A Website Dedicated to Computer Professionals...and some not so Professional

Remote Desktop Support
William Nett


"Um Houston, I've got a problem..."

Let's face it, if you've ever built a computer for someone... you become their on-call tech support. 99 times out of 100 this IS a problem, especially if the user is your grandmother or a computer illiterate close friend. Trying to explain to them how to install  Adware or Housecall over the phone can be very frustrating. It's even more troublesome if the user is more than a stones throw away. So what do you do when the user is fifty or several thousand miles off in the distance? Give them the gift of VNC! Sure, XP has a Remote Desktop Connection Wizard, but VNC came way before this... and VNC supports Microsoft, Linux, and even your MAC buddies. Yes, it doesn't matter what you're connecting from or to, with a simple VNC installation, you connect to a Linux computer from a Windows computer or a Mac, and vice versa. Did I mention that it's free thanks to the folks at AT&T Labs?

One of the reasons I cite this application is that it's commonly used by spammers to use other's computers as drones or bots on the internet. However, if you already install it and SET A SECURE PASSWORD then you're one step ahead of the spammers! What you see is what they see... it's just like being there holding their hand. A note to admins, you must enable port forwarding to a specific computer if your user has a router like LinkSys or D-Link. What I've done is enable a default host
on my client's network to be both a client and server. The rest of their machines I installed the VNC server. From here if need be I can VNC into the main host and from there VNC into the rest of their computers. The ports needed to be opened are 5900 & 5800, You can check to see if you have
correctly enabled the router here. Again, I can't stress enough to use strong passwords! If setup and
configured and correctly, this application can save you many hours of travel and troubleshooting. To the uber elite, I recommend giving the user service icons which can turn on and off the VNC server service for added security.

Some of you may say this is all well and good, but my relative/customer is on DHCP... don't fret. You can ask your auntie to go to Gibson Research and find out what their current IP address is.

Cheers, and happy helping,

Will