NetSupport Manager 12.5
A classy on-premises solution, packed with useful features and priced right for businesses of all sizes
SSCORE PRICE 1-500 systems, £10 each (exc VAT) from netsupportmanager.com MBs seeking a no-nonsense, on-premises remote support solution will struggle to do better than NetSupport Manager 12.5. It boasts an unparalleled suite of support tools, it works with almost every platform out there, and its perpetual licensing scheme means you have no ongoing subscription fees to worry about.
Needless to say, remote control, file transfer, chat and recording facilities are all present. There’s also a detailed system inventory capability. And platform support is excellent, with clients available for all versions of Windows plus macOS, Linux, Google Chrome OS and Android.
For accessing remote sites, NSM doesn’t use a web portal, but rather a bespoke gateway component, which links together technician and user when both enter the same unique PIN. Encryption options include 256-bit AES to ensure the connection is secure from end to end.
Getting set up is a swift process. We had the management software up and running on a Windows Server 2016 host in five minutes, and were then able to push the client out to selected systems and run discoveries on AD domains, workgroups and IP address ranges. We were impressed by how smoothly this went, with the client landing on each of our Windows 10 desktops in about 30 seconds. At this point you can also password-protect clients, apply Active Directory access policies and restrict what tools each technician can access.
The only disappointment is that you can’t remotely deploy the NSM agent to macOS clients. For these systems, we had to download the client from the NetSupport website and install it manually on each Mac.
Still, once all our Windows and macOS clients had been deployed, the main control console made it a breeze to browse them, arrange them into custom groups and search for specific ones using all or part of their machine name. For larger organisations, the smart grouping function is likely to be very useful too, allowing you to instantly sort all your clients into lists
“Once all our Windows and macOS clients had been deployed, the main control console made it a breeze to browse them”
based on their OS version, physical location or other attributes.
The console shows a live thumbnail view of each client, and you can just double-click to connect. Icons below provide instant access to remote control, file transfer, command prompt, chat and inventory tools. Right-click on a client icon and you’ll see additional options allowing you to reboot the computer, log out the user and remotely execute apps. Integration with Windows means you can also use File Explorer to browse the network and directly open a remote control session, initiate a chat or view a system’s inventory.
The file transfer tool, meanwhile, appears in a separate window, showing the contents of the local and client machines for simple drag-anddrop file copies. It’s partnered with a handy file distribution tool that allows you to send selected files to multiple clients in one go.
There’s also a free control app for both iOS and Android devices, which can connect to any network device running the client. We tried this on our iPad and had no problem firing up remote control sessions, having a text chat and rebooting the system.
For some, a cloud-based service will make more sense, but if you want an on-premises solution, NetSupport Manager is the best on the market. It’s easy to deploy, it delivers a wealth of features – and it’s very competitively priced, too.
REQUIREMENTS Windows 7/Server 2008 upwards macOS 10.5 upwards Linux Mobile apps: Android, iOS