Using Remote

[Leythos]

[snip]

Consider the steps the OP's mother has to go through, following
your recipe:
1. Start a command processor.
2. Ping her son's IP address. (What is it, anyway?)
3. Watch the firewall response (if she has one).
4. Make a note of the address.
5. Tell her son.
6. Allow for mistakes and misunderstandings.

That's a bit much for a 78 year old lady with limited computer
skills. I prefer the KISS principle: Double-click a single shortcut
on her desktop. That's it, no more. And it can be done!

How about you think a little and try again:

Mom/Grandmother
1) Starts VNC Server Service
2) Open IE or FireFox
3) Browse to http:\\mysonsIP
4) Tell son that she's browsed to his computer

SON
1) Watch firewall/router logs
2) See's Mom/Grandmothers inbound http request
3) VNC connect to IP found in #2 above

Done.....

That's seven steps. Four of them need a reasonable
PC-awareness by the OP's mother. You can easily
do it with one single step, requiring no PC-awareness
(other than clicking a shortcut). As I said, I'm a great
believer in the KISS principle.

And by the way, you still haven't told us how the
lady should locate http://mysonsIP, unless he has
a fixed IP address.

Because the SON has already told her his IP address. The son sounded as
though he was technical enough to determine his own IP address.

And like it or not, it's very simple for complete technical noobs to
perform what I describe, I've done it with many people that have just
started with their first computer and have trouble knowing what the
"Monitor" is. You can try and assume it's going to be hard, but as long
as they know enough to open IE they know enough to follow simple
directions.

One other thing - my solution works on Win 98 and above Windows machines
and works with the support person using Windows or Linux on their side.

The reverse WinVNC takeover works on all Windows
platforms too. As I said, it requires no voice dialogue,
just one double keyclick by the OP's mother. No phone
calls, no IP address pick up via IE, just a double click.
I recommend you try it - it might change your view on
the technique!

I may, but, how does the reverse VNC know what IP to reverse too?

How does it work if the supporter has a dynamic IP?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

[snip]

Consider the steps the OP's mother has to go through, following
your recipe:
1. Start a command processor.
2. Ping her son's IP address. (What is it, anyway?)
3. Watch the firewall response (if she has one).
4. Make a note of the address.
5. Tell her son.
6. Allow for mistakes and misunderstandings.

That's a bit much for a 78 year old lady with limited computer
skills. I prefer the KISS principle: Double-click a single shortcut
on her desktop. That's it, no more. And it can be done!

How about you think a little and try again:

Mom/Grandmother
1) Starts VNC Server Service
2) Open IE or FireFox
3) Browse to http:\\mysonsIP
4) Tell son that she's browsed to his computer

SON
1) Watch firewall/router logs
2) See's Mom/Grandmothers inbound http request
3) VNC connect to IP found in #2 above

Done.....

That's seven steps. Four of them need a reasonable
PC-awareness by the OP's mother. You can easily
do it with one single step, requiring no PC-awareness
(other than clicking a shortcut). As I said, I'm a great
believer in the KISS principle.

And by the way, you still haven't told us how the
lady should locate http://mysonsIP, unless he has
a fixed IP address.

Because the SON has already told her his IP address. The son sounded as
though he was technical enough to determine his own IP address.

And like it or not, it's very simple for complete technical noobs to
perform what I describe, I've done it with many people that have just
started with their first computer and have trouble knowing what the
"Monitor" is. You can try and assume it's going to be hard, but as long
as they know enough to open IE they know enough to follow simple
directions.

One other thing - my solution works on Win 98 and above Windows machines
and works with the support person using Windows or Linux on their

side.

The reverse WinVNC takeover works on all Windows
platforms too. As I said, it requires no voice dialogue,
just one double keyclick by the OP's mother. No phone
calls, no IP address pick up via IE, just a double click.
I recommend you try it - it might change your view on
the technique!

I may, but, how does the reverse VNC know what IP to reverse too?

How does it work if the supporter has a dynamic IP?

Here is how it works:
1. The son registers a free domain name, e.g. son.homedns.org,
with someone such as www.dyndns.com or www.no-ip.com.
2. He downloads a free Windows service from the same site.
3. He installs this service on his PC. It will check his
external IP address once every few minutes. If a
change has occurred then it will instruct the DNS at
www.no-ip.com to update son.homedns.org accordingly.
4. He creates a tunnel for port 5500 through his firewall.
5. He installs WinVNC on his machine in listening mode.
Steps 1 to 5 need to be taken just once, when setting up
the facility.

Installation at the son's place is not trivial. However,
since he is computer literate, this is no great obstacle.

Installation at his mother's place is trivial. It is easy to
be fully automated. A total computer novice can install
the automated product within a minute.

When his mother double-clicks her reverse takeover
shortcut, it invokes a batch file with these lines inside:
@echo off
winvnc.exe
winvnc.exe -connect son.homedns.org
(with the appropriate paths in front, of course)

This will open her machine to her son. To terminate
the connection, she could use this desktop shortcut:
winvnc -kill

 

[David Candy]

Gee whiz, you are both so stupid.

Send IM asking what is your IP, they answer, connected.

NM used to do this before MS pulled the plug (and before IM it was the NM Directory).

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goodbye Web Diary
http://margokingston.typepad.com/harry_version_2/2005/12/thank_you_and_g.html#comments
=================================================

[snip]

Consider the steps the OP's mother has to go through, following
your recipe:
1. Start a command processor.
2. Ping her son's IP address. (What is it, anyway?)
3. Watch the firewall response (if she has one).
4. Make a note of the address.
5. Tell her son.
6. Allow for mistakes and misunderstandings.

That's a bit much for a 78 year old lady with limited computer
skills. I prefer the KISS principle: Double-click a single shortcut
on her desktop. That's it, no more. And it can be done!

How about you think a little and try again:

Mom/Grandmother
1) Starts VNC Server Service
2) Open IE or FireFox
3) Browse to http:\\mysonsIP
4) Tell son that she's browsed to his computer

SON
1) Watch firewall/router logs
2) See's Mom/Grandmothers inbound http request
3) VNC connect to IP found in #2 above

Done.....

That's seven steps. Four of them need a reasonable
PC-awareness by the OP's mother. You can easily
do it with one single step, requiring no PC-awareness
(other than clicking a shortcut). As I said, I'm a great
believer in the KISS principle.

And by the way, you still haven't told us how the
lady should locate http://mysonsIP, unless he has
a fixed IP address.

Because the SON has already told her his IP address. The son sounded as
though he was technical enough to determine his own IP address.

And like it or not, it's very simple for complete technical noobs to
perform what I describe, I've done it with many people that have just
started with their first computer and have trouble knowing what the
"Monitor" is. You can try and assume it's going to be hard, but as long
as they know enough to open IE they know enough to follow simple
directions.

One other thing - my solution works on Win 98 and above Windows machines
and works with the support person using Windows or Linux on their side.

The reverse WinVNC takeover works on all Windows
platforms too. As I said, it requires no voice dialogue,
just one double keyclick by the OP's mother. No phone
calls, no IP address pick up via IE, just a double click.
I recommend you try it - it might change your view on
the technique!

I may, but, how does the reverse VNC know what IP to reverse too?

How does it work if the supporter has a dynamic IP?

Here is how it works:
1. The son registers a free domain name, e.g. son.homedns.org,
with someone such as www.dyndns.com or www.no-ip.com.
2. He downloads a free Windows service from the same site.
3. He installs this service on his PC. It will check his
external IP address once every few minutes. If a
change has occurred then it will instruct the DNS at
www.no-ip.com to update son.homedns.org accordingly.
4. He creates a tunnel for port 5500 through his firewall.
5. He installs WinVNC on his machine in listening mode.
Steps 1 to 5 need to be taken just once, when setting up
the facility.

Installation at the son's place is not trivial. However,
since he is computer literate, this is no great obstacle.

Installation at his mother's place is trivial. It is easy to
be fully automated. A total computer novice can install
the automated product within a minute.

When his mother double-clicks her reverse takeover
shortcut, it invokes a batch file with these lines inside:
@echo off
winvnc.exe
winvnc.exe -connect son.homedns.org
(with the appropriate paths in front, of course)

This will open her machine to her son. To terminate
the connection, she could use this desktop shortcut:
winvnc -kill