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F E A T U R E

Remote Possibilities

October 10, 2002
By Sean Doherty and Dilip Advani, Saurabh Bhasin, Julio Caraballo and Bilson M. Poikayil

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NetSupport Manager 7.0

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	In this article
	Introduction
	NetSupport Manager 7.0
	CrossTec Corp. NetOp Remote Control 7.01
	Symantec Corp. pcAnywhere 10.5
	Other Products Reviewed
	Executive Summary
	How We Tested
	Report Card, Part I
	Report Card, Part II

Although it doesn't support LDAP or NTLM and is not a component of an enterprise desktop-management suite, NetSupport Manager is a comprehensive remote-control solution that can be centrally deployed and managed in the enterprise. NetSupport ranked fourth in transferring bitmaps and sixth in file transfers. These scores, together with the full range of remote-control features and a competitive price, put it ahead of CrossTec's NetOp Remote Control and Symantec's pcAnywhere.

NetSupport has two main code components, the control (master) and the client (host). The control and the client code can reside on the same machine. In addition to a straightforward CD installation, NetSupport offers a network-installation method in which setup, license and configuration files are copied onto a central server. Users can browse to this directory and execute the setup file.

We were impressed with the NetSupport Deploy Utility, which lets network administrators push install NetSupport onto workstations without any host interaction. In addition, the utility can update license information and client configurations and even uninstall the package remotely. The utility gave us a list of available networks along with domain and workgroup information. We selected the host onto which we wanted to install the package and the necessary configuration files, then clicked "deploy" and the package was installed. Deploy Utility also gave us a detailed report of successful and failed deployments.

Masters interact with hosts in one of three modes: watch, share and control. In watch mode, the host is viewed passively. In share mode, the host shares the control of its PC with the master. In control mode, the master takes control of the host computer by locking the user's keyboard and mouse. The client-scanning option let us view multiple host screens in a single window; the scan interval can be set to cycle through different screens.

NetSupport Manager offers detailed logs about a remote-control session, including the duration, who disconnected and files transferred. NetSupport also provides power management, in which a master can power on or off hosts. To power on a host, Wake-on-LAN must be supported by the network adapter. NetSupport also lets an administrator inventory host workstations' hardware and software.

A show feature let us show the master screen to multiple hosts. This is very useful for training sessions and demonstrations and provides a platform to broadcast a corporate communication to employees. Also, KVM activities can be recorded and saved for later playback. A scripting tool let us schedule tasks, such as file transfers or application installations, to run unattended. Although the administrator must learn a proprietary scripting language, this tool provides a facility to automate repetitive tasks.

NetSupport Manager 7.0, $99/$29,360. NetSupport, (888) 665-0808, (770) 205-4456. http://www.netsupport-inc.com