Option1 & remote support utilities

[#1]

I offer remote support for various friends & family that I have referred.
I was suggesting that one of these referrals would be better served by dropping from a PAYG £14.99 account to a new £9.99 Option 1 account (despite the 25p I'll lose per month!). However I noted that in the features it listed as not suitable for use with VPN. If they dropped to Option1 would that mean that I wouldn't be able to use the remote support utility with them any more?
I use a free product called Ultra VNC SC (single click), which is great. The user clicks on a .exe file I have pre-configured and it initiates a remote support session over a VPN link and can easily fire out over NAT to get me to connect to them, whatever their settings.
They remain in control the whole time, and I just have to run a viewer, as their machine is running as a VNC server for a brief time time that I am connected to fix something remotely for them.
Can someone please tell me will UltraVNC SC still work over Option1? Or is encrypted VNC classified differently from VPN traffic.
Thanks
Thanks

[#2]

VPN traffic isn't actually completely blocked on option 1, it is however restricted down to 128k which is normally more than enough for most VPN software.
Hope this helps

[#3]

Chris,
Thanks for the info regarding VPN traffic being throttled rather than blocked. That is very useful to know.
Do you know if encrypted VNC traffic is classified in your VPN category, or if it is identified by the ellacoya's in a different category?
I think it uses both UDP & TCP transfers on port 5500 if that helps (although I think it might dynamically use a completely different random port for the other direction).
I was just wanting to know how throttled this traffic might be before I get my referral to shift to Option1. 128k might make the connection too slow to be useful... as it is 3 times slower than the upload speed at my end, so it will definitely reduce throughput compared with now. However, if this traffic is identified differently, then it might not be an issue at all.
It is a bit of a gamble to shift across one referral as a "guinea pig", especially if it is a failure! However, if they shift and it all works fine, then it isn't a problem!
Is there any way I can test the remote utility on a Option1 test account (if PlusNet keep such a thing!), or ask a tech bod what I could expect to see.
Thanks

[#4]

I can not directly answer about Encrypted VNC, but I use UltraVNC to support my farther who is on BBYW1 without any problems.
I must get my UltraVNC(SC) with encryption set up again.
If you are interested I can host your single click exe on http://www.remoteassist.me.uk/ for you
Chilly

[#5]

ChillyPenguin,
That is exactly the real world sort of info I was looking for.
Thanks. I will look at your website too when I get a moment.
Mike

[#6]

Hi,
Ultra VNC is defined (and a whole host of VNC traffic) within the Ellacoyas, I think it should be picked up if it's encrypted too but I would say keep to the default ports for best results (5500 is amongst them) as it makes it easier to pick up.
You could always test it by running a wireshark capture
http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/troubleshooting/wireshark.shtml
VNC traffiic should show up as gold which will be respresented by the Differentiated Services Field being 0x80.

[#7]

XP, I'm having a lot of success with logmein.com - check it out.  The basic level is free and performance seems to be good on all types of ADSL connections.