Simple, Free Web Remote PC Control?

MeatballCB writes "Hey folks. Being the 'technical' guy of the family, I often get calls from friends and family members when they're having PC issues. Most of these folks are not technical, so trying to troubleshoot problems over the phone can often be a challenge. Anyone know of a simple-to-use and (preferably) free service that would allow for remote viewing/control of their PCs? I know there's WebEx and GoToMyPC, but I hate to pay for something I'd use once every two months. I also know about VNC, but trying to walk someone through opening up ports on their router that thinks their Internet is broken when their homepage gets changed is not realistic. Anyone know of anything that would be easy to set up and use?"

Comments

logmein.com

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a free service for home use. QED.

Re:logmein.com

[El Capitaine]

Logmein, certainly. Free, and works well.

Also, OP stated that he gets calls from 'friends and family members'

While this would work fine for family, installing logmein that allows you access whenever you want is probably not a good idea for friends, and they would probably dislike it.

If they are running Windows 7, its extremely easy to walk them through
- Hitting the start button,
- Typing 'Windows Remote Assistance' in the search bar
- Clicking 'Invite someone you trust to help you,'
- Clicking Easy Connect and having them recite the letters on their screen.

Works in Vista too, but the added option of Easy Connect in Windows 7 that gives a a password for connection instead of using an invitation file makes it really easy for the technologically illiterate to allow you to connect. Just another very easy-to-use option.

Re:logmein.com

[davester666]

Do you guys REALLY dislike the idea of going upstairs to help your parents with their computer so much that you need to use some complicated remote control setup instead?

And the exercise from climbing the stairs will do you good as well!

LogMeIn

[hroo772]

I'm a big fan of LogMeIn Free. It's pretty easy to setup, and it gives you access to the pc through any browser. You don't have to worry about port issues or anything. I think it's what you should really look into using.

Re:LogMeIn

[Tibia1]

Wait a second, you told this guy to post this story, didn't you? You're all from logmein, taking part in a ridiculously good adveratising scheme... and your probably paying th- [gets shot]

Teamviewer

[Myrkul23]

I've found that teamviewer is the easiest way to connect without having to go through setting up port forwarding

UltraVNC single-click

[um_atrain]

UltraVNC single click. Its a reverse VNC, designed for this purpose. They double click the executable, and then automatically connects to your listening client.

Its customizable so you can make it look professional if needed. They only have to run the file, it does everything else.

VNC is the way ...

[Tux2000]

... you just need to know that your friends (and family members) DO NOT need to mess with their routers. Just YOUR router needs to open a single port (5500/tcp) and forward it to your workstation. Make your friends run the VNC server as usual, start the VNC client on your workstation in LISTENER mode, tell your friends to select "add new client" from the VNC server icon context menu, and make them enter your IP or dyndns address into the popup dialog.

(Technically, this swaps the roles of client and server on the TCP level, but VNC still behaves as expected.)

Tux2000

$125.00 per hour

[mrmeval]

It fixed my problems instantly when I quoted them my rate. I got tired of being abused by people who refused to learn how the system worked. This was a directed refusal they take pride in. I made my point that I was not longer their slave. Now they get to pay someone who likes the abuse. I would point out the relationship has a whiff of BDSM but they'd not understand that either.

Re:$125.00 per hour

[Clover_Kicker]

What if I like my family?

Re:$125.00 per hour

[Anarchduke]

What if I like my family?

$40.00 / hr.

Re:$125.00 per hour

[LordVader717]

It's no problem if it's an occaisonal question, but the learned helplessness that many people demonstrate is just insulting.
When I find them a fix it usually involves a few minutes of googleing, why can't they at least do the same?

Once a freind asked me to come over for some help and I told him to do a very simple task with clear instructions which he was perfectly capable of. He couldn't be bothered to do it.
Am I supposed to waste my time just because that's their easiest way out?

In future I'm just going to send them this link http://xkcd.com/627/

Re:$125.00 per hour

[ajlisows]

Here is the thing. My "extended support network" (myself included) prides itself on being able to do things on their own. We noticed some problems with that. Me trying to fix my car and fucking it up worse, friends trying to fix simple computer problems and ending with a computer that won't boot, etc.... I'm pretty lucky actually, much of my "extended support network" has skills that I do not and that are more expensive than computer fixing. My mechanic buddy calls me? I'll drop practically everything to help him. The guy I know that does HVAC, electrical wiring, and some plumbing? I'll help him in a snap. That guy that does drywall and other home remodeling? Sure! I'm called upon more often...but I come out ahead in the end. ;)

Re:$125.00 per hour

[bigstrat2003]

Quite right. There are very few people who I'll do tech support for (and all of them are so important that they get it for free, but that's another topic). My parents are two such people. They fed, clothed, and raised me for 18 years without any real benefit to themselves. The least I can do is help them out when they can use a hand. I won't destroy my life just to give my parents a bit of help, but I'll inconvenience myself to very great extents to help them out. Anything less is selfish.

Remote Assistance

[asdf7890]

For a couple of family members I support I find the Remote Assistance function (essentially Remote Desktop with a different make-up job) works fine. They have MSN Messenger (or Live Messenger, or what-ever it is branded as today) accounts as do I so all they have to do is click select "request remote assistance" from the "activity" menu. You will need to have port 3389 pointing open at your firewall and pointing to the machine you will be answering the call on though, which is a disadvantage (make sure all your passwords are well chosen!), but the other end doesn't need any open ports.

Pre XP I had OpenVPN and VNC installed on their machines. All they had to do was open the VPN and I could take/share control via VNC. RDC/RA works better though, as it is more responsive over slow ADSL lines and does not require any setup on the machine the person is asking for support on, though for family members who I have built machines for still have the VPN installed so I can connect it if I want/need to try interact with the machine by anything other than the RA connection (accessing fileshares directly for instance, if the problem being reported is "I can see the MP3s on the main machine from my laptop" or such), but I've not needed to do that for some time.

Try Mikogo

[Anonymous Coward]

www.mikogo.com . owned by Skype. I use it all the time.

Re:Try Mikogo

[Kenz0r]

Since this is slashdot, I should probably mention that it's free as in beer, not as in speech. It also only works on Windows and Mac (but most Linux distributions come with a VNC server anyway nowadays).

A wrap up of sorts...

[BLKMGK]

Okay seems like everyone and their brother has a different idea and since this interests me I tried to roll up as many of the interesting looking ones as possible into one posting :-) Did I miss any?

http://www.teamviewer.com/

https://secure.logmein.com/products/free/

http://www.copilot.com/

http://skype.com/

http://www.uvnc.com/addons/singleclick.html (reverse VNC)

http://www.crossloop.com/

http://www.mikogo.com/en/

http://showmypc.com/

https://www.ntrconnect.com/

http://www.zolved.com/remote_control

http://www.wippien.com/ (VPN)

http://code.google.com/p/gitso/ (reverse VNC)