[SWLUG] remote assistance software

[Justin Mitchell]

On Wed, 2013-05-08 at 04:07 +0100, bascule wrote:
> hi,
> 
> i'm looking for a way to provide remote assistance/control to family and 
> friends who are not necessarily very confident with computers.  i will be using 
> a linux machine and they will be using windows machines, i'd like them to be 
> able to make the request for assistance without having to know anything about 
> networking and preferably without having to install anything.
> 
> i run a server at home and can allow people to download files by sending them a 
> link so they can just download an exe if necessary, run it and if i'm online i 
> get the request and i can help them. i can also install a server daemon and do 
> port forwarding to it if that is needed.
> 
> try as i might most if my family and friends just do not get instant messaging 
> as such (though they all use facebook - which ironically, i don't) so they'd 
> have no way (except phoning me) to know if i was available, ideally my server 
> would be listening for assistance requests and pass them on to my desktop 
> machine if i was logged on.
> 
> i've been reading up on vnc, freerdp etc. and if i had ownership of all 
> machines involved this would be a no-brainer, it's the issue of someone else 
> needing to initiate a request for assistance that is the problem here, i 
> cannot find any suggestion that windows users can use the built in remote 
> assistance mechanism to request help from other than another windows machine.
> 
> if anyone has any suggestions or advice then i'd be most grateful

i volunteer that VNC is still the answer.

some points you may not be aware of:

vnc can call out as well as in.

there are such things as vnc reflectors/repeaters, which act as a
mid-point between two vnc instances.

There are tools around the web to create simple wrapper bundles around a
vnc client. These create a single exe that the user downloads and runs,
usually without installing anything.

User downloads the bundle you have created for them, which has some
values pre-programmed into it (by you).

when they run it, it starts vnc server, and it connects out (less
firewall issues) to the reflector you have running on your server.

You can then run a vnc client on your local machine and connect that to
the reflector, and view their session.


examples of said software
http://code.google.com/p/vncrepeater/
http://www.uvnc.com/products/uvnc-sc.html