Working Remotely Another's PC

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob H
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Bob H

There is a way to work on a PC remotely and I am trying to figure it out.
From my PC I want to do something on my parents PC across the country. I
believe it involves getting their IP address and then a bit of stuff that
eludes me then my folks click a button allowing me to work on their PC. So
from my desk top I am viewing their desktop and they see me controlling the
PC. Too vague?

Any help is appreciated, thanks, Bob
 
It's called Remote Assistance. It works best when both Host and
Guest PCs are connected to the Internet using Broadband. It can
work when the "Host" is using Dial-up, but the Guest user must go
slow and not queue up too many commands or run multiple apps.
It works within the "Terminal Services" facility. It can be accessed
from Help & Support's "Ask for Assistance" category. For users
with NAT (Network Address Translation) it's sometimes necessary
to edit the "Ticket" and substitute the LAN IP for the users true or
public Internet IP (http://WhatIsMyIP.com)
 
Bob H said:
There is a way to work on a PC remotely and I am trying to figure it out.
From my PC I want to do something on my parents PC across the country. I
believe it involves getting their IP address and then a bit of stuff that
eludes me then my folks click a button allowing me to work on their PC.
So from my desk top I am viewing their desktop and they see me controlling
the PC. Too vague?

Any help is appreciated, thanks, Bob
Click to expand...

Remote assistance has been suggested. It works.

PC Anywhere is great also. You have to purchase it though.
 
Bob, if you have an email from them you can right click on the title, go
properties, and detail and you might see their WAN IP address, it should not
matter if they have a router but they do you may have to open up a port on
it.

For example yours looks like 70.71.121.84

You can ask them to go to www.whatismyip.com to find out for sure, it's very
easy...

Then they right click on "My Computer" - go to the "Remote" tab and turn on
assistance or perhaps better yet turn on remote access (or both) - that way
you have two chances at it.

Before they do this however make sure they have a secure (ish) password, and
you will also need their administrator password to use the latter.

Note you cannot do this before XP, it does not work with older versions like
2000 you would have to use some other utility.

Next on your machine go to start>programs>accessories>communications and
find remote desktop. I suggest create a shortcut by right clicking to save
this process next time around but that will give you a screen asking for an
IP and a logon name / password. This allows you to behave just as if you
were literally working on the machine. (That's why they want a decent
password).

Your machine can be anything from 98 up... the RDP client consists of just
two files, they are there on XP up but for earlier systems you can simply
copy them.

Bear in mind their "Desktop" has to be sent over the internet so you will
have some minor delays, but nothing insurmountable.

This may be more reliable than remote assistance, but likely will log them
off when you log on so warn them not to panic... if you can get to set up a
different user with Admin rights just for yourself that might be a good
idea, or else rename the built in Administrator and use that to give them
Admin rights and give them a user logon... I think you should rename the
built in if you are going to remote desktop...

I hope this gives you a choice of options.

Charlie
 
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