Remotely control a computer over the internet

JohnnyBiggles

My father lives hundreds of miles away and needs some basic issues on his PC fixed that would be easier for me to do myself if I were sitting there at it, but that's not possible at this time. Is there some free or built in program that allows me to remotely access and control his computer (with acceptance on his end of course)? Any suggestions?

paul78

I use logmein to support family members - https://secure.logmein.com/

bermovick

I've used teamviewer for that.

TeamViewer - Free Remote Control, Remote Access & Online Meetings

DigitalZeroOne

bermovick wrote: »

I've used teamviewer for that.

TeamViewer - Free Remote Control, Remote Access & Online Meetings

Yes, I also recommend teamviewer. You can set the software to start on windows start, and set a password for it, once you do that, you can always access the remote computer, provided there are not network or startup issues.

JohnnyBiggles

Just found that before checking back here... but just to be clear, the client side must be running TV7 also? On their homepage, it says "no need for any installation on the client side", which, so far, I don't see as being true. There seems to be a separate smaller download for a basic version of TV7 (on the Downloads page) for the client to allow a remote connection without having to sign up... but sometimes it can be a pain just to get someone who's computer illiterate to do even that much... but I don't really see how one could connect without a NAT IP address otherwise...(??)

paul78

Pretty much any of these tools will require that your father install an agent of some sort. The agent that is running on your father's PC will make a connection to the service provider and serve as a proxy to allow you to remote control his PC.

Walking your father through the install should be fairly straight-forward. Services like Logmein, GotoAssist, TeamViewer were designed so that a computer illiterate end-user that typically knows how to surf the web can install it.

DevilWAH

Why not the built in RDP services.

if you both have MSN installed he can even request you to connect from there, so even if he only has basic computer skills (not suggesting he does) should be easy for him to give you access to his PC>

JohnnyBiggles

I don't use MSN and I don't think he does either. I think I'll just have to guide him on getting the small download and take it over from there. Hopefully his computer is not virus infected and it can be DL'd & run at all...lol.

DigitalZeroOne

You can run it without installation, but if you think you may connect to his computer often, do an install on both sides, you can setup an option to have the program start with windows. Each of you is given a unique ID that does not change, the password can change, but if you set it up to allow you to connect at anytime, then the password will stay the same.

Teamviewer will work through NAT, I use it often for family members. I write down their ID, and I know the password that I set, and I'm in whenever I want. You can setup a profile with teamviewer that will save the ID's for you, but I hardly ever use that.

DevilWAH

JohnnyBiggles wrote: »

I don't use MSN and I don't think he does either. I think I'll just have to guide him on getting the small download and take it over from there. Hopefully his computer is not virus infected and it can be DL'd & run at all...lol.

you dont need MSN, jsut go in to ccontrol pannel and look for "remote desk top connection", you can set it up form here just as easly.

All MSN does is allows a single click set up. using the contro pannel just means your dad will have to know the remote IP, and you will have to set up your router to all the incomming request.

It takes 5 min to set up and requires no softwere install.

DevilWAH

Step-by-Step Guide to Remote Assistance

windows 7 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Get-help-with-your-computer-using-Windows-Remote-Assistance

various ways you can start remote support / connections via the built in windows software.

paul78

@DevilWAH - doesn't that method expose an RDP service at the assisted computer? I've never really looked into that method closely but I thought it used a RDP service.

I'm not an advocate of enabling RDP over the internet. But if you go down that route - make sure the latest patches are installed first. There's been a few security patches released in the last few months - latest is - Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-020 - Critical : Vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2671387) and I think there was an update to that issue as recent as last week.

DevilWAH

any remote conenction to some extent or another opens up the device to the internet, at least at one end or other of the connections.

while I ddont suggest RDP is a suitable solution for server managermnt acroos the internet, or frequent access, for one of it is plenty secure enough.

yes of course have the latest patches installed, but don't get to paronied about security threats, if you want to ee the risks, set up a PC with its ports open to the inernet, enable RDP as you would for a remote invite and see what happens. While you might get a automated probes, from experince you can leave a PC like it for weeks with out any thing bad happening.

Opening a bad eamil is far more risky than allowing RDP for remote invites for a few hours.

JohnnyBiggles

Thanks for the info folks.

CodeBlox

I use the built in remote desktop client for Windows XP/7

MrBishop

TeamViewer is great for this kind of thing and its pretty easy to setup on either end. It's a very nice program and probably one of the best remote access programs that I know of that is free beside RDP itself.

Bokeh

You could also use Ammyy.com . We use it a lot at work, it's free as well.

MrBishop

Thanks bokeh, this looks pretty similar to how how TeamViewer works

rsutton

RDP requires some port forwarding on your router and does expose a higher risk than programs like Team Viewer or Log Me in as they don't require any services be forwarded to your computer since the connection can be initiated from the target computer.

drkat

i use webex