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.

Microsoft !, what does this name say to you? Anyone who uses computers has to have heard about Microsoft, this is the company the entered the graphical operating systems, that shaped the way we work. The first famous graphical operating system was of APPLE, they have created the Macintosh as a computer for graphic designers. The Macintosh was attended to the graphic designers and it wasn’t cheap, only those who could effort it was enjoying a graphical operating system that enabled the graphic design to become reachable.

Microsoft was the one who developed a graphical operating system that will become a software for all. They have designed an operating system that was cost-effective and affordable by the common people, home users and enabled everyone to gain a graphical environment, that enabled the use of a mouse, dragging and doing operating at a move of a mouse. Before the graphical age, people where typing hundreds and thousands of lines of code to get a simple operation working. Behind the simple copy & paste, we are used to doing with the right click of the mouse, where lines of code to tell the computer where the source file is, how to make the copy, and to where to copy the file.

Since that first step into a revolution in technology, Microsoft has developed many tools, improved its operating systems making them more usable, more effective. They developed the computerized office, using their office packages, that shaped the way we do our business, writing our letters on Microsoft word, doing complicated calculations and statistical charts and diagrams using Microsoft excel, doing presentations on the Microsoft Power-Point, etc… Those software applications have shaped our computerized office tools and became the most common tools being used by computer users.