Do-It-At-Home: International Help Desk

Today I felt like an International Help Desk. That’s good…in my situation.

My mom lives in Argentina and my step-mom in Germany. Both have PC laptops with Vista installed. It is my mom’s first computer and we are still working on right-click vs. left click, file hierarchies, typing in your own URL in the browser, saving photos to the hard drive, etc. My step-mom has had more experience with computers, but is still trying to get used to Vista. It is very frustrating when one of them calls me and has a question. I try to help them while imagining in my mind their screen. “Right click the button in the lower let hand corner, what list do you see now?”, etc. Most often, one of us gets too frustrated and we have to leave the problem, wishing I would be able to log into their computer and take over the mouse to see what is going on.

My step-mom in Germany got a tip from a friend to try out TeamViewer.

TeamViewer establishes connections to any PC all around the world within just a few seconds. You can remote control your partner’s PC as if you were sitting in right front of it.

I downloaded and installed the full version, while my step-mom downloaded and used the QuickSupport Customer module.

She was given an ID and a password, that she passed on to me while we were on the phone. I entered the ID and created a session for remote support.

Within seconds I was seeing her desktop and was able to move around her computer. I was able to find my way to her Device manager and see that her DVD was not being recognized. After searching for solution in several forums, I followed step-by-step instructions on how to edit the registry and delete two registry values. She restarted the PC and the DVD drive was back! Something, I would never have been brave enough to try to talk her through it over the phone.

After her laptop was running again, I was so thrilled that I called my mom in Argentina. I talked her through downloading and installing the Customer module and we were in business within a few seconds. During this session, I just walked her around screen, making her aware of several drop down lists, created short cuts for her on the desktop for easier and faster access, and practiced downloading and finding photos that my brother and I are sending her via e-mail.

During the entire session I was on the phone (via Jajah.com), but there is also a chat feature embedded into TeamViewer. I also tried out the file transfer option. Simply had to select a file on my computer then point to a folder (or create a new one) on my mom’s computer and it transfered very easily. With one simple button you can also reverse to the option where the remote user can see YOUR screen. That was a really simply solution for my mom to see the newest photos of the grandchildren in my document folder, without having to send them via mail or uploading them to Flickr.com.

Great, easy AND free solution for an International Family Help Desk.