Setting remote assistance in win xp

  • Thread starter Thread starter Luis Ortega
  • Start date Start date
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Luis Ortega

I have a 4 computer network at home using broadband wireless adapters and I
troubleshoot them as needed from time to time. One child is going off to
school and she is not very computer literate regarding maintenance. She will
have a wired broadband connection at her school (I will fit her computer
with a network card).

What I want to know is whether I can set up her computer in some way so that
I could access it and make changes to her computer from my home while she is
at school.
I wonder if windows' remote assistance feature is useful for this and what
exactly is involved. I also wonder just what sort of access would be allowed
and what changes I could make.

I notice at work that sometimes the IT people have to commandeer my computer
(a Mac) and make some changes. I can see the mouse moving around the screen
on its own, and the actions that the IT people are performing, so I know
it's possible, although I don't know if this is possible if all the machines
are not on some server setup.

Thanks for any advice.
 
Luis said:
I have a 4 computer network at home using broadband wireless adapters
and I troubleshoot them as needed from time to time. One child is
going off to school and she is not very computer literate regarding
maintenance. She will have a wired broadband connection at her school
(I will fit her computer with a network card).

What I want to know is whether I can set up her computer in some way
so that I could access it and make changes to her computer from my
home while she is at school.
I wonder if windows' remote assistance feature is useful for this and
what exactly is involved. I also wonder just what sort of access would
be allowed and what changes I could make.

I notice at work that sometimes the IT people have to commandeer my
computer (a Mac) and make some changes. I can see the mouse moving
around the screen on its own, and the actions that the IT people are
performing, so I know it's possible, although I don't know if this is
possible if all the machines are not on some server setup.
Click to expand...

You can take control of a remote computer using XP's Remote Assistance
if the controlling computer is running XP Pro. Otherwise you can use
one of the VNC "flavors" - RealVNC, UltraVNC - which are free, or a
commercial program such as Symantec's pcAnywhere.

The difficulty will be if your daughter is behind a router and/or
firewall. Ports need to be opened to allow the connection and the
school may not permit this. I know I wouldn't if I were the school's
sys admin. So you'll need to check this out. If your daughter is living
off-campus and will have her own broadband connection, if she is using
a router she would need to open the appropriate ports herself. The
ports you need to open vary depending upon the program.

Malke
 
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