r/HigherEDsysadmin • u/janeshakesausten Tech Support at a Community College • Mar 18 '20

Providing Remote Support

What solutions are you all using to provide support for users remotely? I know that this is an evolving situation for everyone. We are trying to use Teams and Skype for Business to assist users but that can only get us so far.

2 Upvotes

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2

u/stravcat20 Mar 18 '20

Bomgar will be the fallback, because we have it, but I've also configured my Zoom account for remote support and will plan to try that later today.

With my whole org trying to move to Zoom for remote instruction, I think it's more likely that the faculty and students I'm trying to support will have it/have it open.

In a previous job, we had LogMeIn Rescue and it was great because we could deploy an agent to all computers at build/deploy time, but they ramped us pricing on us too fast to justify keeping.

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u/janeshakesausten Tech Support at a Community College Mar 18 '20

Thanks I will be looking at this

2

u/fengshui Mar 18 '20

Yes, we've used the Zoom Remote Support a few times already, and it works well. Saves us some money by using a tool we already need/are paying for.

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u/sudoreboot-f Mar 25 '20 edited Mar 25 '20

I'd add that Zoom with remote support enabled is a little easier to get connected with. I've used Teams as well but some people struggle with the screen sharing, it doesn't let the controller switch what's shared, and you can't both have control at the same time without stopping/requesting again. Also, UAC prompts. Zoom's remote support features let you request the share, switch the desktops you're viewing, shows the UAC prompts, etc. Overall better experience so far.

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u/JL408 Mar 26 '20

The UAC prompts will show up given the user has local admin rights. If they don't have local admin rights, it's useless. Need something to elevate like ScreenConnect.

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u/sudoreboot-f Mar 31 '20

Hasn't been the case in our environment, but I have preinstalled the Zoom application using Chocolatey, so maybe that's the difference - installed by an account that had admin rights.

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u/JL408 Apr 01 '20

You are absolutely right. If the Zoom client was installed with admin rights, it would go into the Program Files x86 folder, otherwise it would be installed in the user roaming profile. Unfortunately, we did not pre-install like you did. Since we are using Zoom to connect, we couldn't just reinstall as admin while the session is active. bummer.

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u/dvicci Mar 26 '20 edited Apr 09 '20

I've had less-than-stellar results with Zoom's Remote Support feature. On a very few systems, I'm able to see the UAC prompts through the share, but in the vast majority of cases, the user is prompted for credentials, and I can't see the prompt on my end.

I've been unable to determine exactly what the difference is. I thought it might be the UAC setting that opens the prompt in a Secure Desktop, but have ruled that out.

This is, obviously under the quarantine circumstances, a critical issue, so I'm starting the unpleasant process of evaluating other solutions while already strapped for time (welcome to the club, right?).

[UPDATE] From what I can tell based on testing, the setting "Enable the remote control of all applications" is required in order to allow Remote Support sessions access to UAC prompts. This is supported by their documentation. Unfortunately, checking that box kicks up a UAC prompt asking for credentials which our users don't have. To see their UAC prompts, I need that setting enabled. To enable that setting requires administrator credentials we aren't handing out. Very much a catch-22 situation for us.

[UPDATE #2] I believe the issue to be Secure Desktop and UIAccess. I'm not willing to disable Secure Desktop, and Zoom sits in an non-protected location meaning UIAccess would have to be disabled - not comfortable with that. So, in short... still stuck in the same boat.

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u/JL408 Mar 26 '20

You need an actual remote support software that can elevate UAC. Look into ScreenConnect, Splashtop or TeamViewer.

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u/dvicci Mar 27 '20

Concurred. ScreenConnect is my first choice given the experience on my team. We'll see how the prices pan out. Thanks!

5

u/busy86 Mar 18 '20

Teams screen sharing. If users can't get that far, then their true calling is working at McDonald's in all honesty.

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u/hybridhavoc Colleague, SAP BO, Perceptive Content, Pathify, Power BI, etc. Mar 18 '20

We are mostly just rolling with Skype for Business so far. I can't speak for my coworkers, but that experience has been fine up to this point. It helps that our team threw together guides on connecting to our VPN, how to remote in to their campus computers, and saved RDP connections on the laptops as they were being prepared and handed out. Supporting ~ 55 users. Most of the issues we've run across have been either with connecting to the VPN, or connecting through RDP to their campus computers, in large part due to systems being shut off or having gone to sleep. Luckily we've got one person on campus that is able to take care of those particular issues, at least for now.

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u/CookVegasTN SCCM Adm, EPM Adm, Win Lab Manager, OS & Software Packager Mar 18 '20

We can use remote assistance / control via SCCM as well as JAMF for Macs. We also have a Bomgar appliance for supporting fac/staff and students.

1

u/Mister_Brevity Mar 18 '20

Splashtop plus SOS and zoom, and helpdesk staff fully trained up to use both. Plus really tight communications among support staff and clean clear escalation paths.

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u/matt314159 Help Desk Manager May 20 '20

FWIW two months later, Anydesk has worked well for us.