Easy remote tech support

I'm very proud to be quoted on TUAW :-)

What I found specific in the OSXHint trick is, the person you help doesn't need *anything* else than opening an attachment to a mail you just sent: no IP knowledge, no firewall adjustment of course, and also you don't need to have 'prepared' his/her machine before.

I found this extremely heplful for your average, 'I don't know what happens' colleague just phoning you tonight: you indeed can react immediately.

Hervé S.

that is very much the slashfood logo - http://slashfood.com/

I too use Copilot. It does cost, but is very cheap compared to Goto My PC and other type services.

Another free one is Hamachi. This is really awesome. It is a personal VPN. You install software on their mac and on yours. You then create a network name and a password. You then join that network with the other computers. Now they are on your VPN just as if they were right next to you. They use encryption AES 256 all the info is at Hamachi.cc

There is a big problem with this approach using Schnitz Remote. All the communications between the two computers is unencrypted. Don't do any work on sensitive files remotely. (e.g. Don't open up a Word document on the Reomote Computer that contains sensitive information).

In my view, there is a MUCH better way. Create a SSH tunnel. For a good explanation of this approach, see http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050429153115383

This article uses Apple's ARD Client (which is really a server. Thank you Apple for using really confusing non-standard terms). I prefer OSXVNC. In my view OSXVNC server is a much better server and is faster. You could easily use OSXVNC instead of ARD if you wanted to. Just make sure that the script Activates the OSXVNC server before it creates the SSH tunnel.

Rob

I have used CoPilot, it works very well. Clearly it costs more than a free app but it does avoid any complications with firewalls and routers.

At home I use CotVNC to control some my Macs, again an excellent app with the benefit that nothing needs to be installed on the (far) Mac being controlled.

Have you considered Fog Creek Copilot - https://www.copilot.com/ ? There is no need for the recipient of support to go into any technical details; there is the installation of one component, and it's a paid service (albeit inexpensive), anyway.

(Note: a) I have not used the service, and b) I am not associated with Fog Creek. I have been reading things about the company, its products, and the blog Joel on Software, for quite a while, and it seems to do the job well.)

isn't that the slashfood logo?

I've found RealVNC's Mac OS X viewer to be considerably better than CoTVNC: http://www.realvnc.com/products/enterprise/macosx.html

The server is a trial version without a key, but the viewer itself is free.

Indeed, on Intel, it's better than RDC, thanks to the fact that RDC 3 on Intel seems to have trouble connecting to certain types of VNC servers (meanwhile RDC on PPC works just fine).