BobJam. There is no contest!. For ease of use, Crossloop is the way to go :)

You may be wondering why I'm so hesitant about choosing a remote assistance piece of software. There's a precise answer to that question: I'M LIKELY TO GET ONLY ONE CRACK AT IT!! That's because if my sister encounters any hiccups, she'll probably NOT let me try it again . . . because she'll have such a bad taste in her mouth. I want her to say, "Geeezz, that was easy", NOT "You better not ever do that again!"

I'm considering doing a "simulation experiment". What I mean is this: I'm going to try and have one of my experienced computer buddies play me and I'll play my sister and have them try to connect with me using one of these remote assistance softwares. That way, I'll be able to see what my sister will have to do, and not only judge how effective it is but also know what she'll have to do exactly.

Look at it this way: It would be like a caveman trying to pilot a space shuttle. Computers are as strange and incomprehensible to my sister as a space shuttle would be to that ancient caveman. So, to borrow from those GEICO ads, I need to make it so easy that even a caveman can do it.

Also, consider that you were doing it for your grandmother. Your grandmother just stepped into the 21st Century, put her stubby pencil down, and got a computer for the first time. She asks you for help, and you say you need to know her IP address, She emails you back, "What the heck is an IP address?" You ask her what operating system she is using. She says, "What the heck is an operating system??" That's pretty much my sister. So, the question I am asking people is "What remote assistance software would you use for a person like that??"

I'm not looking for "what most professionals use" (on one forum I visit, a poster said that and said most professionals use UltraVNC.) I'm not looking for what has the most features and such. I'm looking for something that is easiest for the end-user, the person that needs help. NOT the helper. If it's hard for me and easy for her, that's fine.

Crossloop seems to fit that bill somewhat. Is that what you would use, given my focus?? Geek's article on remote assistance seemed to say exactly that.

I sort of found out what my sister's problem is, but I don't completely understand it yet. I'll have to phone her and get more details, and follow up with an email to avoid the "I thought you said . . ." issue.

She emailed me that a neighbor offered to "help" (sarcastic tone on my part) her, and told her that "sending [print] jobs through the internet was a good thing and easy to set up." So, she agreed to let him do it (WHY SHE THOUGHT THAT SHE NEEDED TO SEND PRINT JOBS THROUGH THE INTERNET IS A MYSTERY TO ME).

She has Verizon wireless, and in that "help effort" (sarcasm again), the neighbor somehow screwed up her wireless connection.

So the neighbor decided to reinstall her XP Pro.

Now she is able to connect again, but her complaint is "I just want my computer back to the way it was before with all my programs".

I suspect that her issue is simply a reinstall from her program CD's, which isn't really a troubleshooting issue, but rather an issue of me guiding her through the installation process. But as I said before, I'm not sure. It may involve the installation of some drivers too. Or other things may be screwed up and I'll have to do some real troubleshooting.

Stay tuned . . .

P.S. Sarah, I'll report back here on how my "experiment" goes, if I do it.

I just got a response on another forum where a poster said:

"Using Windows Messenger and Remote Assistance eliminates any router problems and any need to know IP addresses. With any IM do not accept invitations from anybody you do not know and trust. You don't even have to run it until your sister calls or emails to ask you to run it so she can request RA.

I'm not trying to sell Remote Assistance and Windows Messenger, but it seems to be the simplest to try to get a novice to use--no downloading, no router configuration, etc."

And

"One way to request assistance is Start – Help and Support – and under “Ask for assistance” click on “Invite a friend to connect to your computer with Remote Assistance.” Then “Invite someone to help you” and “Use Windows Messenger.” The person you invite must be online; call the person and ask him/her to go online if necessary."

So, RA sounds like it might fit . . . I think I'm going full circle on this.

In getting ready for my "experiment" to use Remote Assistance with Messenger, I realized that I had used that xp_messenger_remove.vbs script from Doug Knox's web site (http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tip.....remove.htm) when I first got this machine in May of 2004.

So, I downloaded Install_MSN_Messenger.exe (which I think is version 7) and installed it. I loaded it and it looked like it had the Messenger logo, so I thought I was good to go with it. Then I went to the "Help and Support Center", and clicked on "Ask for assistance>Invite a friend to connect to your computer with Remote Assistance". But this gave me a message that Messenger was not installed. That confused me, and after some manipulations (like installing and uninstalling over and over), I realized nothing was going to work.

The warning that Messenger was not installed had a link under it for a download of Messenger, so I tried that. It downloaded WLinstaller.exe, which is simply an installer for not only Windows Live Messenger (version 8), but a bunch of other Windows Live software.

And again I tried the "Help and Support Center Ask for assistance>Invite a friend to connect to your computer with Remote Assistance". But this gave me the same message as before, that Messenger was not installed. That confused me more, so I uninstalled the Windows Live Messenger, version 8, and now I tried Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs>Add/Remove Windows Components, and saw that Windows Messenger was unchecked, so I thought that maybe checking it would reinstall Windows Messenger and make things right. But no joy on this either . . . I didn't even get Windows Messenger on my menu this time as I had with the others, so it didn't look like this did anything at all.

Now I began to think that that vbs script, xp_messenger_remove.vbs, had banished Messenger forever. Did it??

After some more manipulations (installing and uninstalling), I at last decided none of this was going to work. I could have used an email invitation or a file save for the RA experiment, but since I understand that using RA with Windows Messenger doesn't involve configuring a router or getting your IP address (see my post #16 above . . . and if her software Firewall is Windows Firewall, which I think it is, I can just have her disable it if it gets in the way), and I don't want to have to try and get my sister to mess with her router or look for her IP address, I wanted to use RA with Windows Messenger.

So I Googled some, looking for an answer why the "Help and Support Center" always said that Messenger wasn't installed when in fact it was, with version 7 and 8.

I found a Microsoft news group on Messenger, and found a poster that asked the exact question I had. Here's the answer:

"Windows Messenger (not Windows LIVE Messenger) needs to be installed for Remote Assistance to work.
You can download the latest Windows Messenger version here
Windows Messenger 5.1
http://www.microsoft.com/downl.....layLang=en
Remote Assistance relies on Windows Messenger to be installed. If Windows Messenger is not installed, Remote Assistance will not work, and as a result, Windows LIVE Messenger cannot use Remote Assistance. As a result, you'll need to install Windows Messenger.
--
Jason Tsang - Microsoft MVP"

So I downloaded Messenger 5.1, messenger.msi, installed it, and lo and behold when I opened "Help and Support Center Ask for assistance>Invite a friend to connect to your computer with Remote Assistance", it recognized this Messenger as installed and asked me to sign in.

Coupla' things on this. I've long since ceased to be a Microsoft basher, but on this I would have to say that Microsoft has definitely dropped the ball. The very link in "Help and Support Center Ask for assistance>Invite a friend to connect to your computer with Remote Assistance" for downloading Messenger downloads THE WRONG MESSENGER. And since a lot of people over the years have uninstalled Messenger (witness the popularity of Doug Knox's vbs script, and other web sites that link to it, and also see the high number of Google hits on "Remove Windows Messenger" . . . I got 65,000), you would think that Microsoft, realizing this, would provide for people like us reinstalling Messenger for this very reason.

Plus, the name "Messenger" has been used by Microsoft for a number of things (Like the Windows Messenger Service, which is VERY DIFFERENT from the Messenger IM, and MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger, which are both very different from the Messenger 5.1), so users are confused by those muddy terms. Simply saying "Messenger" can mean too many different things.

The other thing I noticed was that Windows Live Messenger appears in the Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs list, while Messenger 5.1 DOES NOT. Because, I assume, 5.1 becomes an integral part of the OS, while Windows Live Messenger retains it's identity as an external app.

Additionally, Windows Live Messenger does not place that "Automatically log on to Windows Messenger" line in the General Tab of the Tools>Options in OE. Windows Messenger 5.1 DOES.

Bottom line here, I am now prepared to run RA with Messenger . . . but no thanks to Microsoft.

If I can't find, a "computer buddy" for the experiment (and I haven't yet), I do in fact have two computers myself, so I may try it with them. But I will be logged in on the same WAN connection with the same IP, so will that be a problen with CrossLoop?? With RA??

Thanks, Scott!! You can email me at rbjamie AT gmail DOT com (munged here, of course).

Hey quahog,

Thanks for the links. I don't understand virtual machines very well, but as far as I understand the phrase, it really isn't something suited to remote assistance as I want to use it.

yes i was a bit confused as to why there is a virtual machine post when we are dealing with remote assistance ?? :)

quahog. You have no idea what you're talking about. Do you?

How would you "virtually" copy a system. Transfer it over the net. And then work on it dynamically?