This is in fact the first time I?ve ventured out of the safety of Mumbai into the unknown. Two years back when I set out to do my MBA in SCMHRD, Pune, I knew that I had everything planned and fixed with no need to worry about food, clothing or shelter. This time, it?s a question of shelter. So, if any of you reading this in Bangalore, know of a good 1BHK in Koramangala area at reasonable rates, please do drop me an email.

My office is located in Bellandur, so any suggestions regarding where to stay are also welcome.

Another purpose of making this post is regarding support for my WordPress plugins and themes. I?ll be tied down at least for the next two weeks and I?m pretty sure for two weeks after that as I hunt for a place to stay, get accustomed to the new city and job and get all the basic connectivity, which includes a decent internet connection. I do have my Airtel GPRS connection and a Reliance data card, but I hope I get a good signal to ensure I don?t get too frustrated to stay online.

Hence, for the next month, I won?t be able to fully and completely provide the support at the speed I have that I have for so long. Please do post your support requests in the forum. I?ll try to check in once a day or at least once every two days and respond to queries. Sending me an email won?t help. Read why.

So until then, do wish me luck. I?ll try to stay active on Twitter as well as Facebook (at least in the nights).

So, instead of reinstalling SMF, I decided to give a shot to bbPress. For those who are not aware, bbPress is forum software from the creators of WordPress. bbPress includes complete support for integration into WordPress. However, I haven’t utilized that feature since I don’t have registrations on this blog.

bbPress allows you to create new themes (something that I may work on in the future) as well as extend its functionality with plugins. I’ve installed a few that I thought were essential.

I’ve created two support forums, viz. for themes and plugins that I have authored. You will need to register at the forum in order to make any posts. You can also subscribe to the recent forum posts feed.

I also offer support via email and / instant messenger.

iRemotePC is a web based remote assistance product for IT technicians and especially useful for product/software vendors to remotely support their clients and customers. The service allows them to remotely control clients PCs with ease and fully encrypted security without pre-installing any software on the remote side.

As usual, I signed up for the service and gave it a test drive.

Signing Up

Signing up is quick and I received the welcome email immediately. They don’t have any email verification process during the signup process and your account is immediately activated.

On signing in for the first time, you are presented a survey which you can choose to fill or skip for later.

You are given five support tickets to use when you signup. Additional tickets can be purchased at $5/ticket or you can also opt for monthly or yearly subscriptions for unlimited tickets (useful if you have more than 10 tickets a month)

Starting Up

Before you begin, I suggest you read the walkthrough that explains how the entire system works.

I decided to test the service myself and being equipped with a laptop ensured that I could play the role of both the technician and the client. An additional test is that the laptop runs Windows Vista and is also connected to the internet via a proxy server.

I decided to play the technician on the laptop and the client on my PC.

Step 1 – Create a Support Ticket

I logged in as a technician and created a support ticket which I sent to my alternate email.

Once you create the ticket you will be given the option of launching a session. You can also do this later. An email is also sent to both you and the client with the link the client needs to use to launch a session.

Step 2 – Client Responds

The client clicks the link in the email and starts the process of launching the iRemotePC Support session.
This involves him entering a chat room which the technician has access to as well as launching the temporary client application.

When the client chooses to start the session, he will be prompted to download a 444KB file that will then download and run the main client. This client application is another 2.8MB, so if you are on a slower connection, be prepared to wait a while. However, you can use the same application again in the future by simply entering a new ticket ID.

Step 3 – The Technician Controls

The technician can then launch his own session and he can connect to the client’s PC.

I ran through all the tabs. The Diagnostics tab allows you to view the disk space, processes, time and registry among other functions.

The Remote Monitor tab is redundant when you also have access using the Remote Control which is the most powerful feature of this application. I was able to control my PC from my laptop completely. It was as if I was sitting in front of my PC. Additionally, the actions were immediate as iRemotePC links your two PCs directly and not via the iRemotePC server (though if this fails then the iRemotePC server comes into the picture).

I also tried the File Transfer tab to transfer the above screenshot to the PC from where I am blogging.

I ended the session on both systems and deleted the ticket… I now have four tickets with me.

Overall View

iRemotePC – Remote Support does what it promises and does it well. The application is quick to use and easy to understand from both technician and client point of view which makes it a major plus point.

The pricing is something that a technician or the Support Company will have to evaluate for themselves.
If you are getting occasional tickets, i.e. less than 10 per month then you can buy tickets adhoc at $5/mo. However, if you are getting more than 10 per month, you can go in for a monthly subscription. Buying a yearly subscription saves you around USD100.

Additionally, you will also have to make sure you’re charging your clients more than that!

One point that I am critical about is the Ticket Validity Period which can be a max of 24 hours. From my understanding beyond 24 hours you will need to create a new ticket. It would be better if the technician decides how long to keep the tickets valid, or the sessions can be launched until the ticket is closed.

Referrals

iRemotePC also has a referral program that allows you to earn $50 per referral.

So, if you do plan on using this service, do signup using my referal id.

I have gone ahead and dedicated an entire domain to them instead of the subdomain.

You can access the support forums at http://www.ajaydsouza.org/

Let me iterate that support queries will only be answered in the Support Forums. I will not answer any support queries in comments or email.

Additionally, I have chosen to restrict these queries only to my designs. I will not answer third party queries unless they have some relation to my work. They are only time consuming and since I’m working for free (haven’t got many donations coming in) I deserve the right to restrict my support to only thing I produce.

If you require any third party help do consider a donation.

Until then, the Support Forums are the best and only way to get support.
Additionally over a period of time, I am sure you won’t need to contact me regarding support as everything will be answered over there!

Finally, I have activated the feeds for the forum. You can subscribe here. As usual you have an array of 1-click buttons to choose your favorite RSS Subscription service.

Have been working slowly behind the scenes to change some things about this blog.

5 posts on index

For one, I have reduced the number of posts displayed on the index page in order to speed up initial loading time. (used the Custom Query String plugin for this). The archives still show the default ten posts per page.

AjayDSouza.com Support Forums

Secondly, the AjayDSouza.com Support Forums are now open. It is powered by Simple Machines.
These will be used exclusively for any support related issues for my plugins, themes and hacks.
I will not be answering any support related questions in the comments.

You will need to register at the forums in order to post.

Articles

Thirdly, I have added an Articles page. This is currently empty, but it will contain links to articles that I have written over time.
Additionally, I intend to write more articles on various topics. These will be updated here.

Quick Links

Fourthly, I have added a quick links section in the sidebar. This is to provide direct access to various pages.

Subscribe

Lastly, would just like to iterate that you can subscribe to the various RSS feeds offered by this site. Currently there are two feeds, one for all the posts on this blog and another exclusively for Connections Reloaded related posts.
I will also be adding an RSS Feed for the Support Forums in due course.

That’s about it for now.

Seems like quite a nice place to get help and maybe provide some.

Gonna be there more often, especially since I’m serious about development for WordPress.

As for the problem, others have been facing the timeouts as well. Am just going to wait and try later.