Bazaar Systems Limited

Bazaar Remote Support

The Technology

The technology that enables someone with a computer problem to ask a friend, relative or an expert for help, when that person may be miles away, has been around for many years. It is used extensively in the Corporate environment where the IT helpdesk can connect into the back of anybody's PC to provide help. Because the expert can see what's on your screen, and even use your mouse and keyboard they can help with many problems.

Everyone thought therefore, when the Internet started to grow, that expert help would only ever be a click away. Then came the bad guys, the viruses and the trojans and suddenly everyone is installing Firewalls to protect themselves from criminals. But the technology used by criminals is exactly the same as that used for Remote Support, so a Firewall designed to prevent a bad guy getting into the back of your computer and taking control of it also makes Remote Support particularly difficult to operate. For instance the Microsoft Remote Assistance facility that is built into Windows XP and Vista is designed for their Corporate customers working on an internal company network, it has great difficulty working over the Internet and in many circumstances - if you have a Wireless Router for example - it won't work at all.

If you are concerned about security read the section below.

Bazaar Systems has deployed a completely different technology from that built in to Windows, one that is both completely secure and fully functional. If you need help with your PC simply follow the instructions here if you are using Firefox , or here if you are using Internet Explorer, or if you have already read them, and know how it works, simply click on this icon to start the download:

Click this LOGO to download the Remote Support software....It takes about two minutes.

But please read these Firefox instructions or these Internet Explorer instructions if this is the first time you have used it.

Security Considerations

Remote support or assistance operates by allowing someone on the Internet to see exactly what's on your screen and operate your mouse and keyboard. If you know this is happening and have invited the person to access your computer in this way; it is a good thing. On the other hand if you don't know the person, or worse still, don't even know it's happening; you could be in a lot of trouble.

In both cases the underlying technology is exactly the same. It's how it's used and by whom that makes the difference.

There are two "flavours" of software needed for Remote Support, one is safe and the other isn't; also one end of the Support connection must call the other over the Internet. Exactly how these two elements are arranged is very important to Security.

Who calls Who

With Bazaar Remote Support your computer makes an outbound connection to the computers at Bazaar Systems, not the other way around. The connection goes OUT from your computer and tries to connect to a computer at Bazaar Systems. This is very important because in order to do that the connection must pass through various layers of Firewalls here at Bazaar Systems and it does that through "holes" that we have inserted into the Firewalls to allow Remote Support connections. This is relatively safe for us, as we are aware those holes exist and carefully monitor the connections that pass through them. What would not be safe would be for you to have similar "holes" in the Firewalls at your end. If you knew enough to monitor and protect those holes you probably wouldn't need remote support in the first place!

Client and Expert

The software used by Bazaar systems is called VNC (Virtual Network Computing). It has two flavours; technically called the viewer and server, one flavour, the server, is used by the Client on the Computer to be remotely controlled, and the other flavour, the viewer, by the expert on the computer providing the control. The security risk is at the Controlled (server) end, as anyone who can access that software has full control over the accessed computer. In other words the Client MUST know at all times who is accessing his or her computer.

Best Security

The most secure arrangement of these two factors is to ensure that the Client (server) software always makes the outgoing connection. This is exactly what the Bazaar Remote Support system does. It has the following advantages:

The connection is always OUT from your computer, so there are never any permanent holes needed in your Security Firewalls.
The server software on your PC can only make outgoing calls, it cannot receive an inbound connection, so nobody can access it and take control of your computer without your knowledge.
The server software on your PC ONLY runs as and when you need support, and unloads itself afterwards.
You can completely remove the software from your hard disk should you wish. If you are not sure how to do that, ask us to do it for you during the support call.

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