I held the phone tightly in my right hand. With my left, I rubbed my dry, tired eyes. I looked at the clock in my Mac's menu bar. I had been on the phone for forty-five minutes, with no indication that I'd be hanging it up any time soon."OK," I said in a slow, deliberate tone. "Let's start from the beginning. Click on the Mail menu. A list should appear. Do you see it?"
A pause. "Yes," my mother said.
"What do you see in that list?" I said.
"File ... About Mail ... Preferences ...."
"Good. Do you see 'Quit'?"
"Yes."
"Excellent. Click on 'Quit' and we'll start again."
Welcome to my personal hell, circa 2006. Pull up a chair. Get comfortable. We're going to be here for quite a while.
That was the night I snapped; the night I lost my mind explaining Mail to a person for whom the concept is more arcane than a Dennis Miller reference. The night that would have been so much better if only we had Leopard.
If you're the person in your family who is often called upon to provide free tech support (or, as I call it, the "sucker"), this post is for you. If your parents/aunties/sister/parole officer are running Mac OS 10.4 or earlier, you must convince them to upgrade to Leopard. Here's how.
iChat screen sharing. There's a story in Christian tradition about St. Paul, who was a grumpy old sourpuss until the day he decided to take a road trip to Damascus. That's when the Lord himself showed up and, to make a long story short, turned that frown upside down.
This is precisely what iChat 4.0 has done for me. Soon after Leopard was released, I upgraded my parents' iMac and created an AIM account for them. Now, remote trouble shooting is so simple it's almost ... divine.
To initiate a screen sharing session, simply create a chat with your intended target. Next, select "Ask to share remote screen" from the Buddies menu. At this point, you can see and control that remote Mac. There's no additional configuration required, no determination of your partner's IP address. It just works.
Open the sky and queue the choir.
Video Chat with the kids. I live in Massachusetts and my parents are in Florida. It's tough for them to share in their grandkids' lives across that span (or, as I call it, my Eleven-hundred Mile Sanity Buffer Zone). Video chat helps to bridge the miles.
It couldn't be easier to create a video chat. When your target comes online, simply click the green "camera" icon next to their name in iChat. They'll hear an old-style telephone "ring" on their end, and see a button prompting them to accept the call. That's it! We have a laptop at home, so it's great fun to "carry" my parents around during a birthday party, holidays and so on. Plus, the kids get a real kick out of it.
Here's where it gets good. iChat for Leopard includes iChat Theater. This allows you to select an album of photos in iPhoto and display them as a slideshow to your chat participants. It's a great feature for this situation.
Time Machine. I don't know about your folks, but my parents' backup plan is about as reliable as Britney Spears' career. With Time Machine, you know their machine is being backed up at regular intervals, and they don't have to lift a finger.
Simply purchase a USB or Firewire drive and connect it for them. A simple dialog box will ask if you'd like to use that device for Time Machine backups. Say "yes" and you're done.
Mail Stationery. I know, I know. HTML email is evil. It's a bandwidth-hogging assault on your inbox. Here's something you don't know: Grandmas love it.
First of all, they'll think you're immensely clever for creating such a "beautiful" email message. Secondly, they'll save that message to show to all their buddies (I'm speaking from experience here).
So there you have it. Armed with this information, $129US (or $199 for the family pack) and a couple hours of free time, you can make the Mac experience more enjoyable ... for everyone.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
4-07-2008 @ 3:15PM
Peter Zich said...
I've definitely found leopard useful for parents, grandparents and friends.
Reply
4-07-2008 @ 3:16PM
Mickey said...
Grandparent/grandkid video chat is the sole reason we switched from PC to Mac.
It is simply fantastic.
Reply
4-07-2008 @ 3:19PM
Mike said...
I cannot speak enough about how awesome screen sharing is. Once my dad upgraded to Leopard my tech support calls were reduced from upward of an hour to minutes. It goes like this. My dad calls, I tell him to open iChat (he logs in with his Google Talk account), I open iChat (I use Adium for everything else, and only dust off iChat when I want to video chat with somebody) and start the screen sharing feature. The problem is fixed within minutes. Then I can have a normal, non-aggravating conversation with him and my mom, usually over video chat.
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4-07-2008 @ 3:22PM
John T said...
Yeah the remote screen sharing feature would be awesome but I've tried it on up to 6 different Macs, on various network speeds and it rarely works. The one time it actually did work for me was when I was in Maryland, connecting with my friend in Germany.
Screen sharing sucks so far.
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4-07-2008 @ 3:33PM
Gregg Fuller said...
I disagree completely. Everytime I've used screen sharing it's worked perfectly. Make sure you're network settings are correct and give it another shot. Bloody brilliant. I also like sharing music with friends this way. I can play a song and we can talk about it. Same with pictures and the like.
4-07-2008 @ 3:28PM
cynyc said...
Could you elaborate? What doesn't work? What sucks? Are you connecting at all?
I assume you are aware that BOTH Macs need to run Leopard?
4-07-2008 @ 4:12PM
Brian Allen said...
The screen sharing has issues with large screens.
Port issues can get you, too.
(Personally, I haven't been able to stop screen sharing once started. This step is not in the online documentation.)
Mac Pro with 768/512 connection has problems. MacBook Pro with 6MB/512 connection works well. Very strange.
If screen sharing is going to fail, it does not report a failure. Simply, nothing happens.
4-07-2008 @ 4:33PM
Trimalchio said...
You should check and see if both parties are behind NAT, Most home routers use NAT to share a single connection among more than one computer, and this often confuses iChat. The easiest thing is to log into the router and temporarily put the computer you're using onto the Firewall's DMZ. Remember to take it off after you're done because people tend to scan for open services on IP pools for large ISPs.
Also, what is the correct way of dealing with these situations? How would one permanently fix the problem so that multiple macs behind NAT can all access other NAT'd computers? Is there a way to do this through uPNP?
4-07-2008 @ 5:15PM
Todd Shirley said...
I have to agree with John
Both my mom and sister are on macbooks and connect via an airport. I have spotty luck with screen sharing. It just tends to be flaky. Sometimes I connect right away, sometimes it freezes while accessing their screen, sometimes I can't get it going at all. I assume its because everybody is wireless. Sure, maybe there is some configuration problems that could be fixed, but if the idea is to speed up tech support for my family, its usually quicker to just talk them through it rather than troubleshoot screen sharing!
4-07-2008 @ 5:54PM
Chanzo said...
You should also check if 'Internet Sharing' is turned on in the Sharing prefs pane. I spent weeks tearing my hair out because iChat video/screen sharing wouldn't work - I tried all different networks, port configurations, firewall tinkering - you name it. It turned out to be a bug with Internet Sharing that prevented it from working properly, all I needed to do was switch it off (it was actually redundant anyway).
4-07-2008 @ 3:27PM
Seth A said...
I have to say, if anything is worth the price of Leopard for your family members that aren't exactly A+ computer students, would be the screen sharing. I have gone from taking hours on the phone or on iChat explaining what to do, now I just say, "I will do it." I mean, there are things you want to actually teach them how to do, but preference changing, setting up mail, ect. Things they will never need to know how to do, but it is natural for you, you just do it. Not only has it helped me with my family, but so many of my friends have bought Mac's. I mean, the only issue is, it has become so easy, many of my freinds now skip the simple google look up, and ask me directly. Oh well.
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4-07-2008 @ 4:51PM
Dan Woods said...
The only time screen sharing is not the end-all solution is when your diagnosing Network Problems; especially with Wireless Networks.
For this reason I recommend all I service to only use AirPort Access Points; there's nothing worse than trying to restore an obscure brand of Router remotely when it's owner has been "tweaking" it without knowing anything about networking, or when it's coupled with an obscure brand of Vendor-crippled ADSL Modem.
Also Wireless Security on an AirPort is so much easier than any other AP I've been forced to use.
4-07-2008 @ 3:29PM
methnen said...
Thats really weird John. I've never had it fail yet. And like the others it has been a God send when dealing my parents' many tech support questions.
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4-07-2008 @ 3:30PM
Lorien said...
I agree with John T.
The first time I ever tried screen sharing it worked. Every other attempt since has failed.
So, I still have to spend Sunday night explaining to my mother that the reason she can't see her email is because it's in another Space...and try explaining Spaces!
Wish Apple could fix this one, the Apple forums are full of people who haven't been able to get screen sharing to work.
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4-07-2008 @ 3:33PM
iGO said...
The Free www.logmein.com allows me full access, to 1/2 a dozen Mac's & PC's, that I maintain for friends and family. I swear by it.
The users can watch their screens as I take full control of their machines and show them what's what.
It does require a one-time setup, where I might be required to be in front of said machine, if I can not successfully walk them through set-up over the phone.
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4-07-2008 @ 4:36PM
JT said...
Ditto for logmein.
Much more reliable than iChat and doesn't require both parties to have Leopard, or even a Mac for that matter.
4-07-2008 @ 9:11PM
Trisnadi Kurniawan said...
I agree with Logmein!
I can remotely view and control the remote computer without the user having to touch anything or figuring out their IP address. Works on both Mac & PC. That means I can remote control Mac from PC and vice versa. All I need is a web browser. For urgent troubleshooting, I can just jump on any internet-connected machine (mac or pc).
The only inconvenient thing is that you have to install the client and configure it, but I normally have to do some configuration stuff anyway before I can give the computer to the user, so this has become part of my "initial setup" process for the whole family.
What's that? worried about having a third party 'client' sitting in your OS and the possibility of some stranger taking over your computer? Worry not! Logmein uses your windows authentication and the process runs as a service which means that you can start the session even before the user is logged in!
I use this for "Maintenance mode" for my mum's laptop overseas. I simply tell her to turn on the PC and leave it. Whenever convenient, I then remotely login using my own credentials and perform system updates, patches, etc. When I'm done, I simply shut down the system. She knows I'm done coz the PC is now off.
I started to sound like a sales person here. Better stop.
4-07-2008 @ 3:36PM
Orrello said...
oh thanks for reminding me about the screen sharing! I am a true "sucker" ;) Nice read
Reply
4-07-2008 @ 3:39PM
Galley said...
As much as I tried, my Dad recently dropped $400 on a Vista laptop, rather than the MacBook I suggested. Guess who's been stuck trying to troubleshoot an operating system he's not familiar with?
Reply
4-07-2008 @ 4:22PM
Sabon said...
Galley - I tell my family that I love them very much. But I do not support computers that are not running Apple's Mac OS X.