Webex is incredibly expensive because of its proxy nature. I don't think a lot of people realize that companies can easily spend $50,000/year on webex. We use it for product demos and to support customers with very restrictive firewalls, which is not all that often and we probably spend $5,000/year.
A good replacement would be most welcome, mainly a version of VNC that auto downloads and installs with little user interaction and connects back to a specific ip/port. When the session is done, it should un-install itself. Yes, VNC can initiate a connection from the server side, I use it all the time to support my servers deployed in the field. Depending on your needs, you might not have to create any new software. Webex's strength is at taking a random computer on the Internet and quickly connecting it to your computer. However, this is not what you are wanting to do. You want to take very specific computers, your Kiosks and connect to them. The servers I deploy in the field are behind firewalls as are the computers at the support center. Each server ships with a "Support" folder on the start menu. Under that folder is a list of numbered shortcuts, each one assigned to a support machine at the home office. When a user calls in with a problem, the support rep just tells the user to use the support link assigned to his computer. Each link maps to the IP of the home office and ports 5500 to 5510. The firewall at the home office routes each port to port 5500 on the internal support machines. While not 100% the best practice, having port 5500 open on these machines has very little actual risk. If you need a more complex connection system, then a proxy like webex uses is probably the way to go. However, if your remote firewalls allow outbound connections on port 5500 then try to go the simple route. Greg On Sun, 2003-12-21 at 12:17, Jose Raffucci wrote: > I work for a company that has been using webex > extensively, they shell out a lot of money a month to > be able to support kiosk in the field via the web. _______________________________________________ VNC-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To remove yourself from the list visit: http://www.realvnc.com/mailman/listinfo/vnc-list
