This Is Your Copilot Speaking

Remote Control utilities are like chili recipes… everybody has their favorite. VNC has its fans (and flavors), pcAnywhere has a huge following, then you’ve got the various tools built into XP, such as Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance. I have experience with all of these… and they have all come in handy in different situations.

I myself rely on a tool from 01 Communiqué called I’m In Touch, which allows me to access my Outlook e-mail, files and remote control my desktop from virtually any web connected PC or Mac (and even some handhelds). Although I’ve never used it, GoToMyPC.com offers similar features. I’m In Touch has been hugely helpful because I’m quite the rolling stone these days. With I’m In Touch running on my desktop, I can access all my customer records, notes and invoices quickly and easily from virtually anywhere. I didn’t have to invest a lot of time in a home-brewed solution involving a VNC tool and Dynamic DNS, although I think that’s a good way of going for the uber-tweakers among us.

In my line of work, I often have customers sitting behind a NAT-enabled router and perhaps even a software firewall. That throws a few monkey wrenches into many popular Remote Control schemes and built-in tools like XP Remote Assistance often break under these conditions. This gave rise to a new breed of web-based support tools, such as GoToAssist (now part of Citrix), PCNow by WebEx, just to name a few. While these address some thorny technical issues, the licensing and pricing models are not that attractive to me. They either want a monthly subscription or a minimum contract or something to that effect. It’s possible I may be able to offer my customers some kind of package where I roll the cost up into my fees… I’m still working on how I can market that.

Most of what I encounter, however, is the typical “onesy-twosey” scenario where I just need to quickly get onto a person’s PC to help them out with something once in a blue moon. I forget exactly where I read about it, but I discovered a tool from Fog Creek Software called Copilot. With Copilot, you can quickly and easily establish a remote control session that traverses NAT routers and firewalls. Copilot is built on the VNC core - giving it a small footprint. The pricing model is $9.95 for a 24-hour “day pass” - that allows you (the helper) to remote control a single remote PC for 24 hours. Either the helper or “helpee” can pay, which is a nice touch. Fog Creek recently introducing a subscription plan with different options such as pay-as-you go (per minute); or purchasing a block of minutes (200, 500, 1000, 2000 and 5000 minutes). For the time being, the day pass option is still the best for me, but if I find myself using Copilot more often, perhaps I’ll try the subscription.

The other great thing about Copilot is how easy it is to use… once you purchase the service you are given an invitation code. You can either send your helpee an e-mail with this code, or simply direct them to the Copilot web site and have them enter the code manually. The next step is for each person to download and run a small (

[tags]dynamic dns,copilot,i’m in touch,gotomypc,vnc[/tags]