remote support

Yes, the lingo could definately be confusing.

I want to be sure the service would be a fit for what you are trying
to do.
What the system provides is a mechanism or a way to get control of a
remote computer over the internet. The remote computer's user logs
into the site using your email address. Once logged in, they are
presented with a connect button and a download program link. These
both do the same thing but go about it differently. They click on the
connect button and remote control software downloads to their computer
and with pre-configured information, that's the information you enter
on your profile page, and automatically connects to your computer
running the viewer. Your viewer pops open on your computer and you
see and can control thier computer. If the automatic download fails,
this will happen if they do not have Java installed, they can run the
executable program wich will also connect automatically to your viewer
with pre-configured information.

Now, the port forwarding is the part that does confuse some people. I
have to add at this point that we are working on a major update to
remove this requirement, I have no release date however. On your
router, in your case a netgear, a port forward or virtual server is
setup. What this does is it allows the remote computer's software
that's downloaded to get through to your computer from the internet
side of the router to your computer on the LAN.

Every progrma that communicates on a network uses and IP address and a
port. It's not a real port it's a software port. This is how the
computer knows what software is talking to or listening to the
network.

So on the netgear, the only requirement is that software communicating
on port 5500 (the default) from the internet is forwarded to the
computer on the LAN that has the viewer listening for it. The port
is forwarded to the IP address of the computer on the LAN. Usually
addressed with the last number changing like you described - .1, .2,
.3. . A complete address as an example will look like 192.168.1.1,
192.168.1.2, 192.168.1.3, etc..

So a cumputer on your local LAN will have the viewer running on it and
listening on port 5500 for connections from computers that "want" to
remote controlled. The netgear will have the port forward configured
to point 5500 to the IP address of the computer with the viewer on
your LAN. When a remote user logs in with your email address and
clicks connect, software downloads to their system and connects to
yours and you control thier computer.

The security is such that if anyone connects to you, your viewer, you
have control of them and not the other way around. You could always
exit the viewer once a session is complete to feel more secure. Once
a session is active, no one can steal the session or redirect it.
Although the remote control software we use has the capability of
encryption we don't apply it although we may add a checkbox on the
profile page to permit our customers to turn it on or off as they
require. The encryption makes the software run much slower. This is
not just our system, it's everyones even the very expensive flavors.
Our sessions are quick. You could pay 1,000.00 plus more for another
service that is doing encryption right now but it won't be faster I
have to caveate the last comment with the fact that network
conditions make a difference too. The encryption really has not
worried our current base since they know that encrypting a stream
that is just them remote controlling a computer to fix a printer
setup or the end-users email program or any other common support
issue isn't a security breach. The end user is already logged in
since they have to be to initiate the download so there's no
passwords being entered to steal - which is unlikely anyone could do
so anyway.

I hope this helped. If you have more questions please ask them, I will
be very happy to answer them for you.

If you need assistance configuring the netgear, please send me the
model number since the configuration screens differ on different
models. The model number is usually displayed somewhere on the unit.

Thank you,

Customer Support Group

> very interested in your product, how secure is it in protecting information
> while communicating with the remote desktop.
> Also I am running off a router, where do I find a "Viewer Port Number"?
> could that be the .2, .3, or .1 (depending on computer) on the net gear ip
> address?
> I know you say it is simple to set up but when you don't really know the
> lingo you get confused.
> also am I understanding that I just need to install this on the computer I
> want people to have access to?
> Thanks for your help