Having friends, family and clients working in remote locations, and all committed to having difficulties has prompted me to look into remote support options, and here is a real beauty from TeamViewer...

Your phone rings and it is a call from someone with a tablet out in the field and they are having issues. They describe the problems to you, and you think you know what they are talking about, but in reality you can't really see what they see, so unless the problem is obvious you are all at sea.

Nightmare. Especially if they are a client, and you need to get them back up and running with minimum delay. 

Our ethic here at Clarinspect is that no matter what the issue the clients are having with their tablet (and it is rarely with our software) we will help them. This being the case we are looking into systems to support our efforts. It may also be pertinent that the kids all have BYOD, but I digress.

What is Team Viewer?

TeamViewer allows you to remote control a Windows, Mac or Linux machine from anywhere on the Internet. Including from your phone or tablet. 

That is interesting, but what really tickled the Assessment Ninja was being able to control a tablet from any machine. This would allow real real-time support.

Walk through a session - connecting to a PC from a tablet

For a first foray into support delight, let's try connecting into a Windows PC  from a Samsung Note 8 running Kit Kat. To do this, download and install TeamViewer from the website. Install TeamViewer from the PlayStore on your device.

TeamViewer shows a console on PC or tablet displaying the IDs for that device.

The PC one below shows a section with your machine ID, and also a section for typing the ID of a device you may want to control.

On the Samsung tablet these two functions (to connect out, or be connected to) are split into two apps. In this section we are talking about controlling a PC, so this is the TeamViewer app.

On the tablet, start TeamViewer, and enter the the ID from the 'Allow Remote Control' section on the PC. The connection will initiate, and you will be prompted on the tablet for the password (also displayed on the console as above).

The App will then start mirroring the PC, and you have interactive control of the PC.

The experience is responsive, and the App pops-up a keyboard when one is needed. If you have dual monitors on the PC then this is catered for as well. As a test I controlled my other laptop with dual HD monitors from my Samsung S4. Worked fine, though of course tiny. This scaling is catered for with a zoom control so you are not hampered by the tiny screens on phones.

Walk through a session - connecting to a tablet from a PC

This is what it is all about for me - a possible end to complex phone calls and mis-communication! To control a tablet or phone there is another App - TeamViewer QuickSupport. Install this from the PlayStore (or Appstore if using Apple). 

The first time you run this App you may be prompted to download a plugin - accept this and download then install the plugin. Without it you will be limited to file transfer rather than being able to remotely control your device.

With the QuickSupport App running on the device it is time to try some remote control. On the Windows Console type the ID from the tablet into the 'Control Remote Computer', select 'remote control' (the default) and click on 'Connect to partner'.

The device will register the connection and ask you to authorise the connection. Once authorised the TeamViewer console on the PC shows the following session view.

The left pane is a chat - which is also shown immediately on the tablet. In this case I want to remote control the device, so click on 'Remote control' in the top left.

On the tablet you are prompted to allow the request to remote control. I accepted this. The PC then pops up a window showing the device screen. As a test I popped up the active applications list, and hey presto! this is shown on the PC.

As another test I used the mouse on the PC to click on the 'My Projects' App to see if I could use it, and all ran exactly as if I was on the tablet. I was able to operate the App using mouse and keyboard, initiate a device sync, and complete Assessments. 

So, what about remote support?

The ability to move from a phone call to being able to operate and diagnose in real-time without leaving the office is great for those simple to fix operations and even better for complex issues or those that the user is having trouble describing. 

I liked the approach to security and authorisation taken with this software - the express permissions, IDs and passwords etc. deliver a robust authentication and authorisation system.

Over the trial sessions there were times when the session would timeout trying to connect, but possibly nothing to do with the software - the internet has been hairy of late.

I would heartily recommend this product. It is certainly one we will be considering for our own support operation.

Sounds good - how much?

The product is free to use, however there is an honesty caveat! If you are using it for business then take a look at their pricing page. 

The pricing is one off for a major version, with special prices to upgrade between versions if you want. At first glance it may look like a high price, but if you have a busy team wrangling many issues over the phone the time savings and productivity gain will pay for this very quickly.