Chapter 4: Getting Help

Allowing a Friend to Control Your Computer

Programs have been available for years that allow someone to control another computer over the phone or the Internet. Carbon Copy (at http://www.compaq.com/services/carboncopy) and pcAnywhere (at http://www.symantec.com/pcanywhere) are popular programs with support technicians because these programs allow them to look at and fix a computer without having to visit the office where the computer sits. In another example of bundling programs with Windows, Windows XP comes with Remote Desktop, which provides this same functionality. Remote Assistance is a special version of Remote Desktop that enables you to invite someone to control your PC to help you solve a software problem.

With Remote Assistance, you invite a specific person to take control of your computer. You can contact the person via Windows Messenger or by e-mail. If the person agrees, then the helper can control the mouse pointer and type as if he or she were at your computer. You can also chat by typing or talking (if you have microphones and speakers), and send files.

Inviting a Friend to Help

To invite someone to take control of your PC:

1. Open the Help And Support Center window by choosing Start | Help And Support.
2. Click Support in the toolbar and click Ask A Friend To Help in the Support task list. Click Invite Someone To Help You in the window that appears.
3. Choose whether to contact your helper by using Windows Messenger or e-mail, identify the person, and click Invite. Then type the message you'd like to send with the invitation (something more specific than "Help!" is useful). In the Set The Invitation To Expire box, specify how long to leave the invitation open.
4. Leave the Require The Recipient To Use A Password check box selected: otherwise, anyone who gets ahold of the invitation can take complete control of your computer while the invitation is open. Type a password in the Type Password box that the helper will have to type when taking control.
5. Click Send Invitation.
6. If Outlook Express is configured to let you know whenever another program tries to send e-mail (a useful antivirus feature), you see a warning about it: click Send.
7. Communicate the invitation password to your helper by Windows Messenger, e-mail, phone, or other medium.
8. Wait for your helper to get the invitation and to respond. When your helper receives the invitation and types in the password in response to your invitation, you see a dialog box with the helper's name and the message "Do you want to let this person view your screen and chat with you?"
9. Click Yes to proceed. You see the Remote Assistance window shown in Figure 4-4. The left side of the window is where you can chat with your helper.

Figure 4-4: Your helper has taken over your computer.

10. Send a message explaining the problem to your helper by typing in the Message Entry area in the lower-left part of the Remote Assistance window.

Once Windows makes the Remote Assistance connection, you can do the following:

• Share control of your computer When the helper clicks Take Control, you see a dialog box asking whether you want to let the helper share control of your computer. Click Yes to do so. While the helper is using your computer, keep your hands off the mouse and keyboard--it's terribly confusing when two people try to control the mouse pointer or type at the same time! Press ESC (or any key combination with ESC) to end sharing control, or click Stop Control.
• Send a file Click Send A File and specify the file name.
• Voice chat Click Start Talking if you and your helper have speakers and microphones on your computers, to start a voice chat. Click Settings to set the audio quality. If the helper clicks Start Talking first, you see a message asking whether you'd like to start a voice chat.

Click Disconnect when you are done being helped, unless the helper disconnects first.

Responding to an Invitation for Remote Assistance

If you receive an invitation to help someone by using Remote Assistance, you get an e-mail or Windows Messenger message that says something like this:

Fred H. would like your assistance. You can easily provide assistance from your computer by following the instructions at: http://windows.microsoft.com/RemoteAssistance/en/RA.htm Caution: * Accept invitations only from people you know and trust. * E-mail messages can contain viruses or other harmful attachments. * Before opening the attachment, review the security precautions and information at the above address.

The message includes an attached file named rcBuddy.MsRcIncident. (The first part of the file name may be different.) Click the link in the message to read a Web page about how Remote Assistance works. (This Web page works only in Internet Explorer.)

Follow these steps when you receive an invitation and password from someone you know and want to help:

1. Make sure that you are either connected to the Internet or (if both computers are on the same LAN) to the LAN.
2. Open the attached file. You may see a warning that attached files may contain viruses. Go ahead and open the file. You see the Remote Assistance dialog box:

3. Type the password and click Yes to connect. Remote Assistance makes the connection over the LAN or the Internet. You see a Remote Assistance window similar to Figure 4-4, but with an image of the other computer screen in the right side of the window. The left side of the window is where you can chat with the other person.
4. Type messages in the Message Entry area in the lower-left part of the Remote Assistance window, and click Send to send the message to the other computer.

If someone sends you an invitation to help from a computer that has a higher screen resolution than your computer, you won't be able to see much of the other person's screen in your Remote Assistance window (if you click Scale To Window, it will be unreadable). Set your screen resolution as high as you can.

Once Windows makes the Remote Assistance connection, you can do the following:

• Control the other person's computer Click Take Control and wait for the other person to give permission for you to proceed. When you see a message indicating that you are sharing control, click in the right side of the Remote Assistance window, where the image of the other person's computer screen appears. While your mouse pointer is in that part of the window, its movements also move the mouse pointer on the other computer. However, the other person can also use the mouse and keyboard, and it gets confusing if you both try to do so at the same time. You can click Scale To Window if the image of the other computer screen doesn't fit in the Remote Assistance window, but it usually becomes unreadable: click Actual Size to display the other computer screen at actual size. Press ESC (or any key combination with ESC) to end sharing control, or click Release Control.
• Send a file Click Send A File and specify the file name.
• Voice chat Click Start Talking to start a voice chat. If the other person clicks Start Talking first, you see a message asking whether you'd like to start a voice chat. Both computers need microphones and speakers.

Click Disconnect when you are done helping, unless the other person disconnects first.

If you can't make a connection, one of the computers may be behind a firewall, and you may need to ask the network administrator to enable the port used by Remote Assistance (port 3389).