Company offers remote maintenance: Can it leave holes open?

Question

My father has a tricky problem with RealPlayer (the login silently fails without either error or success message). In response to his question, the maker (RealNetworks) offers remote maintenance.

He asked me about it, but unfortunately, I have no experience at all with this topic. In their email, it is not stated how they plan to establish the remote connection, but I assume that they mean Windows Remote Assistance (though I could be wrong). My father uses Windows 7.

Some points are unclear to me:

1. Can you be sure that after the remote session ended, there are no holes open? (Let us assume that the other side is not evil and installs malware without his knowledge. That is beyond the scope of this question.)
2. Do you think that the remote access is easy enough to set up that a person without technical background is able to get it working?
3. He is behind the firewall of the router. I remember that I once configured remote assistance successfully between Windows machines in the same network, but it failed later when I tried it from outside. So, I assume that although Windows can deal with its own firewall, remote access still requires opening a port in the router?

(The last point is a practical problem, as my parent cannot open ports without help. Trying to describe it over the phone is not something that I'm keen on.)

Answer 1

First of all, RealPlayer hasn't really been a thing for almost 10 years now. It's highly doubtful that your father needs it for anything. If he does actually use it for something, I would highly recommend you wean him off of it, as even in its day it had a reputation for being a crappy program loaded with adware.

Second, I would be highly suspicious of anyone offering remote assistance for a free product. Imagine how odd it would be if Adobe offered you remote assistance for your Flash player problem, or if Oracle offered you remote assistance to solve your Java issue. It costs money for these companies to provide tech support. They're not going to do it for customers that didn't pay for the product to begin with.

I worry that your father is being scammed. This is a well-known con going on in the computer industry right now. There are legitimate companies that do offer remote support, but it's hard for them to do business with all the crooks out there getting in on that game.

Bottom line... even if this is a legitimate offer, have him decline it. It will most certainly cost him money and RealPlayer is just not worth it.

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Now, to address your questions:

Can you be sure that after the remote session ended, there are no holes open? (Let us assume that the other side is not evil and installs malware without his knowledge. That is beyond the scope of this question.)

Only trust remote software from established companies. That would be TeamViewer, LogMeIn, WebEx, GoToMyPc, etc. All these programs display a conspicuous dialog somewhere on the screen, and this dialog cannot be hidden or dismissed while a connection is in progress. Do not use VNC or any other no-name screen sharing software.

Do you think that the remote access is easy enough to set up that a person without technical background is able to get it working?

Yes. If you use one of the aforementioned products, all you need to do is download and install it.

He is behind the firewall of the router. I remember that I once configured remote assistance successfully between Windows machines in the same network, but it failed later when I tried it from outside. So, I assume that although Windows can deal with its own firewall, remote access still requires opening a port in the router?

This is not necessary and is in fact a bad signal if their remote assistance requires it. An open firewall port means they have unsolicited access to your machine. Modern remote assistance programs use an outbound connection to a service broker hosted by the company that makes the software. Outbound connections do not require firewall modification.