
Ask HN: Alternatives to Team Viewer? - riebschlager
I have several machines around the country that I need to remotely manage. Team Viewer has been unreliable and I&#x27;m looking to move our organization away from it.<p>Can anyone recommend a better remote management solution?
======
simlevesque
RDP ? Why doesn't anyone use the official protocol for remote desktop on
Windows ? It's fast. I say this as a unix dev that likes to RDP into a Windows
box to test stuff.

~~~
detaro
Many people don't think of RDP because it isn't great for support-type jobs:
you can't share the screen with the local user. But for administrative
purposes where that is not required it is a good way to go.

~~~
dsp1234
That's what "Window Remote Assistance"[0] is for.

"By following a few steps, you can invite someone to connect to your computer.
After he or she is connected, that person can view your computer screen and
chat with you about what you both see. With your permission, your helper can
even use his or her own mouse and keyboard to control your computer and show
you how to fix a problem."

[0] - [http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/what-is-
windows-r...](http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/what-is-windows-
remote-assistance)

~~~
unprepare
yeah cuz i want to spend half an hour explaining how to send an invite to the
CEO who cant connect to his email 5 minutes before a critical meeting....

in other words, teamviewer requires 0 user interaction

~~~
dogma1138
If you can create scripts that do that for you....

If it's a domain computer you don't even need that.

~~~
unprepare
scripts are fallible, especially when the user is in another country with no
access to the DC

servers is one thing, user support is another animal.

------
reitanqild
Let me add to this that in addition to OP stating that it has been unreliable
I think there are two other big reasons to move away:

1\. TeamViewer is used a lot for Microsoft scams and AFAIK they don't care
very much.

2\. Dark patterns. TeamViewer upgrade their protocol all-the-time and once one
part has updated the others have to as well, forcing the cost on everyone.
(And the pricing is outrageous IMO. When you can get a full office suite for
less than the subscription cost of the remote support solution then something
odd is going on.)

------
mutaaf
Chrome Remote Desktop is the best solution I have used.
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-
desk...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-
desktop/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp?hl=en)

~~~
mieses
It's difficult to configure chrome remote desktop for persistent sharing and
autostarting, at least in linux. THen it times out every few minutes asking
the local user to continue approving access. It doesn't seem to compete with
teamviewer by design.

------
severine
Guacamole?

Recent discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11744430](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11744430)

------
abcd_f
(a bit of port forwarding or VPN) + (VNC or RDP) ?

What you get from TeamViewer/LogMeIn/etc. is the zeroconf aspect of the
experience, which in turn is because they provide of a central
rendezvous/discovery point. If you know where your peers are, you don't really
need an assisted remote management service.

------
hjuutilainen
[https://www.nomachine.com/](https://www.nomachine.com/)

~~~
snerbles
NoMachine works quite well on a headless Mac Mini. You'll need a display
emulator dongle to prevent OSX rendering artifacts:
[https://www.amazon.com/CompuLab-fit-Headless-Display-
Emulato...](https://www.amazon.com/CompuLab-fit-Headless-Display-
Emulator/dp/B00FLZXGJ6?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0)

------
creshal
> Can anyone recommend a better remote management solution?

What of teamviewer's features do you need? Screen sharing? Forget RDP.
Zeroconf / NAT punching? Forget VNC. And so on…

If the machines already are in a VPN and you don't need screensharing, RDP is
probably the most reliable solution.

------
0x0
Maybe you're thinking about Windows (you didn't specify), but if you happen to
be on OSX, then a lot of people don't realize that iMessage in Messages.app
has screen sharing built in. "Buddies" menu -> "Ask To Share Screen".

------
w8rbt
You should list more detailed requirements. Are the hosts you manage behind
network firewalls and/or NAT? Do you expect to be able to initiate requests
in, or does the client initiate requests out?

------
jerelunruh
The best alternative that I've used for end user support is Remote Utilities:
[https://www.remoteutilities.com/](https://www.remoteutilities.com/) They have
an executable that non-technical users can easily download + run in addition
to a version for unattended access.

------
superchink
Relevant:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/4m7ay6/teamview...](https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/4m7ay6/teamviewer_has_been_hacked_they_are_denying/)

It looks like there are several reports of folks being hacked via TeamViewer.

------
grep4master
[http://www.splashtop.com/](http://www.splashtop.com/) works very well for me.

------
jesalg
Some alternatives:

\- RDP

\- RealVNC (free for personal use):
[https://www.realvnc.com/products/vnc/](https://www.realvnc.com/products/vnc/)

\- LogMeIn: [https://secure.logmein.com/home](https://secure.logmein.com/home)

~~~
frik
Why is it downvoted, VNC based clients are very common and RDP (while not
really optimal as replacement, has been upvoted a lot in another comment).

------
Machiq
If you are an Industrial Machine builder/Industrial OEM, you might be
interested in our marketplace for remote diagnostic services. The remote
screensharing tools are backed into the platform via WebRTC. We however don't
offer remote control.

www.machiq.com

------
sashk
I've been using join.me and HipChat's builtin screen sharing. Back in days,
when I had to manage many Windows hosts, I've used Radmin
([https://www.radmin.com/](https://www.radmin.com/)).

------
kn9
Check out Pertino [http://pertino.com](http://pertino.com) and Zerotier
[https://www.zerotier.com](https://www.zerotier.com)

~~~
Gys
Team Viewer is about controlling a pc / Mac remotely. Like 'viewing' the
screen...

------
marklyon
It costs money, but there's always the BOMGAR box.

[https://www.bomgar.com/](https://www.bomgar.com/)

------
edoceo
I've been using SimpleHelp. Self-hosted. Not perfect but very good, reasonable
cost. Install an agent or use a one-time app.

------
ben_pr
I use nomachine, works on Linux and Windows. I have a VPN installed at all
locations and the software runs behind that.

------
cheuv
Ammyy admin : [http://www.ammyy.com/](http://www.ammyy.com/)

------
mylesab
I have been using GoToAssist for around five years to connect to different
client machines.

------
rgloeckner
there is FastViewer, don't know the cost and of course several free variants
of VNC

------
MatzeBraun
[http://anydesk.com](http://anydesk.com)

~~~
dharma1
I've been meaning to test this - how is the video codec, they say it's much
better than others?

I mainly use remote windows sessions for modeling/rendering with 3DS Max

~~~
lhabjane
Best alternative, but it's still in the making. Unstable on Windows XP and
buggy sometimes.

------
dharma1
Is there anything that uses h265 available for remote desktop?

~~~
aroch
Why would you want that? Pretty much no hardware natively support h265 and any
bandwidth gains you might get are swamped by the CPU and latency cost with
software encoding h265

~~~
dharma1
New-ish desktop nvidia GPUs encode h265 natively, my gtx970 does anyway

~~~
aroch
Most people don't have newiwsh desktop-class GPUs. Particularly in the
enterprise environment most remote desktop programs are born out of

------
contrato
Alpemix very well for me. Small,fast,cheap.

------
wnevets
I like www.mikogo.com

------
rgloeckner
AnyDesk maybe

------
scsibusfault
Screenconnect.

~~~
benjohnson
After being both out by Connectwise, Screenconnect's new pricing model is
horribly expensive now - I'm grandfathered but wouldn't touch it now. Simple
Help is seems to at the point where Screenconnect was a few years ago - works,
cheap, and good support.

