Teamviewer - sharing the frustration.

[GS3]

I have recommended Teamviewer repeatedly, here and elsewhere. It is simple, does what it is supposed to do, and runs on Windows and Linux.

Now they make you upgrade to version 14 which tells you "commercial use suspected" and pretty much shuts you out. That is my experience with Windows.

Now I want to install it on Linux Mint to see if it does the same thing. I can download from their site an installation file but I am under the impression that it is better to use Synaptic Manager. But I type "Teamviewer" and it finds nothing. Maybe I need to add a repository? What is the best way to install Teamviewer? (and other software generally).

If I install it from the downloaded file will Synaptic know it is there and will it show it?

All this is very frustrating for a program that was one of my favorites for being simple and straightforward.

[kevin987]

They have a deb package that should be fine to install.

Right click on the file and GDebi Package Installer should be the first option.

[phd21]

Hi GS3,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

Teamviewer has always been my favorite remote control, remote access, application because it is simple to install and use. They offer three Linux versions Deb files, RPM files, and Linux Archive files under "Other". For Linux Mint and Ubuntu systems, the Deb or Archive files is what you want.

TeamViewer Linux Download for Remote Desktop access and collaboration
https://www.teamviewer.com/en-us/download/linux/

If you use TeamViewer on a daily basis, you probably want to install the deb file which usually has an always running "teamviewerd" service daemon even if the TV app is not running.

Because I only use Teamviewer when needed, I use their Linux archive file without installing (integrating) it (don't run tv-setup). This does not install the always running teamviewerd daemon which is what I prefer.

I just downloaded the TV 14.1 archive file, extracted it, ran the teamviewer program within their folder and it appears to be working well.

Hope this helps ...

[wgr]

Read your post with interest as I use Teamviewer to help my parents. I use Teamviewer on Mac to remote desktop to a Windows computer. Teamviewer has been prompting to upgrade on the Mac but have held off so far.

Did some research as a result of your post and found this on Teamviewer's web site:

What to do about the popup warnings?
The popup warnings are automatically generated and can only be turned off by assigning an appropriate TeamViewer license to your device or to your TeamViewer account.

There might be cases where TeamViewer falsely detects commercial use and limits your connectivity even though you did not violate the license conditions. In such cases, please feel free to contact us through the commercial-use form, describe the situation in which you are using TeamViewer, and tell us your TeamViewer ID. If your usage conforms to our intended license conditions, we would be happy to unblock the software for you.

Not sure if contacting TeamViewer thru the commercial-use form would result in any actions by TeamViewer, but passing along in case it helps. I'm hoping if I run into the same issue, that TeamViewer will unblock since my use is strictly non-commercial to one other computer.

[phd21]

Hi wgr, & Anyone Else Interested in TV,

If for some reason you selected the commercial business option for Teamviewer and you are not using it for business, you might try deleting the existing Teamviewer user configuration folder and retrying it.

Get out of TV if you are in it, and run the command below, and restart TV.

Code: Select all

rm -r ~/.config/teamviewer/

Otherwise, you may have to contact TV support.

[AZgl1800]

I refuse to upgrade the Teamviewer versions on my laptop and the users that I work with.... if it ain't broke, don't go fixing it until it breaks....

On my friend's Win7.... to crappo Win10.... Teamviewer refused to allow me to run it, said he had a 'commercial version' and the license expired.... we installed it as a free version long ago.

2 weeks ago, I fixed it.... loaded 18.3 Cinnamon on his and the wife's PCs and they are much happier now.

[GS3]

OK, I think I have determined what triggered the "commercial use suspected" message.

In my LAN I use a computer as a router to the Internet. All the computers on the network had been using Teamviewer without problem. Except I had never used Teamviewer on the router computer itself.

Then I ran Teamviewer on the router computer and suddenly I was getting the commercial use message on all computers.

Now I think the reason the router computer triggers that warning is because it has two network interface cards installed, one for LAN and one for WAN. If I use Teamviewer on any other machine it has no problem but use it on the router machine and it detects two NICs and suspects "commercial use". I think that is the reason.

I guess I could try disabling the LAN NIC leaving only the WAN NIC active and see if that fixes the issue.

The problem is that once they flag one computer as suspect then all the computers on that network and on the network being connected to are also labeled as suspect until you contact them and wait about ten days. Oh well.

[Pierre]

the latest v14 of Teamviewer has some aggressive issues:
- - it will Time Out after Five Minutes, if the Remote Version is not up-to-date.
- - it is ultra suspicious of any suspected 'commercial activity'

this is reminiscent of prior versions of Teamviewer, were these sort of issues were common,
& it may be now prompted, by the fact that Teamviewer is now quite popular, again.
& & it may also be part of it's internal issues with it's Indian User Base,, who are using their product for malicious means.

NB: the very latest version of Teamviewer is Not Currently available in the LinuxMint Repositories,
& thus will only be available via an direct download. but it will auto-update, once it is installed via it's *.deb file.

[kukamuumuka]

The last "workable" Teamviewer is 32-bit version 12
https://www.teamviewer.com/en/download/ ... -versions/

[GS3]

The last "workable" Teamviewer is 32-bit version 12

I was using V12 but they were aggressively warning it will stop working soon and you need to update. Since you need to go through their servers to connect there is no way to get around that.

[GS3]

NB: the very latest version of Teamviewer is Not Currently available in the LinuxMint Repositories, & thus will only be available via an direct download. but it will auto-update, once it is installed via it's *.deb file.

I installed V14 and it almost immediate updated to V14.1.18533 which is what I have now and seems to be running OK for now. It seems they unblocked me.

[Pierre]

yeah - once you've installed V14 - - it will continue to auto-update,
- - which is something that I've not seen happen before, this release.