Archive for February, 2010

Way to go, Kaseya!

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

I figured that this blog was mostly me blowing hot air and that people rarely pay any attention.  Ha!  I guess I was wrong.  This whole saga of trying to find RMM software apparently is being followed by a few key people.  Among those and one of the first to contact me is Kaseya.

Not only were they first to get in touch with me, but they bent over backwards and got me a trial version of Kaseya 2 after reading about my frustrations.  I just logged in, downloaded my first agent and I’m in love with it already.  I’ve only had a few minutes to play around, but it looks very promising.

Thanks, Chad!  Thanks, Chris!  Thanks, everyone who contacted me and is helping me try to figure it all out.  I apologize if I ruffled some feathers along the way, but at the moment I couldn’t be happier.

The saga is not quite over yet, though.  I promised a couple of vendors a trial and I’m still trying to keep an open mind, but I have to say Kaseya is the lead horse at the moment.  I’ll post more once I’ve had a chance to “kick the tires” a little more.  Right now I’m running out the door to see a client who isn’t (yet) on a managed services plan.

I didn’t realize what a stink some of those posts were going to cause and I hope by writing this and upcoming reviews that everything will settle back to more or less normal.

Thanks again, everyone.  Stay tuned!  More to follow….

Posted in Business, Computer Business, Tech Talk | 1 Comment »

Gonna open a bait shop!

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

I cancelled the Apps4Rent trial because it was crippled.  On my dashboard page, I got an ERROR 500 where the ticketing information should be.  When I click on the “TICKET” tab, I get an ERROR 500.   I called tech support and they said I shouldn’t even be seeing the ticket tab because they don’t offer that.  What the hell?!  What good is RMM software that can’t generate a ticket?  It’s like having a word processor that can’t print.

So after I cancelled, I signed up for a trial with Virtual Administrator and get back a form letter saying they’re waiting on Kaseya to release pricing and they’ll let me know when they’re accepting new customers again.  So I get in touch with Kaseya again and now they won’t deal with me because I’m on the waiting list with one of their partners… Virtual Administrator.   AARGH!!!

What a bunch of  crap!  I finally made a difficult decision.  I decided to go with a hosted Kaseya.  I’m sitting here with credit card in hand, but nobody will take my money.

OK, now what?  I got a call from N-Able this morning before all this happened.  Maybe it’s time to reconsider my decision to go with Kaseya.  N-Able?  LPI?  Packet Trap?  I’m right back where I frickin’ started.  I feel like I just wasted 3 days making a decision only to be told that I’m not qualified to buy the product I want.  WTF?

I swear I’m gonna move to the country and open a bait shop!  I can see it now…..   Would you like redworms or night crawlers?  Minnows?  No, sorry.  I can’t sell you minnows.  That’s an upgrade and we’re still waiting for an answer from our supplier to let us know how much they cost.  Look at ‘em though - they’re beauties, huh?  Gonna catch some big fish with those little guys, but not today.  Come back next week and we’ll talk.  What?!  You talked to Joe’s Bait Shop a few minutes ago?!  Get out of my store, you can’t buy from me after you talked to Joe!  What the hell is wrong with you, anyway?!  You should know better than that.

Posted in Tech Talk | 6 Comments »

And the search continues….

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

I started testing a pay as you go hosted version of Kaseya.   It started out really well - the agent installed easily, it quickly gave me great information, the built-in reports look good, but then I went to look at the ticketing system to see if it will integrate with my Autotask GO, but got an Error 500 - Internal server error.

I thought maybe it was because I was using Firefox, so I went at it using IE8, but had the same problem.   AARGH!!  I’m hoping that it’s nothing I did while playing around, but I suspect it really is a server problem at their end and that they’ll have it fixed by morning.  Should I call them on a Sunday afternoon and see how good their tech support is?

I was pretty impressed anyway, so I started searching for Kaseya best practices and tutorials.  I found tutorials that didn’t look at all like the Kaseya I’d just started testing.  Then I found out it’s Kaseya 2.  WOW!  Looks great.  I found another company that plans to offer a hosted Kaseya 2 and they say they’ll give me a deal based on my membership in ACRBO, but as of right now, pricing is unknown.

ACRBO logo

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I just can’t make up my mind

Friday, February 19th, 2010

After my recent nasty divorce from ITControl Suite (don’t get me started) I’ve been looking for an affordable tool  that allows me to manage more computers & servers with less effort.   That’s the whole idea behind RMM software isn’t it?     (For those who may not know RMM=Remote Monitoring and Management)

I’ve been doing some testing and can’t decide what to do.

Hound Dog is now GFI Max - I had high hopes for it, but it hasn’t grown much in the last couple of years.  Not a lot of capabilities, but their claim is they have 90% of what the big boys offer at 10% of the cost.  Yep, they’re cheap and easy to get started with, but I had trouble interpreting the icons on the screen and the reports were pretty basic.  Not a bad product, but not very inspiring either.

Packet Trap looks very promising, but I had some troubles there, too.  It’s kind of like Kaseya light.  It’s a sizable investment (but a fraction of the price of Kaseya) and does some really cool stuff that Kaseya doesn’t appear to do, but their community forum is a ghost town, the Tips & Tricks section doesn’t exist yet, the documentation is a little sparse and it makes my spidey sense tingle.  After my problems with ITControl Suite, I don’t think I’m ready to deal with another young company.  I really like the product, though - it’s not perfect but it has potential to rival the king of the jungle, Kaseya.  There’s something to be said for jumping in now and getting grandfathered in and maybe even win preferred customer status as they grow.  I feel like a fish….  They’re trying really hard to get me to bite and I want to, but there’s something just not quite right about that morsel and I’m still sizing it up.

Like I said… I can’t make up my mind.  I loved the ITControl Suite product, but just couldn’t handle all of the billing mistakes.  In the past I’ve been an N-Able customer (when they were brand new) and LPI (the problems I had with them were probably my fault because I hosted it myself).  What’s a computer consultant to do?

I just ran across Apps4rent.com and they do a hosted Kaseya for $5.95 per seat and it gets cheaper after 250 seats.  I’m signing up for that trial tomorrow.  That may well be the answer.  Cadillac tools at Toyota prices.  (Yeah, I know… it costs more in the long run, but right now renting 2o seats at $6 per month that I can cancel any time sounds better than committing to $8-15 thousand).

To be continued at a later date….

Posted in Computer Business | 3 Comments »

Is there anybody out there?

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

This is so embarrassing - I promised to be more active on the social networks and my blogs several months ago then just promptly disappeared again.

Hello world - do you think I should start over or just pick up where I left off on these blogs?

Posted in Tech Talk | No Comments »