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Can I use Remote Desktop in this situation?

weed30 St. Louis

19 years ago

I have WinXP Pro and cable. My dad has WinXP and dialup. Is there any way to use remote desktop, or some other program to connect? My dad thinks he knows a lot more than he actually does about computers, and keeps messing things up. It would be really nice to fix stuff remotely rather than driving over there all the time.

I tried googling, but haven't found an answer.

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Comments (5)

owbist
19 years ago
From what I have read Remote Access is not as good as we could hope it might be. It will be interesting to see if anyone here has got it set up.

What you might consider is using something like Skype - a free computer to computer voice service. I use it a lot and then you can bring up a page and talk Dad through. The secret is to get the other party to follow along and to talk to you as they make your recommended alterations. I find it very useful that way.
iowagirl2006
19 years ago
I have not used it - but heard of others using it just as you want to - to help out parents. I heard a discussion on NPR one morning about it and how great it worked for some.

I don't think the dial-up part is an issue.

Here is a link to the NPR show that talked about it, and other ideas for keeping parents computers running smooth. You can listen to the converation.

Here is a link that might be useful: NPR - How to fix Mom & Dad's computer
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mikie_gw
19 years ago
I use it on occasion through MSN Messenger. Simple - Have him request assistance from you with it - then tell him not to touch the mouse or keyboard, while you take over his computer and do whatever. If he tries to use the computer while you have control, it slows things down extremely.
weed30 St. Louis
Original Author
19 years ago
Thanks - I will try this just as soon as the latest crisis is fixed. I have NO IDEA what he does to his computer. His old one crashed 3 times. He just got a new Dell C521 a few weeks ago, and it has crashed too. I haven't gone over yet, but he says it's a black screen with a few paragraphs of info.

Sometimes I really think it is Earthlink somehow causing it. Is that possible? He uses all of their junk....their browser, accelerator, spam filters. Maybe something with Earthlink is conflicting with Zone Alarm and AVG that he is using?

I tried to have him only connect through Earthlink, then use Firefox for his browser with Google as his home page. Keep things clean and simple. Since it doesn't look the same, he can't deal with it very well. sigh.
mikie_gw
19 years ago
Let him have what he wants just make sure he understands that at any one time no more than one each running ..
Firewall
Virus Program
Spyware Program

Then he'll do fine.

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