By the way, how do I direct message you? The mailbox from which your replies come is a no-reply mailbox.

Never mind, I figured out how to DM you.

I understand what you are saying.

If you have trouble. click on Inbox, Start a New Conversation, and type in my name.

I must say, I used this program to keep my uncles computer updated. He is 85 years old and god bless he used it to communicate with his friends. Now I had it set up for unattended access and today my upgraded to MSP360 connect freeware and Now I cant access his PC. Your really made a mistake.

WHY? I used it to keep my elderly relatives computer up to date. Help them when they ran into trouble now I'm stuck and have to drive to the houses to help them.

Please put back the unattended access.

We understand. While the loss of unattended access for true administrative reasons has been difficult for some Connect Free users, you can still help your uncle using attended access by joining an existing session. I assume if he’s using the computer, he will be able to devote a few minutes to help you get connected and help him manage the PC remotely and avoid a drive over.

Very disappointed about this decision, I've been with this for quite a few years and feel I've basically been used as an unpaid tester, I've provided a few suggestions and feed back.
I'm in the same position as David Sheema where I would need to but licences for 2 or 3 PCs, I understand the need to make money but $89.99 is far to expensive for what I need it for.

I have been using this software for some time now, but removing unattended access (along with the gradual restrictions being imposed on the free version, like limits on the amount of "addresses" and other things) - I am now going to 100% remove this software from my computers and start my search for a replacement tool. I am disappointed, as this software was a godsend, especially when TeamViewer became more of a chore to use than an asset. It was a good run, but unless unattended access is re-enabled for the free version, I am out and I wont ever come back.

Hello, i don't understand difference between unattended access and attended access? I was using remote desktop to connect from my WIN pc to MAC ntb, nothing more i don't need. I am trying to use free licence on MSP Connect, but it make just some error statements.

Unattended access is when you connect to a remote window system for administrative purposes, when no one is on the remote side. You log in using Windows credentials do your work and then exit the session. Attended access or interactive access is when someone is at the other end and they can provide you the pin to connect and you’re in the same session they are. Those types of sessions are more geared for helpdesk to help a family member or a user solve an issue or when they want to watch you solve an issue so they can learn. If you’re having another type of error please start a new post and let us know what you’re seeing.

Thank you for the years of service on the free product. I have now rigged up my own system to do remote access to the computers I need to manage, using open source components. Necessity is the mother of invention.

David, do you know if what you thought was going to happen with the next release (3.1 is now out) was implemented? Meaning, a person with a single Pro license could install it on as many of the machines they manage from as needed?

That would be a MAJOR sticking point for me purchasing a Pro license.

I currently have a single home desktop and 2 personal laptops I've also connected out from my dad's house, where he has a single desktop and single laptop. I also have installed on 2 or 3 desktop PCs at the church i am a part of and am the volunteer tech admin/tech support. Those are all non-profit use cases for connecting into and out from. Any of the desktops I connect in to are, more often than not, using unattended access.

For the schools I work for (my paid job), I have 3 work owned desktops that are mine that I may connect out from, as well as several potential laptops. I connect into the desktops using unattended mode frequently. I also have at least one "management PC" at each of my schools where I don't have my own desktop PC. If I'm remoting into one of those, it would almost always be using unattended mode. At our educational CoOp office, i've also set up the finance lady to be able to remote into her work desktop PC from home, so she could access her financial software. I use either UltraVNC or Microsoft Remote Desktop to remote to any other end-user device/server within the school districts or Coop (No MSP360 Remote Desktop/Connect).

For personal use (connecting into my home PC, my dad's, one of the church devices), I honestly have a hard time coughing up a yearly license. I've also used TeamViewer in the past to connect to other friends' and family members' PC to help them. But, generally in those use cases, the friend/family member could approve the connection if using the free version, so free would work in those cases (but that is the minority of my use case on the personal end). I would "consider" purchasing a $89 a year for my personal use, but would be much more likely if it was less expensive, or if I could make a one-time purchase.

For work use, I could see my Coop paying a yearly $89 for me to use. But I couldn't see them paying $89 for each machine that I use (including home/personal devices), that I may use to use to connect to one of the few RD/Connect machines in the schools and Coop that I remote into. I'd really love my 3 district tech directors and our 1 district tech assistant to also be able to use the unattended access into our management PCs. And what would be fantastic, is to be able to purchase the manged licence to push out the agent to all of our District and Coop PCs and Macs and let any of our tech staff remote into.

Last time i talked to sales, there were still enough items not working on the manged client side, and I'm thinking the pricing might have been prohibitive for us to have moved forward with. I haven't talked to sales again lately, though one has reached back out to me, so i need to. If memory serves me right, there were several client settings that couldn't be set in the management console when I had demo'd it (including not being able to set/see/manage the encryption and MFA settings. Maybe this has improved in the last few months???

The other work use-case where i had used the free product, COVID in March 2020. Me and my other district tech staff installed Remote Assistant on about 100-150 Kindergarden through 4th grade student devices that were getting sent home. We wanted to be able to support those students at home if needed. Those devices don't go home now, so we discontinued that usage, but it was great for the time students were at home! (we copied the config files from a single install onto all other devices, so they all had the same PIN code, and a batch file that we used to accomplish it with, also logged every install out to a location on our network, so we knew which machines had it installed and configured. (fyi, batch file ran the RA installer, then copied our config file over, then we finished the install where each machine got it's own unique machine ID.)

At the current time, I've rolled Connect back to the last version of MSP360 Remote Desktop on all the machines I use and turned off automatic updating, so that I can continue using it. I'm sure this will stop working at some point, just like older versions of Remote Assistant stopped being supported and working.

I've gotten Microsoft Remote Desktop through RD Gateway (and free Cisco Duo MFA) set up at two of my districts, so honestly I could completely drop using any other product for those two locations. I'd keep using UltraVNC/MS Remote Desktop to connect from the management PC/server to any other device within that network. But, I don't have that set up at my other school or the Coop.

Long and windy, sorry about that, but figured it would be good feedback for you in seeing how I personally have been using the free product for the last 2 or 3 years.

Steve,
I'm curious, are you using UltraVNC/VNC by ancy chance, or did you find some other FOSS project to use?

UVNC + ZeroTier (SimuVPN to avoid firewall port NAT issues)

I'll try to address your questions. If I miss something, please let me know.

David, do you know if what you thought was going to happen with the next release (3.1 is now out) was implemented? Meaning, a person with a single Pro license could install it on as many of the machines they manage from as needed? — Jared Pickerell - DCEduCoop

There have been no licensing changes for version 3.1. The way Pro licensing works, as you've already seen, is that you need to license any endpoint where you need to initiate an unattended session for administration purposes. Remote systems do not require a Pro license. Just install the free version of Connect on any remote systems you need to connect to in unattended fashion.

If you can restrict your admin computer to one computer, you can use it for all your unattended sessions. If you do need to kick off unattended access from another computer, it will need a Pro license.

There are no restrictions on interactive / attended sessions with a remote user / machine. You can use Connect Free for that purpose.

I would "consider" purchasing a $89 a year for my personal use, but would be much more likely if it was less expensive, or if I could make a one-time purchase.

We understand that the Pro pricing may not work for every customer. If you cannot use the free product to serve your family / work, then a Pro subscription would be the next option.

For work use, I could see my Coop paying a yearly $89 for me to use. But I couldn't see them paying $89 for each machine that I use (including home/personal devices), that I may use to use to connect to one of the few RD/Connect machines in the schools and Coop that I remote into. I'd really love my 3 district tech directors and our 1 district tech assistant to also be able to use the unattended access into our management PCs. And what would be fantastic, is to be able to purchase the manged licence to push out the agent to all of our District and Coop PCs and Macs and let any of our tech staff remote into.

Again, you'd just need to restrict starting an unattended session to the Pro licensed computer. None of the other computers require a Pro license. I think this is your understanding, but something you wrote above made me think that maybe you thought all computers need Pro licenses - which is not the case.

Last time i talked to sales [...] If memory serves me right, there were several client settings that couldn't be set in the management console when I had demo'd it (including not being able to set/see/manage the encryption and MFA settings. Maybe this has improved in the last few months

For Managed Connect, 2FA is managed from the login to the management console. You can enable 2FA for all administrator accounts and 2FA will be required when connecting to the management console and allow you to kick off a Connect session. Security credentials are managed automatically in Managed Connect and encryption is always enabled. List price is $34.99 / Month per Admin / Technician if you're a reseller like an MSP. That enables you to access any number of remote endpoints and use any computers to perform unattended administration or initiate interactive sessions with remote users.