Remote PC Access – Teamviewer

Ok, so Grandma (Mom in my case) can’t figure out how to view the pictures from the link she got in an AOL email. I suppose AOL should be the tip-off that some help would be needed. The trouble is she’s 230 miles away and trying to do tech support over the phone is a frustrating experience. Wouldn’t it be great to look over her shoulder as see what’s on her screen? Or, better yet, be able to take over her PC?

There are several programs that can enable remote access, but it’s been a few years since I looked at them. The macs have screen sharing built in to the OS, but Grandma’s on Windows. Hmm. So here’s my rundown.

Gotomypc works quite well. The interface is easy and controlling the remote PC is pretty smooth. You can get a free trial, but then it’s $14.95 a month. Pcnow, from the WebEx folks, is similar. The experience should be familiar to anyone whos’ used WebEx. I prefer it because you can remote control either a PC or a Mac – while Gotomypc can only handle PCs. There’s really no issue with either, except they both run you about $15 a month, which is steep for personal use.

A little searching and looking for solutions led me to Teamviewer. It’s similar in that you install a small client on the remote PC or Mac (you can also run an executable file for one-time use). Then remoting in is very smooth. There are many options to control screen size, resolution, transferring files, etc. And guess, what? It’s free for non-commercial use. How generous is that?

I’ve encountered no issues in using Teamviewer. It’s great for helping Grandma with technical issues. I can remote into my home Mac and Photoshop a file I transferred over. I can look at my son’s homework assignment on his MacBook. It’s now installed on several machines.

Thanks Teamviewer, for making this available for free! Next time I choose remote access for work, I know what I’ll use.

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