Remote Control Software

[john]

A friend of mine tells me he's intending to buy a new laptop tomorrow (finally as the one he's got now is about 15 years old and still running Windows 95!).

He only tends to surf the internet, send some e-mails and to write the occaisional Word document but his new laptop will have Windows Vista and will look very different to what he is used to. Consequently I can expect some phone calls asking for help to do things that he's not familiar with.

Therefore it would be useful if I could download (preferably for free) some remote control software so that I can connect to his machine without having to visit.

Can anyone recommend any particular one. He will be running Vista Home Premium and I'm currently running XP Media Centre.

This looks as if it might fit the bill : http://www.download.com/VNC-Free-Edition/3000-7240_4-10045255.html?tag=lst-3

[Sebby]

Windows Remote Assistance does work between XP and Vista, with a couple of limitations, I believe.

Personally, though, I use LogMeIn. It's very straightforward, free, and works very well indeed. The other nice thing about it is that it always works, unlike Remote Assistance, regardless of setup (router, firewall, etc).

[john]

  Thanks Sebby, I've had a quick look and it looks okay. I'd prefer to use something that's been recommended (and tried). I'll just wait to see if he buys his new machine although I could try it out with my daughters machine.

All I need now is a stable connection 



Edit: Smiley markup sorted

[madasahatter]

Personally, though, I use LogMeIn. It's very straightforward, free, and works very well indeed. The other nice thing about it is that it always works, unlike Remote Assistance, regardless of setup (router, firewall, etc).

seconded - use it all the time 

[john]

  Mad, seems to be the one to go for then.

[somanyholes]

Personally, though, I use LogMeIn. It's very straightforward, free, and works very well indeed. The other nice thing about it is that it always works, unlike Remote Assistance, regardless of setup (router, firewall, etc).

and 3rd

the only thing i don't like is the fact that logmein have probably got all the details for my box, but beyond that it's pretty cool, except there is no free ftp facility ...

[Colin Burns]

i use vnc viewer which is nice and free but i tend to use it more within my LAN

[Sebby]

VNC is great, but more complicated to get setup if you're not using it locally. LogMeIn needs no port forwarding, no nothing.

[Danni]

I used to use VNC through an ssh tunnel (remember that, Colin?). Wasn't that difficult to set up.

[somanyholes]

if you fancy helping with cygwin on here danni, your braver than me

[Danni]

Ahh... forgot the not-Linux part. It was easy enough on Kubuntu I need to learn cygwin myself first.

[somanyholes]

got it setup at home for ssh access on windows, but have pretty much replaced it with logmein access, at least the ports aren't open etc, and now have sftp service setup to replace scp, was still fun setting it up though, fun when it started working that is 

[Danni]

I adore sftp- use it all the time for transferring files between my computers and the servers. I have found it works better than ftp for me.

[Colin Burns]

I used to use VNC through an ssh tunnel (remember that, Colin?). Wasn't that difficult to set up.

yea the fun old days of hacking gateshead college

oh the fun

[Danni]

That wasn't hacking. It was exploiting that they had port 21 open

[g7pkf]

logmein works.

vnc is better but needs ports open

ultravnc even better.

depends how far you want to open ports etc

[jane]

PCAdvisor (June 2008) has a walk-through on using Crossloop. It looks pretty straightforward and it's free. It might be worth a look.
From crossloop.com or on the PCAdvisor DVD. According to PCA you can skip the 'create account' bit and just start using the program.
Jane

[Tacitus]

Not directly relevant to this thread since it's on a Mac, but one of the more interesting uses of a remote desktop application....

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/15/using-back-to-my-mac-to-catch-a-thief/

[Rik]

It makes a change from the State watching us.

[Ted]

Hi john
Have a look at the VNC thread in computer discussions.
this might be what you're after.
https://www.crossloop.com/landing.htm

Link courtesy of Wingco1

[john]

Thanks Ted, I'll check that out too. However my friend telephoned me at work yesterday to say he'd bought the laptop and asked if I could call round on the way home to set it up. When I mentioned this to a colleague he said, without prompting, that I should get some remote control software and also recommended 'logmein' as he uses it himself. Still, I'll check 'crossloop' out though.

[madasahatter]

I've had a good look at Crossloop today, and it does look really good. Not exactly the same thing as logmein, but looks great- gonna have a good mess 

[Glenn]

I installed logmein last night, controlling my laptop from my work PC now  It is a very simple peice of software, and as the advert says, "It does what it says on the tin"

[Sebby]

Good stuff, Glenn.

[Colin Burns]

and so long as you do the naughty stuff on your home pc it cant be traced

(unless they are loging key stokes

[Colin Burns]

That wasn't hacking. It was exploiting that they had port 21 open

exploteing was fun

though un checking one box when in the park center made it very easy

[Danni]

exploteing was fun

though un checking one box when in the park center made it very easy

Ahh, but remember that we were doing the VNC over SSH thing before we discovered that you could bypass the proxy simply by using Firefox or unchecking that box in IE...

[Colin Burns]

yea but before you were doing that i was using a windows xp pro installed on virtual PC

oops