Found some new (and updated) remote help and IT tools today. The first tool, is a new one (to me at least), which I found from an article on Tech Republic, and is called CrossLoop. Cross Loop is a remote desktop/vnc clone that allows you to view the desktop of another PC. It is designed for remote helpdesk scenarios, as it requires a user at the remote computer to initiate a connection.

The second and third tools are Team Viewer and Ultra VNC, both of which I have heard of before, but have been updated. Team Viewer’s free offering has been expanded for non-commercial use, while Ultra VNC has several plug-ins and add-ons which make it suitable for a variety of scenarios.

The add-ons for Ultra VNC that interest me the most are the Repeater and Nat2Nat, both of which allow for connections to be made across firewalls. Digging thru the Ultra VNC forums, I came across several posts talking about a solution (Ultra VNC with various add-ons) that enables remote connections to be made using SSL on port 443 without the need to configure firewalls. The Ultra VNC repeater is licensed under the BSD license, but I’m not sure on the other add-ons. The NatHelper server that is used for the Nat2Nat looks like it might be hosted by Ultra VNC, as I didn’t see any download links for it.

The final tool I came across today, was Spice Works, which was an add displayed on the Ultra VNC sight. SpiceWorks is a free (supported by ads, and not open source) tool for IT professionals looking to manager their network. Here is a review from PC Magazine (which also drops the names of a couple of open source network monitoring tools).