I provide remote computer support to people. Mostly to family but also occasionally to friends and acquaintances.
For family I’ve been using RealVNC. For other folks, AeroAdmin.
RealVNC has several advantages from my perspective. Two important ones are there’s a native Linux version. Family doesn’t use Linux but I do and I want to be able to run something directly on my system rather than running it through layers. Secondly and most importantly for family, it’s running all the time on their system. If support is needed we get on the phone, I start the connection, a message pops up on their screen and they click OK to allow the connection. Shazam! remote support has started. There’s nothing for them to install, no program for them to start. Just ask for support then click OK.
Other pluses are it runs on Linux so I have remote access to my own system when I’m away from it and I can register up to five systems in my RealVNC account with no subscription license required.
For the person I’m tutoring now and others I’ve helped in the past AeroAdmin has been the way to go. There’s a free license that allows occasional usage without charge. When I say “occasional” I don’t mean to imply crazy limited. From my perspective the free license is very generous with the time and connections allowed. I have certainly never bumped into the usage limits.
Of course there’s drawbacks to both. With RealVNC the issue is running it on my system. RealVNC occasionally freezes and restarts. When it does I either have to wait out the freeze before I can begin using my pc again (same experience whether I’m connected remotely or at the keyboard) or I restart my system if I’m at the keyboard. An issue I choose to live with because it gives me remote access to my system and I know how to deal with it. When I’m at the keyboard I sometimes just shut down RealVNC so there’s no chance it interrupts me. I really should file a bug report but haven’t bothered yet. And since it’s me that’s affected, not family I provide remote support to, I know what’s going on and corrective actions I can take.
EDIT 3/2020: I found the issue back in January. A wall paper changer set to change wall paper every five minutes. Increased the interval to 15 minutes and the problem became less frequent. Switched to a different wallpaper changer and the problem has gone away
AeroAdmin is a different story. The biggest challenge is always getting the person who needs to use it to get it on their system, get it started, provide me the information I need to connect, and finally make the correct choices when the connection starts so I can actually help. That sounds hard but it’s not. But it is for many people.
I’ve made documentation and sent it to people. I’ve recently made this video, AeroAdmin, letting someone help you. But it is still a challenge. Getting the connection started so people can get help always seems to be the biggest issue.
Another AeroAdmin drawback, for me not the person supported, is that I need to run Wine to run AeroAdmin. I’ve never been a fan of Wine because whenever I tried it my system was changed in ways that I couldn’t easily undo. Plus, depending on the install package, it added things to my system that I didn’t want. Getting stuck with things I didn’t want was one of the reasons for getting away from Windows. However AeroAdmin does run well under Wine so, when I need it, I run it in an isolated Linux vm with Wine installed so Wine isn’t impacting my actual running system.