Remote Access Software for a relative's computer

[Sebastian Cobb]

As I mentioned in another thread my father has passed away suddenly. My mum is computer-illiterate and I want to install some sort of remote access software on her laptop that allows me to help her if she's having problems doing stuff so I can see what's going on.

So I think it needs to be something that allows me to jump on easily at any time.

I've used remote access stuff before but it's always been to machines I own, for that reason I don't think, say, google's version will work well as it'll want my account logged in on their PC.

logmein used to the an alright choice for this, are there any better alternatives these days? I think I've used teamviewer as well.

[touchingcloth]

TeamViewer is fine for this sort of thing. I've managed to talk tech-n00b relatives through even the install process for that in the past without it being too much for them to handle, but if you're able to install it ready beforehand (and make sure it picks up updates automatically) it should be reasonably simple to hop on, especially if you install prominent shortcuts on the desktop for her. If you have a printer you could even put together some screenshots for what she should expect to see and where to click. Maybe install Zoom as well as a backup - it's slightly trickier to grant remote control in TeamViewer, but if she's used to Zoom from the pandemic then it's a decent fallback for viewing her screen if not actually controlling.

Probably worth trying it all out while you're up there with a device of your own, as one of the main things that can knacker up remote sessions is UAC stuff and someone needing to put a system password in locally while the screen goes black for remote viewers.

Paid services like Citrix or whatever have a thing where you can direct someone to their website and then have them enter a code that will download and install an exe that will open a remote session as soon as it's installed, which is the easiest of all worlds because as long as someone knows how to type in a URL there's not much that can go wrong. Not sure if free TeamViewer offers this.

I hadn't seen your posts about your dad. Hope you're doing OK.

[Sebastian Cobb]

That sounds perfect, cheers!

Yeah I was planning on setting it all up before I go. And I have a tool called sshuttle on my laptop which effectively gives vpn-like behaviour via an ssh session, which I've been using to connect back to my machines at home (download film with radarr then stream via plex back to mum's house etc), so I should even be able to test remote connectivity over the wider internet (and if not I'm sure their neighbour will let me try it on their wifi).

[touchingcloth]

The SSH things are going from your mum's place to yours?

Depending on her setup, the reverse might not work without some poking in her router/Windows to allow that port through NAT/firewalls. Things like TeamViewer seem to avoid that sort of thing by handling it all in their install processes. You might be able to install Plex on her computer and do nowt with it other than enable it to talk over the internet rather than local network as a simple-ish way to be able to check whether her PC has basic connectivity?

Depending just how illiterate she is, there's only so far you can take things. I once dealt with a relative over the phone who was insisting their "computer was off, completely blank", so I was having them go through the process of reseating cables, talking them through POST stuffs, and after too long and too many attempts where whatever we tried resulted in the boot process finishing up in a blank screen, I said I'd go round in person to take a look.

Turns out that when they said the screen was "completely blank", they actually meant that Windows was loading normally but the icons that normally appeared on the desktop had disappeared.

[GMTV]

Maybe stating the obvious, but if you're going down that route make it clear to yer maw that this should only ever be done when it's yourself working on something. Lest you end up on a Jim browning special.

[Sebastian Cobb]

The SSH things are going from your mum's place to yours?

Yeah, I just meant I had the ability to simulate connecting from my home at her home to test it. I don't want to have to deal with that normally. In order for me to access that I had to open port 22 on my router and it's pointed at a debian box with a strong SSH key for access. I could technically do something like that here as my dad has set up a raspberry pi for pihole so I could use it as a jump box to use rdp and stuff, but I can't be bothered. Easiest to use a simple off the shelf solution that won't lock me out if something (e.g. their IP) changes.

Depending just how illiterate she is, there's only so far you can take things. I once dealt with a relative over the phone who was insisting their "computer was off, completely blank", so I was having them go through the process of reseating cables, talking them through POST stuffs, and after too long and too many attempts where whatever we tried resulted in the boot process finishing up in a blank screen, I said I'd go round in person to take a look.

Turns out that when they said the screen was "completely blank", they actually meant that Windows was loading normally but the icons that normally appeared on the desktop had disappeared.

It's 5 hours on a train at best and over a hundred and fifty quid to do that, so I think my fallback there would be a whatsapp video call pointed at the monitor.

Thanks again for your help.

[touchingcloth]

I'm seriously tempted to get some kind of IP security cam setup in my parents' house for that exact purpose. "Oh, you know what...I've just thought, you could probably just move the camera to the study and I'll be able to see the screen!"

[Petey Pate]

AnyDesk might be worth looking into. I used it to collaborate on Ableton projects over the pandemic and besides the inevitable latency issues it worked perfectly. I think you can even set it up so that two machines are continuously linked even if one is turned off (though obviously your mum would still need to power it on).

[Sebastian Cobb]

Cheers. I went with Teamviewer in the end. It does allow for unattended access without the code swap rigmarole if you set up an account and it's pretty visible if someone's logged on so she can call me to check if someone somehow managed to get in.

I've already used it a couple of times to helper. Admittedly one time was simply to explain she was getting emails, just that emails that have come in today don't have a date stamp, only a time, which is why the most recent date is yesterday.

[touchingcloth]

Admittedly one time was simply to explain she was getting emails, just that emails that have come in today don't have a date stamp, only a time, which is why the most recent date is yesterday.

Gmail? I get fucked off by this in the other direction, and have a plugin that shows the time rather than just the date for emails from before today without needing to hover over. God knows why this isn't configurable within settings.

I've already used it a couple of times to helper.

Hardly knew 'er.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Gmail? I get fucked off by this in the other direction, and have a plugin that shows the time rather than just the date for emails from before today without needing to hover over. God knows why this isn't configurable within settings.

Nah, they seem to be using a pop/imap setup with Thunderbird.

I got confused because for some reason my father preferred to have the newest emails at the bottom. Fucking weirdo.

[touchingcloth]

Better check the bottom drawer of his filing cabinets for unpaid bills in that case.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Better check the bottom drawer of his filing cabinets for unpaid bills in that case.

No joke we've been through his folder of bank statements and those are newest at the back as well. Confused the shit out of me. Ended up putting extra dividers in so I could find the most recent.

[touchingcloth]

It's half of the stock rotation system of working from the back, I guess.