SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS)

Score7.3 out of 10

129 Reviews and Ratings

What is SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS)?

DameWare Remote Support from Austin IT company SolarWinds is remote administration software for the remote control of desktops, laptops, and servers behind or outside the firewall, allowing registry editing, restart services, logging activity, account and password management, and more. The mobile app also provides access from a phone or tablet. DameWare Remote Support licensing is per technician, the number of end-user remote machines is irrelevant; one technician may receive a license for $349. Discounts are available for multiple license purchases. The DameWare Mini Remote Control is a lesser version of SolarWinds' Remote Support software, and can be licensed for $259 for one technician. SolarWinds also sells a patch manager under the DameWare brand, for managing and deploying patches from a single console.

Categories & Use Cases

Remote Desktop

Media

Screenshot of DameWare Remote Support Management Console

Screenshot of Remotely Connect to Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X Computers

Screenshot of Over-the-Internet Remote Session via Secure Proxy Server

Screenshot of Connect to Remote Computers from iOS and Android Mobile Devices

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Screenshot of DameWare Remote Support Management Console

Screen sharing
Allows participants to share their computer screens with others in the meeting, enabling collaborative work and presentations.
Category average: 9.3
File transfer
Securely exchange files with remote computer without having to use email or FTP.
Category average: 8.6
Remote management of servers & workstations
Server reboot, start/stop services & processes, clear logs, manage disks, shares, etc. without having to initiate remote control.
Category average: 8.4

Annotations
Ability to markup and highlight end user’s screen to provide visual clues or to highlight areas.
Category average: 6.6
Remote Active Directory® management
Remotely unlock user accounts, reset passwords, manage Organizational Units, edit Group Policy, etc.
Category average: 6.7
Multi-platform remote control
Ability to remotely connect to multiple operating systems (Windows®, Mac OS® and Linux®).
Category average: 6.5

Daniel Sayer

Senior Infrastructure Engineer in Information Technology at Braintree District Council (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support is our tool to allow us to control a desktop or laptop for users working from home. When staff were all on site this was less of an issue but increasingly more staff are working from home so a desk visit is not possible anymore.

Pros

Remote access to sleeping and powered-off computers
Secure Multi-factor authentication
Flexible user access control
Remote session tools and utilities

Cons

Ability to switch users

Return on Investment

Remote support has reduced site visits to remote offices

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Teams

Other Software Used

SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server, SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM), SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)

Daniel Cogny View profile

Systems Developer in Information Technology at Ottawa Police Service (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In our Organization we have several locations and hundreds of portable devices, but only one location for the Support Group. Dameware allow us to provide proper support to our employees remotely whenever they have an issue. Since 2020, there is also much work from home around the Organization, so it has become even more indispensable for us. It works perfectly in our environment, it feels like simply having another monitor connected to those devices, the fact the the user do not need to be logged in (or that it can be logged out) fr it to work makes this a great tool for administrators; most of our users do not have the permissions to install/uninstall applications or running Powershell scripts for example, so, being able to log them off, login as administrator, do anything that is needed and have them log back in while we watch to confirm that the issue is fixed has really saved a lot of time and effort.

Pros

Troubleshooting computers remotely without the need for the user to even be around.
Install software that needs to be installed manually without having to travel.
Viewing what the user is doing specifically that triggers the issue, making replicating issues way simpler.

Cons

Multimonitor setup. I can see multiple monitors at once, but they show as a long individual screen on my computer, very hard to correctly split in my local monitors; it would be great to be able to get a single application screen per remote monitor so I can bind them to my own monitors individually.
Catch/Release mouse. whenever my mouse moves over the remote screen the remote computer reacts to it, so, when I am watching a user I cannot move my mouse, it would be great to be able to "request" the remote computer to accept my mouse when I want and release it when I need.

Return on Investment

Positive impact mostly in time saved by Analysts, they do not need to travel to the users' locations and do not have to be guessing what is happening or having to describe solutions step by step over the phone.
Positive impact in reduced time frames for solving issues, meaning users can go back to their duties sooner and perform better overall.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Endpoint Manager (Microsoft Intune + SCCM)

Other Software Used

Notepad++, Microsoft Teams

Jacob Bradley

UC Manager in Information Technology at T. D. Williamson (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I've used Dameware Remote Support and its predecessor, Dameware NT Utilities, for over a decade. I love the interface and the face that I have multiples options for connecting to servers and PC's. I've liked it even more now that SolarWinds has taken over. It allows us a single contact for support, and simple update lifecycle, and central billing.

Pros

Allows for desktop mirroring for remote support
Allows for console access to servers
Allows for multiple protocols for connections to servers and desktops.

Cons

Sometimes the client can go sideways and cause issues.
Smaller client deployment would be helpful for remote locations
Automation and scripting support

Return on Investment

Very short learning curve to use the remote capabilities.
Having a single vendor for support
Having a single vendor for billing

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Endpoint Manager (Microsoft Intune + SCCM), mRemoteNG and Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan)

Other Software Used

SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN), SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM), SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)

Brent Carteaux

Infrastructure Engineer in Information Technology at Rieke (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I presently use the toolset of Dameware Remote Everywhere. The problem this helps address is the move to remote users. It allows us to easily connect to a remote user from no matter where they are located, just as long as they have a stable internet connection. The DRE tool also allows us to provide certain users access to Computers in the organization by setting them up as a User. We can provide them with a list of computers (from the admin console) that will display in their console. from here, they can manage Signage, or assist other staff.

Pros

Remote Support is great.
Constantly improving the software.
Tech Support has been very helpful.

Cons

Deployment of the DRE Toolset has been a pain point with our current Deployment tool.
In DRE, In the Technician Area (For a User), A Search function would be handy. At first, I was looking for this, then resorted to Control+F to "find" the computer I wanted to add to the user so I did not have to scroll through hundreds of computer options.
In DRE When a Technician is "Configure as End User " It would be nice to see a list of existing computers the "Tech" already has access to.

Return on Investment

The best topic this software has been able to provide to us is response time to assist users. We can assist a user no matter where they are located in the world.
This tool also has another great feature that the original Dameware did not, and that is the ability to allow more than 1 Technician to connect and manage the device. This has been great in training scenarios or multi-tech troubleshooting.

Alternatives Considered

TeamViewer, ManageEngine Desktop Central and AnyDesk

Other Software Used

ManageEngine Desktop Central, SysAid, BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access, Qualys Cloud Platform (formerly Qualysguard), AlienVault USM, Sophos Intercept X, Sophos Intercept X for Server, KnowBe4 PhishER, Lansweeper, SOTI MobiControl

Matt Rogers View profile

Information Technology Operations Specialist in Information Technology at Third Way (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use SolarWinds DRS for providing IT support to our users who work from home. DRS works better than any remote support platform we have tried. It makes it easy to hop on someone's computer anywhere in the world and control it as if we were sitting at their desk. Before, we were using screen sharing in Teams/Zoom and, due to security features on those platforms, we were very restricted as to what we could do as far as changing settings and using tools like the command prompt. We especially like the drag and drop file transfer functionality and being able to download a user's logs very quickly.

Pros

The remote support connections are very reliable. I've never had a connection drop.
The experience is very polished and is dead simple to use.
The ability to transfer files using drag and drop is awesome.
It allows us to pull event logs very easily.

Cons

File transfer can be very slow at times.
Better integration with Solar Winds Service Desk would be great (i.e. syncing user info from Service Desk to DRE's console).

Return on Investment

We are a small organization, so I am unable to provide real numbers here.

Other Software Used

SentinelOne, Huntress, Cisco Umbrella, Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Perimeter 81, OneDrive, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange

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SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS)

What is SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS)?

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Key Features

Top Performing Features

Screen sharing

File transfer

Remote management of servers & workstations

Areas for Improvement

Annotations

Remote Active Directory® management

Multi-platform remote control

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