Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Troubleshooting
Teamviewer 5 beta gets faster, adds voice and video conferencing
by Lee Mathews Nov 27th 2009 at 1:00PM
Version 5 is now ready for beta testing, and it looks like Teamviewer is once again set for some solid new features and yet another boost in speed.
In addition to getting quicker, Teamviewer 5 now includes a major communications improvement. You're no longer limited to text-based chatting - v5 supports voice and video chat. Quality is good - about on par with Skype in my testing. It's still at the mercy of your ISP, of course, so the more bandwidth you have at your disposal, the better it will work.
Besides being a great app for remote support, Teamviewer evolved into an excellent screen-sharing and presentation tool in v4 and has just got even better with v5.
You can download the TeamViewer 5 beta right now and take it for a spin. As with previous releases, you can expect version 5 to be free for personal use, and there will be a portable version available as well.
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Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
NonprofitTech said 1:31PM on 11-27-2009
Could someone explain to me the difference between this and Logmein?
From what I can gather about it... it seems more complicated to use, and costs more. Yet I read about people you prefer and recommend it all the time, which makes me think that I am missing something. Hoping someone who uses Teamviewer can fill me in. I'm always looking for better ways of doing things... and if this is a better Logmein, I'd like to understand it.
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Esente said 12:08AM on 11-28-2009
TeamViewer: no installation on both sides, no port-forwarding in both sides, works fine in most situations.
As far as I remember using LogMeIn, you have to install either a plugin, or a software to the computer you want to control. LogMeIn used to have an advantage of controlling clients in the webbrowser, but now TeamViewer can do it also.
So I guess for me, TV is a win.
NonprofitTech said 6:50AM on 11-28-2009
Logmein's web browser remote control is free. As best as I can tell, in order to get TV's web connector you need to purchase a premium license, which is $1400.
Logmein does involve an installation on the remote computer, but doesn't Team Viewer involve installations too? Here is what their FAQ says you need to do: "What you do. Download TV, install it" "What your partner does. Download and run customer module"
Unless I am reading that incorrectly, it seems like you do have to install something on both sides of the connection for TV to work... is that not what that says?
guelth said 2:55PM on 11-27-2009
I think http://www.sharedview.com/ has been useful especially for helpdesk and collaboration.
For conferencing, www.DimDim.com is was pretty cool.
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wo106dr said 7:54PM on 11-27-2009
I live in PA and visit our children"s homes. From Boston or northern NY, works flawlessly when I want to check the desktop at home. One thing I do with it in the winter, is I have the webcam viewing a thermometer, making sure the boiler at home is still working. All free and effortless. I really appreciate the fact that TV offers this service free for personal use. Thank you TeamViewer!
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blogward said 6:34AM on 11-28-2009
TV is that good, I asked if I could send them some money. Yes, the premium license is very expensive, but you don't need it for general non-commercial remote use of your computer. No complications, no registration, no installation (unless you want to), just run it on both computers; and v5 is faster and more robust than ever. I don't work for them, I just rate it 5*****.
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Phil said 2:58PM on 11-28-2009
Since I haven´t tried both I can´t really compare them, but as far as I can tell TeamViewer works fine and as pointed out above you can use it for free for general non-commercial remote support.
@NonprofitTech
Seems you missed the portable version
http://www.teamviewer.com/download/portable.aspx
Also you can get a portable version from PortableApps and Liberkey.
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ChiliPepr said 11:09PM on 11-28-2009
LogMeInFree is very good and works through all but the most restrictive firewalls using a java app (OK) or a browser plugin (very good). You need an account on the local machine, which is a pain for one-off support, unless you get LogMeIn Ignition, which is $40 per machine per year.
TeamViewer requires an installation for running as a service and setting predefined passwords, but you can also run their TeamViewerQS app without installation.
I also offered to pay something, but they only have free, $700, $1,400 and $2,690 licenses.
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ChiliPepr said 11:40PM on 11-28-2009
BTW - the flash client is at:
http://go.teamviewer.com
hazard said 9:25AM on 11-29-2009
Great product and big praise for providing free non-commercial version. However, for remote desktop control Logmein [free version] has a number of advantages such as browser based solution, OSX support and no restrictions on concurrent sessions.
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Lee Mathews said 9:26AM on 11-29-2009
FWIW, Teamviewer DOES offer a browser-based solution (via Flash viewer) and it also runs on OSX.
cf said 12:02PM on 12-01-2009
Hi Lee,
Many thanks for catching up the latest TeamViewer 5 news. This is a huge release for us in which we implemented plenty of new functionality and managed anyhow to even improve the speed. All new features in TeamViewer 5 like VoIP and video transmission as well as the enhanced presentation features are available in the free version.
That's correct, TeamViewer offers a free Mac OSX version and is browser based as well.
Best,
Constantin
TeamViewer Germany
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