Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with LogMeIn

Help me track down stolen laptop please!

grammalvsu — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:09:39 -0800

Quick! I right at this fleeting moment have remote access to a stolen laptop of mine that had logmein installed. what files can i copy over from it that might hold any type of identifying information? i can see that the thief uses firefox, so are there firefox logfiles that would track what websites he's visited, even his online email account or something along those lines? any other useful files anyone can think of that can help me track this guy down? By the way, Logmein provides me with the IP address so i have that. i might also try to install computrace, though it would be tricky installing a program without him seeing -- i'd have to make sure the computer has been inactive for a while, and hope he's not looking at the screen either.

thanks for any help!

What does someone who wants to be an entrepreneur do after college?

schindyguy — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:59:18 -0800

I am trying to figure out what do with my life after college for money and in general. I have a couple ideas like remote tech support and web development, please give me your wise advice (very long explanation) After reading lifehacker.com’s “ask metafilter roundup” several times over the last year, I decided last week to actually become a part of this great community (or aka as the hive, right?). I spent my $5 to get on here and want to introduce myself and ask for a little guidance from those wiser than me. After just graduating summa cum laude from the U of Arizona with a marketing/business degree in May, I am now in limbo between partying and real life. I used to be able to drink, get high, drink some more and stay up until 7 AM doing nothing, but now I feel my life should start. I have now moved back in with my two wonderful roommates (mom and dad) to my hometown in Los Angeles (Calabasas… if your unfamiliar with the area: known for Incubus, the Menendez brothers, Will Smith, Howie Mandel, reality shows like Jessica Simpson’s, Denise Richard’s, and the Kardashians). There are a lot more celebrities and powerful people that live and have lived here, but I won’t dwell on that because I don’t think you really care . As I digress, my point is that everyone I live around is very successful (in terms of money).

I have always been motivated by making money (especially on the internet); when I was 12 I first opened up a website selling turbo antenna boosters for FREE (with 4.95 shipping and handling—hope none of you fell for that). It was a great little scheme until the popularity of those things died out (making 5k when I was 12 was amazing). Then I moved on to selling U.S. car flags on eBay immediately following 9/11 (made some nice cash there too). I can relate a lot to another’s post (which I can’t find right now) about having everyone around me think that I was going to cure cancer or start the next Google by the age of 21. My family and friends all still believe that I am going to be the next Bill Gates and its hard for those thoughts to escape my head because I have been so brainwashed by them.

Anyway, my main business has been credit card processing for last year. It earns me some good residual income, nothing that I am proud of, but it covers some very minimal expenses. I plan on working very little on that, just supporting the service for current clients and adding others from WOM. It’s a side thing for me.

So after reading through this post I realized I could really benefit from setting up a similar service myself. I do computer support for about 15-20 family and other clients (they are always asking me if they can recommend me to others, but I say no because I am too busy with other things). I usually install the free LogMeIn on their computer and they call me up when they have a problem. I get $80/hour which seems very high in comparison to the poster’s proposed rates. However, unlike the poster, I would rather get a virtual team together that could log into my client’s computers and fix whatever basic computer problem they have (they should be shifts that will allow 24/7 support). I haven’t worked out the pricing, but somewhere around 20 bucks/month for a certain amount of time spent for help (spyware, MS word problem, printing pictures, installing drivers; anything over that specific amount of time would be more money hourly). I know “LogMeIn’s Rescue” could allow my clients to click on & be able to connect with someone on my team that can solve basic computer problems (the problem is that Rescue is expensive at $200/month which might be nothing in the future but is significant now). Crossloop has what’s called helpers in their network but I don’t know how it would be configured to work properly. There is also GoToAssist (Express Beta) which is currently free and does what I would want it to do, but will eventually cost money. If I went with LogMeIn or GoToAssist, I don’t know where to find qualified techs to be online and available 24/7. This post gives a lot more examples of software to use, but I dont know how I could get that team together. Eventually and down the road,
I would like to do 0% of the actual computer fixing
Oversee customer service/acquisition of new contracts/handle accounting
Have my virtual team be available 24/7 for 100% of my client base.

I have also been making money doing web development off and on for the last 10 years (since turbo antenna). No programming or writing code but using Dreamweaver and templates. I am at the point now where I would like to just be able to middle man the situation and get competent and qualified people together into teams to get these projects done when people ask me. For instance, I have this hotel owner in New York that needs a redesign of his site to include virtual tours, videos, a reservations system, and clone the look and feel of delano-hotel.com website. So if I charge the owner $4000 for the site, I would like to get it done for around $2500 (35% profit). In essence, my profit could be attributed to acquiring the client (finders fee), figuring out the scope of the project and its requirements (alongside developer), drawing up a proposal, handling correspondence/updates with client and team, and payments. I even posted a job on metafilter for this a couple days ago but no hits yet.

Mainly I am looking to put together a team(s) that can get any type of web programming done (web 2.0 design, CSS standards /compatibility testing, backend programming, flash programming…everything) Like if they aren’t the best at doing it, they know the best or a very qualified person to get that part of it done. I have talked to several startup owners like popdeck.com, rocknclothing.com, branders.com and they all told me about Indian development (which may fit my needs or may not). I have looked to online freelance sites (getafreelancer, guru, odesk, elance). Im not sure if Im too critical, but the quality of work and logic doesn’t seem to be there (common sense stuff). I am thinking of a project team that has maybe a manager, designer, variety of programmers, and tester that I can just give a task to and they will complete it. Maybe I should have a couple different teams that could accomplish different aspects; like one team for design, one for programming, and one for testing. Or maybe it needs to be divided along programming types. Most of those Indian guys act like they are one-stop shop solution for web development; they are the best at programming flash and the best at developing a iPhone app and they are also the best designers (and then they show me a mock of their site built in frames/tables). But at the same time I am open to having it programmed overseas if the quality is good and the client will be happy. I am sure that someone in the U.S. knows of good developers overseas and has good enough logic/communication skills to take my input and turn it into something good.

So to wrap this long rambling post about my current life situation:

What path do you think I should take? Should I try putting together the remote support team, the web development team, or stick with the credit card thing? I clearly can’t put 100% into everything.

How should I go about putting together these teams?

What suggestions do you have for current situation I am in?

Thanks for your time and once again sorry for the long post.

Help Desk Remote Support Software Experiences

enfa — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:56:15 -0800

Experiences with remote desktop software for help desk troubleshooting? I've used a few variations of VNC, and Remote Desktop, but our organization that supports a 20k+ users base running every networkable OS is looking for something with a little more ooomph. The nice wikipedia comparison chart has been helpful. I'm looking into NTRGlobal at the moment - care to share your experiences with this or related software? Ideally, the perfect software would:

Work on XP and Vista - OS X would be a nice bonus

Have built in encryption that wouldn't require a separate firewall

Be crazy simple to install on the client end (and be easy to uninstall, too)

Allow the client to see what is going on while the tech is working

Allow the client to easily disconnect the session at any time

Require the client to initiate or at least confirm the connection is OK before the technician can connect

Log the technician's session for later playback

Be nimble enough to work through assorted firewalls

Make it very difficult for anyone other than the intended technician to connect to the client's machine

Keep our security department from yelling at us

Thoughts? What has worked for you?

remote PC access that support twin-screens.

priorpark17 — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 07:01:24 -0800

Looking for remote PC access that support twin-screens. I use Logmein but it doesnt seem to support twin-screens. Is there any remote PC access / control software that supports multiple screens?

Dual monitors and remote access. Not what you think.

wile e — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:39:14 -0800

Dual monitor/remote access/I'm a moronFILTER: Accessing a desktop machine that used to have a dual monitor setup but now has none. My desktop machine (Win XP sp2) has a NVIDIA graphics card with dual monitor support. I had it running for a few years with two monitors and it worked wonderfully. Now I have the desktop sitting by itself, with no mouse, keyboard, or monitors hooked up and am only accessing it remotely via logmein.com pro.

Here's my problem: I didn't disable the dual monitor setup while they were still attached. I assumed that it would still output in a dual monitor display (remotely) even with the displays removed. I was incorrect. It defaulted to a single monitor display. But now, when I open certain programs that used to run exclusively on the 2nd monitor, they are 'off-screen'. I can force some of them onto my default display by right clicking the item on the task bar and hitting maximize. But if the program has a sub-window pop up, its gone forever. I have tried every option (I think) in the nView desktop manager that comes with the NVIDIA video card. I've even attempted to disable the nView controls. I cannot get it to work.

I know the obvious answer is to hook up the two monitors for a minute and properly switch over to a single monitor setup, but as I am lacking the monitors at the moment thats not the best solution right now.

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If anybody knows how I can force my desktop machine to think its still outputting to two monitors, that would be awesome. I would love to get the added real estate on my remote connection without having to use a virtual desktop.

If I have confused anybody, please ask and I will attempt to make my situation more understandable.

Thanks!