The newest entry on the market, SecurityCoverage’s Remote PC Support started in January 2004 as a behind-the-scenes technical support for large providers that offered support services to the small business and consumer markets.
Often bundled as a free or optional support service by large ISPs (such as cable and telephone companies), Remote PC Support software is bare-bones, and the feature list limited.
The lower scores in this test point more to product newness and limited scope than to overall quality. The upside of the product is that as a hosted proxy service for support connections, it bypasses connection issues, and support people have all the tools they need to fix PCs no matter how adroit — or not — the user.
Bypassing connection details such as TCP/IP addresses, port numbers and authentication, SecurityCoverage’s host acts as a proxy server between the controller PC and the controlled machines. A small application (1.5MB) runs on the remote computer.
The support person requests a unique numeric code through the administrative software or creates one. The user must type in the code given by the technical-support entity via a separate phone call. After one click of the Connect button, the controller PC establishes control of the remote PC through the SecurityCoverage proxy.
Authentication comes from the user logging on to his PC and agreeing to accept the connection. It sounds convoluted, but the technical support person tells the user to type in a number and SecurityCoverage’s proxy server establishes the remote-control link between the two systems.
Once linked, the screen updates slowly but some command buttons open needed utilities such as the Registry Editor, file-transfer application, DOS box, Internet Explorer and the Add/Remove programs utility. Not fancy, but these support tool buttons provide shortcuts to the most common troubleshooting applications.
The buttons are handy, because it’s difficult to navigate around the remote screen unless the administration console is higher-resolution than the remote PC. There is no documentation or help screen in the application.
Bare-bones tools have their place, and Remote PC Support solves, or avoids, connection issues. Tracking mobile workers never in the same place works well, because users need to know nothing about their network connection to solicit help. No other program tested installs as easily, connects with so little hassle and lets the support session begin immediately.
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