[1132] in IS Home Pages
Re: Core Software: Timbuktu Site License?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Susan B. Jones)
Wed Mar 29 09:24:12 2000
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In-Reply-To: <v04020a02b507c04f2612@[18.162.0.222]>
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2000 09:24:07 -0500
To: Ginny Williams <ginnyw@mit.edu>, Jonathan McIndoe Hunt <jmhunt@mit.edu>,
"Kevin M. Cunningham" <kcunning@mit.edu>, goguen@mit.edu, swrt@mit.edu,
mitapps@mit.edu, vsls@mit.edu, ishome@mit.edu
From: "Susan B. Jones" <sbjones@MIT.EDU>
Cc: hogue@mit.edu
I also seem to remember that somewhere someone was using Timbuktu for
usability testing. Wish I could remember where.
Susan
At 9:19 AM -0500 3/29/2000, Ginny Williams wrote:
>When I was at MacWORLD this year I spoke with the people at Netopia and
>brought back some brochures. The new version has more features that the
>one available previously and I was considering it for VIPhelp. Given the
>number of machines administered by viphelp and dcs, we may be able to save
>a significant amount of time if we include this as part of our standard
>operating procedure. I bet there are IT partners who would also appreciate
>having it. I'm confident that we could find a way to enable clients to
>lock out files and areas that they don't want us to have access to, and
>believe I received affirmation about this from one of the vice presidents
>of the company. I'll look at the info when I get back to find the contact
>name.
>
>ginny
>
>
>
>At 7:21 PM -0500 3/28/00, Jonathan McIndoe Hunt wrote:
>>Hi Kevin,
>>
>>As I recall, IS looked into Timbuktu a few years back (maybe 6) and decided
>>that Timbuktu violates MIT Privacy Guidelines. It provides too much
>>access to people's computers via the network and is too open to
>>abuse. This is what I was told as a student working on the Network
>>Helpdesk 5 years ago.
>>
>>-Jonathan
>>
>>At 06:15 PM 3/28/2000 -0500, Kevin M. Cunningham wrote:
>>>Howdy,
>>>
>>>As I was researching how other universities distribute software, I noticed
>>>that USC has a site license for Timbuktu, which is software that allows
>>>you to remotely manage another computer, including seeing what's on the
>>>screen. They include this software in their basic distribution set (along
>>>with Netscape, Fetch, etc.), and they list it as a "Remote Consulting"
>>>product, implying it's used to help consultants work with customers
>>>remotely.
>>>
>>>Have we looked into getting a Timbuktu site license to help our consulting
>>>groups assist clients remotely?
>>>
>>>Of course, it may be too expensive, inappropriate, etc. -- there's no
>>>indication whether USC has found it worth its investment (we'd want to
>>>check with the -- and with Netopia about costs...). And I know it wouldn't
>>>help with basic connectivity issues or remote computing (e.g., laptops,
>>>dialup, etc.), which are a significant part of the Help call load. But it
>>>might be worth looking into.
>>>
>>>Just a thought as we once again look into how to help the support
>>>providers help customers.
>>>
>>>--Kevin
