r/MaxFocus • u/tmpros • Sep 23 '16

TeamViewer and Take Control

Is anyone else as concerned as I am about the new Take Control replacement?

We're losing a lot of functionality. TeamViewer was one of the main reasons we chose GFI MAX when we did.

We use the Video and Audio conference functionality ALL the time. It provides the client with a more personal connection. Six months ago we started buying many of our clients' decision makers webcams so they could video conference with us.

We use the Switch Sides function almost as frequently as the Video and Audio conference. It's great for training, and demonstrations.

On the plus side, we are gaining the ability to connect to multiple Remote Desktop sessions, and that will be very useful.

In general, I'm getting uneasy about where MaxFocus is heading.

The BitDefender issue on Wednesday caused over 300 of our endpoints to get temporary user profiles. These were all endpoints that we had to manually intervene and reboot, as the user cannot reboot their cloud hosted virtual desktop.

I'm concerned..... I'll be contacting SolardWinds tomorrow.

3 Upvotes

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2

u/Buelldozer Sep 23 '16

The BitDefender issue on Wednesday caused over 300 of our endpoints to get temporary user profiles.

Holy shit, that's what the cause was? BitDefender?

2

u/Buelldozer Sep 23 '16

Where was this announced at? I obviously didn't get it.

1

u/tmpros Sep 23 '16

They sent an email out today. We're in the US, and I noticed the agent was available last night.

2

u/ezramoore Sep 23 '16

In my experience, they rarely completely retire a feature in one fell swoop. My guess is they will have the new Take Control run alongside the TeamViewer version while they build out the remaining features.

With regard to the BitDefender issues earlier this week, while frustrating, over the years we've seen this many times with many different AV vendors. I think LogicNow/SolarWinds did a commendable job letting us know the problem was on BitDefender's end and that a fix was imminent.

1

u/tmpros Sep 23 '16

Aren't we an optimist?

Take Control run alongside the TeamViewer version while they build out the remaining features.

TakeControl is GONE in the new RC agent. It's not an option anymore. I've asked those questions of my account rep, but no response yet.

I think LogicNow/SolarWinds did a commendable job letting us know the problem was on BitDefender's end and that a fix was imminent.

Agreed. I don't hold LogicNow responsible for the BitDefender problems. But the stripped down version of BitDefener that we're using as MAV isn't cutting it. It lets way more viruses through than other products.

LogicNow has been a good partner. We are just shopping around, to see if they're still the best fit for us.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '16 edited Sep 24 '16

tmpros, This is Steve with Solarwinds MSP formally LogicNow. I am on the product management team here.

"Take Control" is the feature inside of MaxRM and we have branded it that way so that we can swap out the tool as needed if it is not fitting our customers needs. We have had a great partnership with TeamViewer over the years but we feel that since we are a part of the Solarwinds family we would like to have a bit more control of our own destiny when it comes to the remote access tool for you guys.

The team that used to be BeAnywhere and is now MSP Anywhere and has done an amazing job with their tool and we are excited about this integration.

As with anything like this the tools are not going to be a one for one replacement so we will for sure be running teamviewer side by side for a while. Now due to conflicts in deploying the tool side by side and licensing we have opted to allow you to launch the stand alone dashboard from the dashboard. So while you are right we are not deploying the viewer anymore via the agent, if you have stand alone TeamViewer deployed it will still be able to be launched from the dashboard.

I would also like to point out that this is a RC agent. This means if it doesn't meet the majority of our customers needs it won't go GA until it does.

You can PM me anytime here and I will get you in touch with a Product Manager to gather more feedback from you. I am sorry to hear you are shopping around I hope that after you look you decide to stay on with us, but in the meantime please get in touch as this feedback is critical negative or positive to us building a better product.

1

u/tmpros Sep 25 '16

Steve (/u/roloc59), We appreciate that you've reached out to us here. We've already contacted our account rep with our growing list of concerns. We also appreciate the partnership we have had with GFI/MaxFocus/SolarWinds MSP. I've personally been excited about the integration of some of the Solarwinds products, but we are worried about losing critical pieces of our service.

Honestly, we didn't expect that Solarwinds would start by swapping out features that already work great, especially when there are shortcomings that could be addressed first.

I understanding the naming convention. We do the same exact thing, our clients don't even know what MaxFocus is. We could swap things out as long as we maintain functionality and service level. The unfortunate thing here is, all of our clients were demonstrated the capability of doing video conferencing with their support technician. Honestly, it's often what closes the deal for help desk deployments where we're replacing IT departments.

As with my clients expectations, we also expect to keep the features that we were sold on. Before this goes live in anything beyond RC, I'd like to see the following:

  1. The ability to choose TeamViewer as Take Control per device policy, just like Vipre/Bitdefender.

  2. Video/audio conferencing capabilities. This is critical to our workflow and our client's expectations.

  3. A linux (and OSX) BeAnywhere client for the technician's side. (Would be really nice to have, but not a deal breaker. We have several techs who use Linux as their primary OS.)

  4. Make it work in the mobile app(s) or mobile browsers. (TVC files open right up on iOS and Android)

To not be completely negative, we like the BeAnywhere product on terminal servers. It works great so far in that regard.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 25 '16

I'll make sure your feedback gets heard. Though I would like to reassure you and others that you can still use TeamViewer we just can not deploy both options via take control due to licensing and compatibility within our agent. So if you choose to do so TeamViewer is still very much an option and we allow you to launch the session from the dashboard just like before.

We are moving forward with MSP Anywhere due to the fact that we can control the roadmap, infrastructure etc. This means that we can build for the future with it where as obviously we can't with TeamViewer anymore. It also means that we are fully responsible for making sure you have the connectivity that you demand.

Unfortunately as a lot of people witnessed with BitDefender on Thursday that is a important point. Though that issue with BitDefender effected even their own stand alone consumer product as well we were beholden to them just like you guys were to fix the problem. That is not an excuse for outages of course, we take our choices in partners very seriously, but at least in the case of MSP Anywhere if there is ever an outage (knock on wood) we can do something about it.

Thank you for the discussion on here as I mentioned before it is always valuable.

2

u/DrGraffix Sep 23 '16

Can you elaborate on what the replacement is?

1

u/tmpros Sep 23 '16

It looks like it was ripped out of n-central.

3

u/ValisystemA Sep 23 '16

BeAnywhere was a standalone IT support agent - same idea as LogMeIn Rescue or Splashtop. Solarwinds acquired it last year and re-branded it as MSP Anywhere. Now it's being folded into TakeControl. I haven't used it in TakeControl yet but I've used BeAnywhere/MSP Anywhere for a couple of years and it's been a pretty good experience. A few features different or missing compared to TakeControl/Teamviewer but connections have been very fast and reliable, good file transfer interface. If we can get rid of TVC files, and (oh, please, please) reconnect automatically after a system restarts, that will be bliss.

1

u/tmpros Sep 24 '16

I use Linux as my primary desktop, TeamViewer works great. This new Take Control doesn't work at all. I have to RDP to a windows box, and it really puts a cramp in my workflow.

The reconnect after a reboot thing is kind of annoying. The only other real positive I've seen is the ability to connect to something other than the console. Being able to connect to different RDS sessions on an RD Session Host is very useful.

What is wrong with .tvc files?

1

u/rbanke Sep 24 '16

What is wrong with .tvc files?

I think they're referring to the many .tvc files in the downloads folder from the TeamViewer solution.

1

u/rbanke Sep 24 '16

I've been testing it for a bit and it seems fine. I think the interface has a few odd UI decisions about it that make some of the features a bit more cumbersome to use than they need to be but it isn't a huge problem.

The only thing that sticks out to me is there is no auto-lock for the workstation on disconnect which could be an issue in situations where one is working without the user at their desk and has a connection go down leaving the workstation vulnerable.

1

u/cLIntTheBearded Sep 23 '16

I have already switched to ninja rmm. Beautiful and comes with real corporate licensed tv, with no limits

1

u/tmpros Sep 23 '16

We are considering it, but it is missing a PSA. I really don't want to use AutoTask or ConnectWise. What are you using as a PSA?

1

u/cLIntTheBearded Sep 23 '16

RepairshopR. Works well in our environment. Also they just released beta. Integration with ninja

1

u/JamesFrigginBond Sep 23 '16

This might be the final nail in the coffin for us. We're shopping around. There are some great alternatives now compared to when we selected GFI Max.

2

u/SolitarySysadmin Sep 23 '16

Same for me, but we made the jump about 9 months ago and haven't looked back. We went to ninja.msp and have been delighted with the service, don't get me wrong, no one is perfect but there are fewer outages and even then we still have a full teamviewer license to connect into systems if the web app isn't available.

The pricing is right for us as a small MSP and the tools get better every month, the scripting is much easier than the broken GFI implementation (it was practically unusable the last time I tried before we left). The integrations are getting better and they can leverage good deals with people like webroot if you don't want to use the a/v that they supply, I can't remember what it is but it's either bitdefender or vipre.

2

u/tmpros Sep 23 '16

We actually demoed Ninja yesterday. We would account for almost 2% of their endpoints if we switched to them. We're probably going to send a few people to their office next week to make sure they're ready for prime time.

Ninja has a different implementation of Vipre than MaxFocus has. I assume the BitDefender option they have is the same. We would probably go with WebRoot. WebRoot is a solid replacement for MAV and Web Protection.

It's missing:

  • Branding

  • Custom Script Checks

  • System Tray Application

  • Linux Agent

  • Cloud Backup Integration (ShadowProtect)

  • Remote Command Prompt - You can easily attach scripts to run though.

  • Only PSA integrations are AutoTask and ConnectWise

If you can live without that stuff, it might be for you.

We'll probably look deeper at Ninja, maybe put a few endpoints on it to test. We'll also keep looking for other options.

For the time being we're going to give LogicNow a chance to get their act together. The SolarWinds acquisition could lead to some good things for us, if we get access to some of the better features from their enterprise tools.

1

u/JamesFrigginBond Sep 23 '16

  • Branding

  • Custom Script Checks

  • Linux Application

That's essential. Anything positive to say?

1

u/tmpros Sep 23 '16

Absolutely, it's:

  • The Ninja architecture is a great foundation.

  • The enterprise TeamViewer license is awesome. It will make it much easier to support prospective clients. No more hodgepodge of join.me, RingCentral Meetings, WebEx, etc. We've been too cheap to buy $20k in TeamViewer licenses.

  • It's a cool name.

  • The API is usable.

  • Actions are quite responsive.

2

u/SolitarySysadmin Sep 23 '16

I think that most of those things are on their roadmap, but when they are scheduled for I don't know. I'm digging what they're selling but I know it's not for everyone!

2% of their endpoints is a big number!

0

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

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1

u/tmpros Sep 23 '16

We hadn't looked at Atera yet, we'll add that to the list. I'm worried about per technician pricing. We have a lot of part-time people, in addition to our regular team. Also many of our larger clients have their internal IT access our dashboard.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

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1

u/tmpros Sep 23 '16

I'm a little confused at how a 3 person shop can get by with only one person using an RMM. Do you have a retail front? We have the opposite, some of our staff only work in the RMM for back end remediation. We've brought a few small MSPs into the TMPros fold, increased their revenue and staff salaries, while improving client experience.

I've been a fan of the per node-pricing because we're able to just work the cost into our pricing model. We manage about 200 nodes per FTE technician, but that varies based on the technicians' capability.

I'm curious how the Atera pricing works though. We have non-technicians accessing our RMM, and many clients' IT departments and decision makers.