Techinline Remote Desktop Review!

Features

Traverse Firewalls and Proxies

Techinline is able to connect both the expert and user together no matter how their network is configured on either side. Techinline can traverse routers, firewalls and even proxies because the service uses port 80 and 443 for the connection. These are industry standard ports for HTTP and HTTPS, respectively. If a client can browse websites online, then they can be reached through Techinline. This is important because not being able to reach your client makes any remote desktop service useless! As for security, HTTPS is the standard protocol used on the web whenever you visit a secured site (think logging into your bank account, purchasing goods from Amazon/eBay, etc) and is used here for Techinline as well.

Easy File and Clipboard Transfer

This allows both the expert and client to easily share files and clipboard items between each other. Rather than having to configure some type of folder sharing feature or having to re-download files on the client’s computer, the expert can just drag-and-drop files from his/her computer directly into the client machine via Techinline. Also, text that you copy from your computer can be pasted into the client just as well.

Remote Reboot and Reconnect

The ability to remotely restart a client computer and be able to automatically reconnect is awesome. I’ve tried it and it really works. Once you initiate the reboot procedure, the client will be asked to type in their account password (for Windows). Once the computer reboots, Techinline will re-configure everything and the session will automatically be restored all without having the client to do anything, such as grabbing a new session ID and whatnot.

Two-Way Desktop Sharing

This feature is very beneficial. There are many times when you, the expert, will want to share your desktop with the client and not just the other way around. Techinline allows you to do this within the same session! You can easily share your desktop with your client, whether in view-only mode or allowing the client to take full control. You do not have to disconnect the current session and generate a new 6-digit ID for this to happen.

Multi-Monitor Support

If your client has a multi-monitor setup, you are able to view them all on your desktop through Techinline!

Customization

Techinline allows you to customize the look of the client support page. This allows you to better integrate the Techinline service with your business. You can use your own company logo along with slogans and color. You can even create a remote desktop help section on your website so that your clients can easily reach you.

Auto Scroll and Auto Scale

No doubt you will have to support clients using a different range of screen resolution and monitor sizes. The Auto Scroll feature is perfect for the expert when he connects to a client using a higher screen resolution than themselves. This allows the expert to view the client’s computer in its native resolution while having Techinline auto scroll around the client screen based on the experts mouse movement. Auto scale on the other hand, is useful if the expert wants to view the clients desktop in its entirety without any scrolling. Auto scale will do its best to fit the entire client screen onto the expert even though the resolution is higher. However, this might cause the client screen on the experts computer to be distorted because it has been shrunken to fit a different resolution.

The Verdict…

Techinline definitely have a lot of features. However, it doesn’t seem quite enough when compared to using TeamViewer. For example, TeamViewer has both VoIP and video camera sharing capabilities that Techinline lacks. This allows both the expert and client to better communicate with each other while in the session besides just chatting via the keyboard. Also, there is no video session recording feature within Techinline. Recording a session is useful when a client keeps bugging you to help them with the same problem over and over again. Do it once, record the session and give them the recording. While you can argue that these features aren’t always used while supporting your clients, it’s a shame to see how a free product can incorporate these “extra” features while a paid service does not.

Pricing

In my honest opinion, Techinline seems a bit pricey. Of course, you’ll have to be the judge of that yourself. Techinline provides you with two different license models. You can either choose a subscription model which expires after a certain time or a per-session license which is based on a “pay-as-you-go” model. Obviously, if you plan to use Techinline a lot to support your clients, it’s more beneficial to go with the subscription model as you can create an unlimited amount of sessions prior to your license expiring. If however you will only use Techinline sporadically, the per-session might make more sense. With the subscription model, you can only establish one session/connection at any given time.

Pros and Cons

- Extremely easy to establish connection with client

- Uses standard port 80 and 443 so to traverse firewalls and proxies

- Tw0-way desktop sharing capabilities within same session

- Drag and Drop feature makes sharing files between computers hassle free

- Remote reboot and auto-connect is awesome

- Lacks extra communication features between expert and client

- Pricing is a bit on the expensive side, especially “per-session” model

- Not much incentive to use this if you don’t own a business

You can find more information regarding Techinline from the links below. They have a pretty good features page describing what Techinline is capable of along with a FAQ and Usage section.

Features

Documentation and Usage

Frequently Asked Questions

Consider Also Reading...

Remote Desktop Access for EveryoneBeing able to remotely control your own (or someone else) computer from another location and from a foreign computer ... Microsoft SkyDrive OverviewIt seems like only yesterday that Dropbox could comfortably sit back and dominate the online storage world with their ...

How-To Utilize Wake-on-Lan FeatureSo I recently wrote about how anyone can use remote access technology to remotely connect to their computers back ... Remotely Control Windows from Your iPhone!So a good friend recently came down for a visit. Being the tech geeks that we both are, a ...

TeamViewer to the Rescue!For helping out remote users, whether they may be your friends, family members, co-workers or heck, even strangers, there ...

X

If you enjoyed reading this article, you might want to subscribe to my RSS feed for updates on this topic.

Pages: 1 2