Telling the truth, I am not an expert in computers, but I am quite curious and when I have had problems, (so much with my old PC Win, as now with the Mac), I have done all the possible to resolve the problems without having to contact technicians. At times the aid arrived from my brother, a lot more "geek" and always expert of the last technological advances and of the fashions in this field. Other times, I have strolled over the internet in all the languages that know (Spanish, English, Portuguese) in search of a solution to "x" problems.
At present, I do all possible in my hands to help my mom and my sister with their computers, but, given the distance that separates us, we have to do it using internet, which leaves us with limited possibilities if, for example, we use the email. Neither my mom nor my sister are very given to understand these new technologies, they are the type of user that only uses what's in front of them and if it's damaged, they call the technician. Or in this case, to me. Therefore, an email explanation does not work for them. I have even tried to guide them using instant messegers (IM), but doesn't function either. And our last and better resource, has been to use the tool of Remote Assistance of the MSN Live Messenger, that gives me the possibility to take control of their computers.
The matter is that, since I switched to Mac is a little more complicated to use it, since the version of the MSN Messenger for Mac doesn't has this tool. And seen that only functions in Windows, it forces me to:
a. Resume the Mac in Windows.
b. Install some emulating/virtualPC to be able to run the Live Mensseger inside the Mac OS.
It is true that there are many options for this type of remote assistance for the Mac, but is not easy at all. In my case, my Mac with OS X 10.4, doesn't have the Remote Desktop, that is an aplicacion that costs at least $299/€299 (version that lets to manage up to 10 systems).
If you only want to share your screen, you can test Bosco' s Screen Share. Personally, I have not tested it, because it wouldn't work for me as I can't get control of the computers of my mom and my sister.
There is also Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac (Microsoft). The PC with Windows XP Home Edition can only be "clients" or "remote". The PC with XP Professional, NT Server and the majority of Win 2000 come with services of Remote Desktop from origin, and they can be "hosts". Only the remote clients can take control of the hosts. Meaning that I would not be able to take control of the PCs of my mom and my sister as they can't be "hosts".
We can also test the service offered by Yugma for Mac, Linux and Win. It is an application based on Java. To use the service, is necessary to be registered. The personal account is free and permits to have until 10 guests (clients) but after the 15 days of test, no longer permits to share the control of the computer, only the viewing of the desks. The Professional account has versions of 10, 30, 100 and 500 "clients" with various prices. And has a plug-in for Skype.
You can see a comparison of Remote Desk applications (Remote Desktop) in this link to Wikipedia.
Now, I am going to test Team Viewer for Mac (Beta) and Windows. The TV (module Supporter) permits to control the PC of the "clients", to transfer files, to make our computer a "host" to remote access, etc. The TV QuickSupport (module Customer) is simple, it is executed automatically in the computers of the clients. The TV Manager is an extra tool that lets you to manage associates, contacts or clients and it's included in the Premium licenses. The cost of TV has variety, beginning with being free for not commercial use, and has some limitations of configuration, performance and backup. I'm still about to test it (waiting my mom or my sister -or some of my friends- they may need me) but is the one that more advantages offers, it seems very easy to use and is free without cutting the option of remote controlling the computers that wants to be attended.
At present, I do all possible in my hands to help my mom and my sister with their computers, but, given the distance that separates us, we have to do it using internet, which leaves us with limited possibilities if, for example, we use the email. Neither my mom nor my sister are very given to understand these new technologies, they are the type of user that only uses what's in front of them and if it's damaged, they call the technician. Or in this case, to me. Therefore, an email explanation does not work for them. I have even tried to guide them using instant messegers (IM), but doesn't function either. And our last and better resource, has been to use the tool of Remote Assistance of the MSN Live Messenger, that gives me the possibility to take control of their computers.
The matter is that, since I switched to Mac is a little more complicated to use it, since the version of the MSN Messenger for Mac doesn't has this tool. And seen that only functions in Windows, it forces me to:
a. Resume the Mac in Windows.
b. Install some emulating/virtualPC to be able to run the Live Mensseger inside the Mac OS.
It is true that there are many options for this type of remote assistance for the Mac, but is not easy at all. In my case, my Mac with OS X 10.4, doesn't have the Remote Desktop, that is an aplicacion that costs at least $299/€299 (version that lets to manage up to 10 systems).
If you only want to share your screen, you can test Bosco' s Screen Share. Personally, I have not tested it, because it wouldn't work for me as I can't get control of the computers of my mom and my sister.
There is also Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac (Microsoft). The PC with Windows XP Home Edition can only be "clients" or "remote". The PC with XP Professional, NT Server and the majority of Win 2000 come with services of Remote Desktop from origin, and they can be "hosts". Only the remote clients can take control of the hosts. Meaning that I would not be able to take control of the PCs of my mom and my sister as they can't be "hosts".
We can also test the service offered by Yugma for Mac, Linux and Win. It is an application based on Java. To use the service, is necessary to be registered. The personal account is free and permits to have until 10 guests (clients) but after the 15 days of test, no longer permits to share the control of the computer, only the viewing of the desks. The Professional account has versions of 10, 30, 100 and 500 "clients" with various prices. And has a plug-in for Skype.
You can see a comparison of Remote Desk applications (Remote Desktop) in this link to Wikipedia.
Now, I am going to test Team Viewer for Mac (Beta) and Windows. The TV (module Supporter) permits to control the PC of the "clients", to transfer files, to make our computer a "host" to remote access, etc. The TV QuickSupport (module Customer) is simple, it is executed automatically in the computers of the clients. The TV Manager is an extra tool that lets you to manage associates, contacts or clients and it's included in the Premium licenses. The cost of TV has variety, beginning with being free for not commercial use, and has some limitations of configuration, performance and backup. I'm still about to test it (waiting my mom or my sister -or some of my friends- they may need me) but is the one that more advantages offers, it seems very easy to use and is free without cutting the option of remote controlling the computers that wants to be attended.
1 comment:
The easiest thing I've found is to use Remote Assistance Lite (ralite.ozmonet.com). The person who needs help runs it, while the person who gives the help runs VNC in listen mode. works for me!
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