In speaking with my father-in-law Lee yesterday evening about a franchise he is developing, Nerd Force, I noticed when I checked their website they offer remote PC support. If you have called tech support for your computer lately, it is quite possible they have had you download a remote support application. But the tech support team isn’t the only person who can benefit from remote access, you can too.

It is also a huge help to be able to debug client problems through remote support as well. One of the challenges of developing web applications is the final product doesn’t come together until it hits the remote browser. Javascript and display bugs that develop often only appear on remote client machines. To have remote access to that PC to see issues first hand and to pinpoint problems can be a huge help.

There are several remote support tools. If you have the time to invest you can install your own system for remote support using VNC, goMyPlace, or . If you have specific clients you need to support the standard (low cost) versions of GoToMyPC and LogMeIn are easy to install applications. For larger web application deployments where you may not have an existing customer relationship or the ability to install a permanent copy of remote support tool then LogMeIn Rescue & are better options. Also it may be worth taking a look at RAdmin. These are all great tools to really get a look at what your end user is actually seeing rather than relying on what they are describing in a phone call or support ticket. So next time you get a call from a client consider this as a greener, faster option for support.