[thelist] Taking control of a client's computer

[Johnson, Christopher (MTO)]

-----Original Message-----
It occurred to me that it would be nice if there was a way I could take
over their machine for a short while to make the required changes myself
rather than trying to remember what Outlook looks like. I know that type
of software's out there. Hopefully it'll be an 'over the Internet' type of
thing rather than using direct dial.
-----Original Message-----

You have several different options depending on what OS your client is
using. If they are using Linux, than the simplest answer is to use SSH. This
does not allow for a graphical representation of their computer, but it does
allow you to fix many problems.

However, I suspect that you client is most likely using some variant of
Windows. So here are some solutions listed by OS.

Windows XP Professional
- RDesktop
Built right into XP Pro is a desktop sharing program called RDesktop. All
you need to do is have your client activate it as a server on their
computer. Then all you need to do is to start up RDesktop on your windows XP
Pro machine as the client. It is very simple to use, however, both parties
must have XP Pro.

Windows XP home
- Desktop Sharing through MSN Messenger 6.1
If both parties are on MSN Messenger, there is an option to share the
desktop. This will allow you to, once again, connect to your client's
machine and fix problems.

Windows 2000 Pro and just about any other OS on the planet
- VNC
This is a small little program that you install on your clients machine as a
server and then run on your machine as a client. The best implementation is
probably tightVNC
http://www.tightvnc.com/

Final Note:
With all of the solutions listed above, in order to make them work, you will
need to know the External IP address of your client's machine. In addition,
if there are any firewalls and/or routers (NAT) in the way, you will need to
poke the appropriate holes for the software to get through and put in place
the appropriate port forwarding. If you are trying to connect to a client in
a large corporation, this may be nearly impossible.

Hope that helps,
chris