connect is an amazing tool. From a cost and functionality perspective, we are very happy to have switched from Logmein.

Michael Miller

In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #4 | 02/08/18 04:39pm

We switched from Teamviewer to Screen Connect. Saved money and speed has improved.

Peter Pavlov

In reply to Michael Miller | 02/12/18 02:56pm

We are also considering switching from TeamViewer to Connectwise/Screen Connect. How easy was the transition?

Undisclosed End User #5

02/08/18 07:07am

Best price-performance solution I have used is Chrome Remote Desktop.

If you trust Google with potential access to your data....

Undisclosed Integrator #6

02/08/18 03:59pm

I am also canceling my Logmein when it expires next month. Have been looking at these options mentioned. It's a tough decision but I'm sure there are good alternative to LMI like Teamviewer. We currently have about 70 systems we support and it's going to be a pain to login to all of them and install a new agent but it's better than the $3K I'm paying for LMI. I told them I'm canceling because they quadrupled the price on me and they could care less. Must be nice to not care about losing customers.

Undisclosed Integrator #3

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #6 | 02/09/18 04:42am

but it's better than the $3K I'm paying for LMI.

Thank you for making me spit up my coffee.

Undisclosed #7

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #3 | 02/08/18 05:51pm

Was your reaction because the cost was too high? I know $3k annually (I'm assuming) is a lot for a small business to swallow, but when you break that down it is under $4 per system per month. That's actually pretty reasonable for a top tier remote access solution and something that should probably be included in the service agreement with the customer to cover the cost.

That said, there are definitely less expensive solutions out there with similar functionality so it's worth doing a little research into the alternatives.

Undisclosed Integrator #3

In reply to Undisclosed #7 | 02/08/18 06:12pm

Yes, it was because of the cost being so high and I hope you took it in good jest.

We dumped LMI for MSPAnywhere, now owned by Solarwinds. $300 annual per concurrent technician connection. Remote desktop, system statistics, access to Services and command prompt, file transfer, and a web portal for user initiated sessions similar to Join.me or GoToMeeting, to name a few. And more importantly, extra security measures like auditing and two factor authentication, and the willingness to state their security and encryption measures to provide a customer who asks for it.

So that is one important consideration when selecting a solution. What security and compliance measures do they take and are available, and will they communicate them to you, because some customer's IT departments are going to want to know.

Undisclosed End User #8

02/08/18 08:26pm

Did anyone see this?

Do you use the always on "agent" or the server side "initiated" session? This is the scary part, how much do you really know about Cyber Security of all the tools in the toolboxes you use?

Vincent Peru

02/09/18 04:53pm

Hello,
all these software use internet.
which could be considered the safest and why?
thank you

Undisclosed Integrator #3

In reply to Vincent Peru | 02/16/18 12:52pm

Vincent, a good question. For myself, I dont consider myself a data forensic expert, so I had to rely on the providers information. For data safety, my first questions to them were always what data transmission was authenticated and encrypted, if they offered two factor authentication, and if they had it in writing so if a customer wanted to know how secure it was I could provide them some documentation.

In then end it came down to Spalshtop and MSPAnywhere. Splashtop was a lot less money, but MSP just "felt" better for commercial use. At least it did then. Maybe it fits my criteria better now. But that was my criteria for "safety" of the service.

Jeffrey Hinckley

Norris, Inc., S. Portland, ME
02/12/18 02:25am

What kind of policies do integrators have regarding notification to the end user of remote access to their system (network). I have always been an advocate of customer provided vpn because is assures that they can audit access to their systems. It is nowhere near as simple to setup and maintain, but are the right people in the customers organization informed that outside “non-screened” agents may be on their network. (The facilities manager is not usually the individual to authorize this, if anybody does indeed authorize-in writing?).

Chris Anderson

02/12/18 02:53am

I have used TeamViewer which is a great product and one I would highly recommend.

I also always have VNC and RDP access configured and have had excellent, long term reliable success with these proven tools for many years.

That said I also wanted something with RMM and some MSP capabilities mixed in, but at a reasonable cost. After an extensive search I landed on Atera which is great as it has those aspects I just mentioned (which it is primarily built for) but adds remote management through integration of Splashtop. Also it worked well for me price wise with a 'per technician' not per connection model.

Harrison Mitchell

02/12/18 02:54pm

We're still using Teamviewer but will probably find something new if they ever stop supporting our old version. They moved to a subscription based model and will end up costing more long term to use them if we upgrade.

I actually had a Teamviewer sales rep try and explain that paying the subscription will save me money as opposed to the old version I've been using that has cost $0 for the last 6 years.

Undisclosed Integrator #9

02/13/18 02:55am

One more for Teamviewer. However, we and our Customers prefer closed network, so I send a technician with a safe laptop to connect to the network, and use 3G cellular network to connect to the site from our office for the time of configuration or troubleshooting.

Undisclosed Integrator #9

02/13/18 02:58am

Sometimes I wonder if remote support should not be supplied at all, just have the Customer pay for travelling to the site and charge them for onsite work.

Undisclosed Integrator #3

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #9 | 02/12/18 06:26pm

Sometimes I wonder if remote support should not be supplied at all, just have the Customer pay for traveling to the site and charge them for onsite work.

It's understandable to feel that way sometimes, but in most places I think the integrator would be less price competitive then. Over 50% of our support calls are resolved remotely. That saves everyone a lot of money. Plus, what if it's a complex issue a regular tech can't resolve and requires a higher level systems person? The first service visit might be a waste because it's not always easy to tell ahead of time if it can be handled by a field tech or systems person. And you can't ethically charge a customer for that first visit by the field tech if they weren't able to do anything at all. So it ends up being a waste.

Best to embrace the power of remote support utilities and utilize them to everyone's advantage.