Remote Support Assistance

NUIT remote support assistance provides technical support for Northwestern faculty, staff, and students via a tool that allows for the virtual manipulation of an end user's computer by an NUIT technical specialist over the Internet. Remote support provides convenient and efficient computer assistance to NU community members with an active network connection, regardless of physical location. Remote support assistance is available to faculty and staff using University-owned computers and all students.

Administered by the NUIT Support Center and Distributed Support Services, remote assistance is provided as a support option to users who require a more guided troubleshooting session. When a user contacts the Support Center or Distributed Support Services, a remote support session may be suggested to best diagnose the technical issue. Once the session is initiated at Remote Support Assistance, a support representative will then have the ability to simply view the user's screen or have full control of the user's screen, mouse, and keyboard, depending on the level of support needed, to directly assist with the technical issue.

Remote assistance does not require a software client to be pre-installed on the remote user's computer. Instead, the user is prompted to install a temporary client, which is removed when the support session is over. NU faculty, staff, and students are able to view the entire remote support assistance session on their screen. Once the session is complete and the remote support assistance window is closed, the consultant will no longer have access to the user's computer and its data.

Consultants use remote support to assist users with the same technical issues that are currently supported via 1-HELP and LiveHelp Chat Support. This includes, but is not limited to, wireless assistance, VPN inquiries, and NetID password management.

Remote support is powered by Bomgar, an industry leader in virtualized remote support assistance.