- Netviewer Support (sessions with one other user): $69.90 per month
- Netviewer Meet (up to 100 participants): $69.90 per month
- A one time $390 set up fee applies and minimum 12 month contract
- Online provider of web conferencing and collaboration applications
- Share your desktop with participants in the meeting
- Take control of participants' computers
- Integrated VOIP for communications
- Support for multiple webcam broadcasts
- Interactive whiteboarding functionality
- Optional downloadable version or web based (Active-X) version
- Strong security features
- Integration with Outlook, Skype and Windows Messenger
- Record whole sessions
- Billing functions (Support only)
- Multiple language versions available
- Free trial available
- Hosting compatible with Windows only, participants can use Macs
Netviewer offers software as a service solution for web conferencing, remote support and remote administration. The applications on offer seem to work reasonably well, but it isn't immediately obvious what the difference it between each one. The monthly charges are fairly reasonable, but hidden in the small print are the facts that you will be hit with a fairly hefty set up fee and are tied to a 12 month contract.
Netviewer offers four different products on its website: Support, Meet, Admin and Present. However, it is very difficult to tell from the sales material how exactly these products differ from one another. On further inspection, it doesn't even seem to be possible to buy either the Admin or the Present applications and every one of them is charged at the same price. We couldn't get hold of a sales representative to explain the difference to us, but the common functionality across each application is that you can share your desktop with meeting participants and take control of theirs. Other standard features included are interactive whiteboards, the ability to record meetings and session management controls.
All the products on offer seem to support integrated VOIP for communications during meetings. This is great for reducing your call charges, but the lack of a bridged audio conferencing service means that anyone without access to a computer will be left out of your meetings. Also supported are broadcasts from multiple webcams at once - although we couldn't figure out exactly how many.
The hosted service Netviewer offers seems fairly reliable, but if you would rather run it yourself it is possible to buy a server software solution to run over your own infrastructure. Security is in place in the form of 128-bit blowfish encryption on all communications and the ability to password protect meeting rooms.
Netviewer seems like a competently run organisation, but the confusion in the sales material for each of the different products is confusing. It seemed to us that one version offered meetings with one other participant at the same price and with the same feature set as a version offering meetings with one hundred participants. The large set up fee is another thing that put us off this company slightly. While it is a reasonable service we think there are plenty of other companies to choose from which offer similar features at similar, or better, prices.
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