Copilot
Remote computer diagnoses
I’m the CTO of a company that employs a whole group of computer repair technicians. At one time, we would remotely diagnose computer problems by connecting to a user’s network using a VPN, then have the user install VNC, and then tell us their IP address. Sometimes there wasn’t a VPN or we had to go through setting up one for the user on their router. (To make things more problematic, most Telus connections started disallowing VPNs.) Each and every one of those steps was very difficult for the average user.
Now we use Copilot.com. We just ask users to open a Web page, read off the 12-digit number they see, and click a link, which downloads a small program that they can run to create the connection; then the connection will work through any firewall they have.
Using this I can connect to almost any remote PC. It works with users in UAE on a slow IDSN line. It works with users in northern Canada with a cell phone Internet connection. Of course, it works a lot better with high speed internet connections.
Other tools require a user to view an email (which may not be working) or provide information about their PC, which they usually have no idea about. This tool works as long as you can get the user on the phone and looking at the Web site.
The only difficulty? Some users are so illiterate that when you say “go to www.copilot.com” they will instead enter “copilot” into Google. You’d be very surprised how often this happens.
There are other services that do this, however we find this one works on the worst of connections. And of course, the farther away someone is, the worse their connection is, and the more help they need!
I have used Copilot for about 3 years. I pay the monthly subscription fee of $20, but you can also pay $5 to use it for 24 hours, on demand.
07/10/14Copilot Price plans vary Free on weekends
