Most of us own assembled computers where vendors who are not qualified engineers put it together. They install operating systems that are not genuine (pirated versions of Windows or Microsoft Office) and then give you a free version of anti-virus software, which does not adequately protect your computer. Whenever you face problems, your vendor next door will reformat your hard disk, which will result in you losing your data.

I recently met Mahesh Shah, managing director of Pecon, a company which has been providing remote support to clients worldwide for years. He feels the time is now ripe for Indian computer users to take advantage of remote support to get their computers serviced or fixed. With this in mind, he launched Anant Online to cater exclusively to Indian computer users who are on the Microsoft platform. Over a cup of coffee he discussed how people here were not aware of computer related issues like data loss, safe Internet browsing, file transfer issues, systems backups, corrupt Windows files, and many other issues. Moreover, people do not know that support can be found online for all their computer problems.

He claimed that for as low as Rs 2 a day, he would provide remote support. That too 24/7, and 365 days a year. You can call on them anytime from anywhere once you register.

I decided to try them out on a really gruelling problem. My PC of ten years had not been booting for weeks. Internet Explorer was not opening, and, therefore, I couldn’t get Windows updates and could not update my Internet security suite, Windows Security Essentials, either. The vendors I went to variously suggested that the problem was with the RAM (which had to be cleaned or replaced), the motherboard (had got damaged) or that a virus had infected the PC. And, of course, their favourite solution, a reformat. Mr Shah sent an engineer to check that all my hardware was working fine. He fixed the booting problem. For the rest I decided to test their online remote support.

At the appointed time I got a call from Ravi, the technical advisor from Anant Online. He asked me to go to www.anantonline.com. A dialog box appeared where I had to fill in my name, email address and phone number, and click on unblock. Having done this Ravi sought my permission to remotely control my desktop. This was done through a popular program called Logmein Rescue. I could watch the repairing process on my screen and keep up a dialogue with him through a chat box. After sometime, I was told that Windows login was successfully captured. Then we started. Ravi had said that it would take between half an hour and one hour to repair the computer. However, it actually started at 10.26pm and ended at 8.20am the next morning. But at the end, my computer was as good as new with no reformatting or changing of hardware.

I asked Mr Shah a crucial question: what if the client had pirated Windows? He replied that if the customer cannot provide the genuine CD when required, remote support couldn’t be provided. Remote support is provided with Dial Up and the minimum bandwidth required is 256 kbps. Since they were sending engineers, I asked what was the use of remote support. He said engineers were hardware experts who might not be adept at all software issues. Then the problem needs to be solved through remote support where all the experts are available in one place.

Finally, how does one register, especially if they don’t have a credit card? You can register on www.anantonline.com using credit or debit cards. If you want to pay by cheque or cash, a pick up could be arranged. Four packages are available, the Student Plan is 495 a year with onsite visit by engineers, Limited Plan is 1350, Unlimited Plan is 1650, and Remote Plan is 295. There is a 10.3 per cent service tax on all these. Perks like 5 GB Cloud Storage come with all these plans. For enquiries, call 18003456888. For support, try 03340101606, 03340101607, 03323576519 and 03323576520.

For hassle-free computing I suggest that you register with Anant Online. But first make sure you have genuine Windows installed.

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