Remote access

Jamesdeer001

Dear Techie Forumites

I was wondering if you were able to help me please.

I have an elderly relative who does not live me and often needs PC help. Technical help over the phone is not easy and I think remote access of his desktop would be the easiest way forward/

I've looked into this and even installed TightVNC. Using this, I was able to access the desktop of my partner's Laptop. Unfortunately, further reading revealed this was easy because it we were both connected to the same router and therefore network.

Therefore I disconnected, tethered through my phone and tried connecting again and could not. Further reading made me conclude that this way because I would need to forward port/ setup a static IP.

Unfortunately, I do not feel this is something that I could ask my elderly relative to setup and do not want to spend many frustrated hours attempting over the phone.

Therefore, I was wondering, is it possible for me to have remote access to my relatives PC, who is geographically no where near me, without forwarding ports and settting up a static IP on his computer first

Thanks in advance

craiglaw

Check out Teamviewer (newbie - cant post links, google it) is free for personal use and does not require any messing with port forwarding or firewalls, I use it all the time for helping family.

googler

I thought the MS OSs from Win XP onward had remote access built in to the OS....?

EDIT : Yup, on my Win XP SP2 -

"Remote Assistance

Invite someone you trust to help you. Using an Internet connection, anyone running Windows XP can chat with you, view your screen, and with your permission, work on your computer."

craiglaw

Therefore, I was wondering, is it possible for me to have remote access to my relatives PC, who is geographically no where near me, without forwarding ports and settting up a static IP on his computer first

Pretty sure you still need to open port 3389 on the remote router and know the WAN IP address when using windows remote assistance.

aerostar

Teamviewer works without port openings etc.

http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx

It works well.

MoneySavingUser

yeah a few apps exist which don't need port forwarding - I think https://join.me/ will work ok too

closed

teamviewer is the best solution

or open up a port on their router (and software firewall) for vnc temporarily

Jamesdeer001

Thanks very much all for your responses.

I used teamviewer and found it extremely simple to install on both machines and then connect over different networks, without the need for port forwarding etc.

Would highly recommend