Browser-based Demos

September 1, 2004 9:46 AM

I'm looking for online demonstration software. Specifically, something that will allow the ones watching the software demonstration to do so from their browser. Cost is an issue, but I don't need free. [more inside]

Basically, the functionality that I'm looking for is that the user will go to a specific url and will see what's on our computer here as it happens. Voice will happen over the phone.

So far I've looked at Live Meeting, but it's way overkill, and expensive. I have root access to a LAMP box, and can run an IIS box as well if that's the best way to do things.

posted by sauril to computers & internet (7 comments total)

UltraVNC http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/ allows users to browse to your IP addesss at a port (5900?) and view your desktop with their browser... I've used it a few times to explain things while showing them to people. It even works moderately well for dialup users. Much better than pcNowhere and live meeting. There may be other VNC clients that allow the same thing but, UltraVNC has a file transfer app... which is cool.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 10:17 AM on September 1, 2004

www.gotomypc.com, www.webex.com

I like vnc quite well, but it does not have good corporate acceptance. The two above are "nice" in that they don't require the watchers to download and install anything, they are pure web-browser. I haven't looked at ultravnc, maybe it does that.

The coolest thing about vnc, bar none? Say you have a linux machine and and windows machine (as I do). You run vnc on the windows machine. You run x2vnc on the linux machine. This makes it so that when I move the mouse off, say, the right side of my screen, it croses over to the window computer's monitor and then my mouse and keyboard work on that computer. You can set up as many as you like, I actually have a laptop and two monitors on my desk, and can control all three with the same mouse and keyboard, no KVM switch nonsense.
posted by RustyBrooks at 10:25 AM on September 1, 2004

Webmeeting.
posted by the fire you left me at 10:26 AM on September 1, 2004

Two of the other VNC implementations are TightVNC and RealVNC. There's a java version of the viewer that users can dynamically load into their browser. You'll want to set the "view only" password, which prevents them from taking control of the machine from which you're doing the presentation.
posted by bachelor#3 at 10:37 AM on September 1, 2004

I've sat in on a number of meetings that used WebEx, and it works quite well, at least from the audience's perspective. (Viewing a meeting through a low-bandwidth connection tends to lag a bit behind everyone else, but not unusably so). Haven't tried the others suggested here, so can't offer a good comparison.
posted by ook at 10:55 AM on September 1, 2004

great. thanks for the help everyone.
posted by sauril at 12:23 PM on September 1, 2004

I've actually just started using WebEx to train some clients on a web-based product we're developing, and it's great. If you're dealing with corporations, WebEx is doubly nice because it runs over port 80- no firewall issues, which generally nixes stuff like VNC right off the bat. We use the metered rate of $.33/participant/minute.
posted by mkultra at 1:06 PM on September 1, 2004