I thought I'll share with you a recent amusing and interesting remote support experience. It involved helping Juan, a friend of mine in UK and his mother in Mexico, both of us ultimately having to control her PC, miles and oceans away. It is interesting how now-a-days members of a family live and work apart in different ends of the world and have to depend on the internet to be a family. You never know when you might get into a situation to remotely assist one of your closest ones with PC software hiccups.

Anyways, I was text chatting to Juan, currently working in UK and was wondering why he was not getting back with his usually witty rapid responses. On my demand for attention, he then told me that his mother in Mexico was driving him nuts complaining...

 My friend put the talking thing and left. Now, the talking thing is going round and round.

He asked me if I could make anything out of it and I said all I can think of and see is a huge question mark in a cloud on top of my head.

After further discussions about what is "talking thing going round and round" going nowhere, I suggested him to make a remote connection to his mother's PC in Mexico using Zoho Assist and SEE what she was seeing. He said his mother's computer ideology is such that the monitor is the internet-email and the other box (CPU) is unnecessary. I assured him that if she knows to check her email that will do to gain remote control of her PC. Skeptical but hopeful, he went and started a remote session from the Zoho web page; typed his mother's email-id and clicked "Start session".

Glad to receive any email from her son, his mom opened the email, "clicked on one of those blue things with the hand" (email link) and later on Juan's request clicked on "Join session" from the web page that opened. In minutes Juan was not only viewing but controlling the mouse and working on his mother's PC located far away in Mexico. Then he typed "Hahaha....I see now what the talking thing round and round is!" I demanded immediate explanation and he insisted it be a suspense.

After a while though, he said he was not able stop the "talking thing" from going "round and round" and some extra help would be good. Ultimately he invited me to also view his mother's PC by using the "invite" option in Zoho remote support interface. So, three people in different corners of the world were sharing the desktop of a PC in minutes. No internet settings, firewall tweaking, IP address or such. All from our web browsers.

And so, I too figured out what was going "round and round" repeatedly, while it should be going in. It is absolutely amazing how something simple can seem complicated. In collaboration, we browsed through some message boards online on his mother's computer and after following instructions on one related forum, we got the talking thing to go in. Juan also explained his mother how to talk through it. If you are intrigued to know what was going "round and round".....click here to see.                                                                      

Remote support is simple and effective with Zoho Assist. You can connect to anyone, anywhere even through firewalls/proxies, NAT. You can have an IT technician remotely control your PC right from his office. If you are in IT support, you even have features like Remote PC Diagnostics and built-in file transfer to exchange and install updates and patches. You can collaborate with your colleagues, share your desktops and work as a team. Try Zoho Assist next time you are in need to remotely control a PC.

Did you know that using Remote Support with Zoho Meeting, you can now get comprehensive diagnostic information about a remote PC in just a click? Yes, a click on the 'Diagnostics’ button control instantly unveils ‘Remote PC Diagnostics’ to you.

It is a known fact that PC diagnosis is essential to hasten the process of identifying the root cause of a problem, especially while working on rectifying technically challenging software issues (that may be affecting the functioning of other hardware). If you are a computer support technician, then being able to obtain information about applications, processes, active drivers, events etc becomes necessary to troubleshoot issues that demand higher level of research.

Typically, while performing remote support on customer PCs, the Task Manager and management programs in Administrative Tools are frequently used for diagnostic purposes. It may be quite tedious and frustrating if the controller of a remote system has to navigate and activate them remotely at the client’s end, time and again, having to access each utility individually at various points of the support session.

Remote Support with Zoho Meeting helps prevent this time draining situation by aggregating the prime diagnostic information under one simple tabbed ‘Remote PC Diagnostics’ interface.

Using Remote PC Diagnostics

The support technician or the controller of the remote system can launch the Remote PC Diagnostics view, by clicking on the ‘Diagnostics’ button control on the User Interface (UI).

The Remote PC Diagnostics interface contains seven parts: Dashboard, Processes, Services, Drivers, Applications, Start-up and Event Viewer. Each tab displays information relative to the actions and activities on the remote system.

The Processes tab lists all the on-going processes on the remote system along with the process-id (PID), memory used, the respective percentage memory, user name and priority. The list can be sorted in ascending or descending order relative to name alphabets or numerical values by clicking on the title name of each column. This is mainly useful to trace the processes consuming the most and least memory.

Services

The Services tab lists all the long-running executables that perform specific functions and do not require user intervention on the remote system.  A brief description of the service functions is displayed along with the path to the service executable, its current status and startup type. A technician can track how a service was started and also determine if any unwanted services were started automatically.

Drivers

The Drivers tab lists all the hardware and software drivers that are active in the remote system, in three columns: Name, Display Name and Type. While the Name column corresponds to the name of the driver file, Display Name denotes the kind of software or hardware being driven. The Type column specifies if the driver is part of the kernel or the file system. This helps a remote controller to assist a client dealing with driver related issues.

Applications

The Applications tab shows details of software applications and programs running on the remote system. It contains Name, Version number, Publisher and Location (path to the directory) where the application is executed from. This enables the controller of the remote system to check for the presence of any spurious applications that may be hindering proper functioning of the system.

Start-Up

The Start-Up tab displays details of all the programs that get initiated when the remote client starts his/her system. Most malware programs make their way into the start-up path in the registry and keep running in the background without the knowledge of the user. This being the case, a support technician can track down such unwanted programs from this tabbed view and also get to know if too many start-up programs are slowing the system down.

Event Viewer

The Event Viewer tab provides a snapshot of significant occurrences on the remote computer that fall into one of the three severity levels, information, warning or error. With the Event Viewer, information about hardware, software, and system components on the remote computer can be obtained, along with monitoring of security related events. This helps the support technician to identify and diagnose the source of system problems, or predict potential ones.

Note: This facility is available currently only for remote PCs running Windows. Work is in progress to support Mac and Linux.

Rapid Remote Support

The success of resolving a computer problem through remote assistance relies heavily on the scope and speed of access to in-depth system information at the remote customer’s end. Your client may not find it too comforting to watch you open up his/her task manager, event manager, administrative tools and such cryptic, unfamiliar stuff you deal with rather frequently. As an analogy think about a patient forced to watch a surgeon perform his fine cuts, stitches and chat about the insides with his peers.....not good right?

Using Remote Support with Zoho Meeting, you can now simply click on the ‘Diagnostics’ button and immediately have access to all the prime information, otherwise only available through individual access and activation at the remote PC end. You can get on with performing your technical surgery on the remote PC given the better hold on the specifics of the problem, sans any paranoid customers.

Try Remote Support with Zoho Meeting today, assist your clients effectively and have them impressed with your rapid service.

Hari

Many of the website owners would be interested to integrate a product like online meeting in their websites. You can now easily build an online meeting product with our Zoho Meeting API. You can integrate Zoho Meeting through our API in your website and brand a new name for it. Also, it is not always necessary to use Zoho Meeting API. Instead, you can also use the feature Embed Meeting to embed your online meetings in website.

Let us see in detail the advantages of using Zoho Meeting API:

• Makes it simple to build your application as it is done using REST (Representational State transfer) architecture.
• Enables you to work on any platform.
• This is a free service available for any website.

REST is a style of software architecture which uses the simple http and URLs standard.

HTTP Method Used in Zoho Meeting	Action
POST	Create, edit, delete meeting. Start remote assistance
GET	Read or get meeting details

The API service permits the use of all present coding methods. Zoho Meeting API provides private and public URLs.

• Private URLs are for getting user specific details.
• Public URLS are for getting meeting details which are made public.

In order to use the Zoho Meeting API,

1. You have to first get the API key using this link.
2. Now request for a ticket by filling in the required details mentioned in the parenthesis [ ]
   
   https ://accounts.zoho.com/login?servicename=[ZohoMeeting]&FROM_AGENT=true&LOGIN_ID=[Zoho Username/Email Address]&PASSWORD=[Password]
   
   
3. Send the authenticated request to Zoho accounts over a secured connection by submitting the URL in web browser.
4. You will now get the ticket. Visit the link http://api.wiki.zoho.com/Zoho-Meeting.html and choose your desired API.
5. Follow the procedure given in the help page using the API key and ticket to get the API code.

You can choose the desired API formats (XML or JSON). Use our rich API to build your application and implement on your website.

Take a quick tour of how to implement the API:

For an example of how to use the API, let us take the case of creating online meeting. Using the API, you can schedule online meetings by providing meeting topic, presenter and participant address, date and time of online meeting. Entrepreneur Assist uses Zoho Meeting API and integrates the online meeting application. For any queries, please make your comments here.

( Note: Invitation mail will be automatically sent to all the participants. Creating an online meeting through the API is same as creating through our website. Also, you will have additional options in API like "Mail sending option" in the 'Create Meeting' API. For more details, click here.)

Embed Meeting: It is not always necessary to use Zoho Meeting API. Instead, you can also use the feature Embed Meeting to embed your online meetings in website

Live Demo: Also, visit our Live Demo to see how we have embedded Zoho online meeting in our website.

Note: Currently the API is for online meeting and we will provide the API for remote assistance soon.

Let us see the advantages of Live Demo:

• Participants can test drive our online meeting from anywhere and anytime.
• You can preview how your customer will join your online meetings.
• Participants can view the demo in any operating system as we now support Windows, Mac and Linux.
  
• You can request participants to test the types of viewers (Flash, Java, Active X) best suited to join online meetings.

What we have actually done is created and started an online meeting in one of our office computers and embedded the online meeting in a live demo webpage (Also, this is a classic example of embed meeting feature using which you can embed online meetings in your webpage). You can visit the live demo, enter your name and join the online meeting. Now, you will see our office desktop instantaneously through default Flash player. Also, you can click on “presentation sharing” to view the presentation alone.

Here you have an easy option to choose your viewer from Flash, Java and Active X. To learn more about the viewer and the minimum system requirement for joining the demo, visit Multiple Meeting Viewers.

You can also chat with our team once you joined the live demo. The live demo runs 24x7, which gives you the flexibility to join an online meeting at your convenient time. In addition, if you want a personalized demo, you can contact +1-888-900-9646 or provide contact details here.

In the personalized demo, you will learn

• Create and start online meeting
• Join online meeting
• Start remote session
• Join remote session
• Features of Zoho online meeting

Overall, you will see how Zoho Meeting is an easy and good performance online meeting solution. Do join the live demo and provide your valuable feedback here or you can also contact us through our web form.

"Can I transfer files during remote support?"

Yes. Today we have come up with a highly requested feature in Zoho Meeting – File Transfer for Remote Support. Customer/IT Support people can now copy files to and from the local and remote PCs. For instance, as an IT Support person, if you want to install an update in your colleague's system located at another branch, you can now use this feature and easily install the update in the remote system. There is no need for you to send the CD or file through e-mail.

Files are transferred during remote support at high speed (depends on your bandwidth) and all files are encrypted (SSL & 128 bit encryption) before being transferred. There is no need to install any software and you can continue using the desktop sharing and remote assistance during file transfer. What's more, it is user friendly too and is designed for your maximum convenience.

 You can now notice a bright new button on the Zoho Meeting toolbar (viewer).

 Just click on the File Transfer button and a dialog box opens with two panes:

                           In the Left pane, Local Files are displayed

                           In the Right Pane, Remote PC files are displayed

We have tried to make the file transfer process as simple and as easy as possible. All you have to do is just highlight a file from local or remote computer and click on the green arrow button. The file will be copied to the other PC. You can transfer any type of file between the PCs at a high transfer rate and in a secure way. Also, the file transfer process will not affect the desktop sharing during remote support.

Let us see the advantages of File Transfer:

• Useful for installing patches and in getting log files from customer.
• Unlimited file transfer without any restrictions.
• Works behind any firewall and NAT Proxy.
• It is an easy and secure way to transfer files between local and remote PC.

For screenshots of how to use the feature, please watch the presentation below:  (watch in a new tab)

We have come up with the initial version of file transfer and we are working on the enhancements like icons for drives & desktop shortcut, transfer of multiple files and resume of file transfer. Try using this feature and do post your comments here or contact us through our web form so that we can constantly improve and make it more convenient for you. Hope you will be able to handle your customers in a better way with our new feature.

Note: This feature is only for Remote Support and currently for Windows PCs only. We will extend it to other operating systems soon.

No need to invite your participants individually through e-mail or provide them with meeting key anymore. No need for the participants to visit the Zoho Meeting webpage too. All you have to do is paste a few lines of HTML code of Zoho Online Meeting in your own website or blog (we will see this in detail a little later). Your participants have to visit your website and join your meeting. It's that simple!

Embed Meeting feature will be very useful for the trainers who need to conduct e-learning programs and for sales person who need to conduct product demo. With this feature, you can allow your participants to join the meeting easily from their favorite browsers. You can greatly save your time and money and reach more people.

We have embedded and started Zoho Meeting in a webpage of ours. You can join the online meeting and see real time desktop sharing.

Advantages of embedding your meeting are:

• Allow the participants to join easily from their web browsers.
• Save your time in sending individual invitation to the participants.
• Reach more people in a short duration.
• Reduce your expense for conducting mass training like e-learning programs.

Now, let us see how this feature works.

Create Meeting

You have to first create online meeting to embed in website. It is not necessary to start the meeting.

Get Embed Code

'Meeting Details' page will open once you have created the meeting. Locate and click on the Embed meeting link in this page. A small window appears with a HTML code. Copy the generated code.

Embed  your meeting in website

Paste the copied code in your website. All your participants have to do is just visit your webpage, submit their names, and click join. They will be able to see your presentation once you start your meeting.

                                               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For advanced features, join the Live Demo from here. For a detailed explanation, please visit our Help Page.

Try to embed Zoho online meeting in your website and Contact Us to let us know your feedback. We will be happy to hear from you.

If you want to provide demo or sales presentations quickly and want to save time in visiting the webpage then we have a solution to your need - Desktop Plugin of Zoho Meeting.

Also, if you are a customer support person conducting frequent meetings or remote sessions, you can use the desktop plugin and save time. You can resume your previously conducted sessions without entering the meeting key. 

We have created the plugin with most of the features available in the Zoho Meeting website. With desktop plugin, you can Create online meeting/remote session, Join online meeting/remote session, Resume meetings and View My Meetings.

Let us see the benefits of desktop plugin.

• Easy starting and joining of scheduled online meetings/remote sessions.
• Effortlessly manage all your online meetings from the desktop.
• Instantly resume your previous meetings.

Now, to download the Desktop Plugin (for windows), click here

You can find the following options in the Home tab once you log into desktop plugin:

• Create online meetings/remote sessions
• Join existing session
• Resume last session

Schedule your online meeting/remote session

Click Create Meeting button from Home tab. Provide details as given below in the Meeting details page.

1. Meeting Topic: Provide topic for your meeting
2. Date and Time: Choose the date and time of your meeting
3. Agenda (optional): Provide outline of things to be done in the meeting
4. Participant's e-mail address: Provide all your participants e-mail address

Now, Create the meeting and then start it at the scheduled time.

You can resume last conducted online meeting or remote session from the Home tab. Also, you can join existing meeting by providing the meeting key from Home tab. Participants can join using Flash/Java Viewer without any installation.

You can experience how the Flash/Java Viewer works by attending the LIVE DEMO. You can join the meeting as a participant with the Flash or Java Viewer and see one of our office computer desktop setup as a presenter.

Create Remote Session:

1. Click on Remote Assistance button from Home tab.
2. Provide the customer e-mail address under Start Session and click Start.

Also, here you have an option to join to remote session by using session id.

View My Meetings

1. Click Meeting tab and you can find the list of previously conducted meetings.
2. If you want to restart any of online meetings from the link, select the particular meeting from My Meetings page and click Start.

Also, you can get details of all meetings from My Meeting tab. In short, you can manage all your meetings from here.

Try this feature and provide us with your valuable feedback, which will help us to improve.

Download the plugin from here

For a detailed description, visit our Help page

Note: This feature is optional (not mandatory) for the participants

 

In one of my previous posts, I talked about integration between different Zoho Apps expanding on the following integrations.

• Sheet integration with CRM
• Writer & Sheet integration in Zoho Projects
• Meeting & Chat integration in Zoho Show
• Creator Integration in People
• Projects integration in Invoice
• Writer, Sheet & Show integration in Notebook
• Writer, Sheet & Show integration into Wiki
• Chat integration in Writer, Sheet, Show, Notebook, Meeting etc

Here in this post, let us look at some of the integrations we have added since then. Here we go...

Writer, Sheet & Show integration in Zoho Docs

When we introduced Zoho Docs, we not only aggregated all your documents from Zoho Writer, Sheet & Show, we also added the ability to open these documents right within Zoho Docs. With Writer, Sheet & Show integration in Zoho Docs, we let you open documents as a tab in view-only mode within the Zoho Docs application. You always have an option to 'Edit' these files which launches the appropriate Zoho application in a new window.



Zoho Mail Integration in Docs and Vice Versa

In Zoho Mail, we added an option to attach documents directly from Zoho Docs. This is a simpler way to send documents created in Zoho. Similarly, if you are in Zoho Docs, we integrated Zoho Mail to email your documents. Additional information about this integration is available here.




Zoho Chat Integration with Mail, Docs, People & Business

When I previously talked about Zoho Chat integration, we had Zoho Chat integrated with Writer, Sheet, Show, Notebook & Meeting. We now extended this integration to Mail, Docs, People & Business. This means you'll see the consistent chat bar at the bottom across all Zoho Apps allowing you to chat with members in your buddy list. With Zoho Chat supporting multiple IM Networks, you can now seamless chat with your buddies from other IM Networks no matter which Zoho Application you are in.



Zoho Meeting Integration in Zoho Chat

I previously talked about Zoho Chat integration with Zoho Meeting. This time, the integration is the other way around. We integrated Zoho Meeting in Chat. This means, while chatting with other users in Zoho Chat, if you have a need to share your desktop with other users, you can do so with a single click. As Zoho Chat is integrated with multiple IM Networks (Yahoo, Google, MSN, AIM, ICQ & Jabber), you can share your desktop with users from any  IM networks.




Zoho Meeting Integration in Zoho CRM

Zoho Meeting is contextually integrated into Zoho CRM. When you search for a contact in Zoho CRM, you'll see an option on the right to start a quick one-on-one meeting with that user with just a click. As Zoho Meeting is free for one-on-one meetings, you need not be a paid Zoho Meeting user to try this functionality.



These are some of the new integrations between Zoho Apps. We have few others which I'll expand in a future post. We also have some interesting integrations coming. Stay tuned.