Sometimes we reach situations that require remote assistance, which means that we do not have someone close to us that can assist our computer problems, that we need to ask a support person to give us remote assistance. There are different tools to get remote assistance, I will discuss some tools and techniques that enable to get such remote access, mostly on the windows operating system environment.

Windows XP has a remote desktop assistance feature built-in that you can enable before you can let someone from the outside take control of your computer, see your problems and try and assist your computer.

The procedures are:

1. Right-click “my computer” (you should have it on your desktop or through start-> my computer).
2. Select “properties”
3. Click on the “remote” tab.
4. Tag the check-box of the “allow remote assistance invitations to be sent from this computer”
5. Click on the “advanced” button.
6. Tag the check-box of the “allow this computer to be controlled remotely”
7. Both computers need to have internet access – (connected to the internet).
8. Go to the desktop and press F1 (this will open the basic help menu).
9. On the right-hand side under ask for assistance press the “invite a friend to connect to your computer with remote assistance”
10. Now select (click) the “invite someone to help you”
11. Select how you want to do the invitation, you can choose from a “windows messenger” (downloading it) or e-mail the invitation using an e-mail address.
12. Type the message you want, and “continue”
13. Set the number of hours that you want your computer to be accessible for remote assistance (this will close the access from the outside after the time period expires). Also choose if you want to set a password or not (if you choose yes, the remote assistance person will have to know what password you have set in order to be able to access your computer).
14. The remote assistance will receive an e-mail with an attachment and will need to accept the invitation, you will be prompted to connect to the sender, then type the password if it was set (if you don’t know it, contact the person you’re supposed to assist remotely). open the attachment, and select “open it”.
15. Click yes to connect to the remote computer.
16. From here you will get control of the remote computer. (This enables you to transfer files, start a chat session (online contact with the remote client who asked for assistance) all that in real-time and of course see what the remote computer sees and try to see the problem and solve it.

There are many companies who offer such remote assistance for supporting clients, some of them use a session called  “WEBEX“, the WEBEX application is hosted on a website, and the remote support person gives you as a client an internet address, that address will enable you to click a “connect” button, which will prompt a request for a key (which you will get from the support person) and after clicking that authenticated code you have received from the support person, he will be able to control your computer. That type of technology creates a connection between the support and the remote client, it’s like the client gives access to the remote session and enables the connection to be open.

Another way to connect to a remote windows operating system (server or client), the one who wants to connect to the remote client is using a program called MSTSC, you just do START–>RUN and type MSTSC and press ENTER. That opens a remote desktop client. There you need to type the remote client’s IP or computer name, then you get the login of the remote client as if you are on that computer, and you just type in the user and password and you will be logged in to that computer as if you are on the server itself.

There is a way to connect to your organization as if you’re at the office, even though your somewhere else in the world. This technique is called VPN (Virtual Private Network). VPN enables you to create a connection, that enables you while you get the connection to work as if you are locally at your office’s network. You gain an IP from the local LAN (local network of the organization) and you can work as if you were at your office, connected to the local LAN (local network). Such a connection enables you to connect to any computer that is connected to the office network, and get access to give the assistance one of the employee needs.

We always want to be in control and some of us have information at home that we might want to be able to access remotely. Accessing the home computer remotely means that you connecting to the internet and want to be able to access your home computer and perform certain operations. Those types of operations have some effect on which tool to use since some of the tools enable a certain type of access and some take control of your own computer, so you could see the same screen of your home computer as if you are standing in front of your computer.

There are certain security measures that need to be understood. When we open access from the outside to our computer we actually open a door for someone (hacker) to access our computer, or to be able to do so. If the door would be closed and shut with a brick of the wall, then it is closed. But if we decide to make an opening, an external person can reach that opening, and might, of course, use it to do some harm, see our materials (in case they are confident – it might be risky) or spy on our actions, and maybe if we do not pay attention to see some important information like when we log-in to our bank account from home or place a credit card number on an online website to purchase something. If your computer is breached all of those actions and more can happen to your home computer.

The remote access tools are being divided to online programs, software programs. The online programs are programs which are using internet technology to enable the remote connection like the LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, TEAMVIEWER, WEBEX PCNOW, some of the support people use WEBEX technique to gain access to your computer, seeing your screen, with your permission of course (you initiate the session) and you can see everything the support person does on your computer. The software programs are tools that open access and enable the end-user (remote person) to take control of your home computer. Some of these programs are TightVNC, RealVNC, Symantec PCAnywhere, LAPLINK and there is a built-in application in Windows XP, called remote desktop (you can run it by typing on the start–>run MSTSC).

Some programs might require you to set a permanent IP (called Static IP), which means that you will need to ask your ISP for a permanent IP to your computer. The ISP will give you an IP, and you will need to configure your home computer’s firewall NAT (network address translation) which means you will have an internal IP translated to the IP the ISP gave you. The only IP a remote person (or anyone outside of your home) will be the ISP IP, which protects your internal IP (no one will know what your internal IP is they will only know the external IP that you set on your home computer firewall. That IP directs to your computer, and so there is a way to access it, with the correct tools, and of course only by knowing the access password.