Giving "In Person" Help When You're Not There

Throughout my 20+ years in working with computers, people have routinely turned to me for help. The help could be as easy as, "my computer won't turn on, what do I do". Or it could be as simple as "I'm in Word and I've lost my document, it was a 10 page contract and for some reason it's disappeared. I have to send it in 3 minutes...could you help?"

The hardest part of these support issues is when you get a PHONE call from someone (especially someone you really care about) and it's hard to help them because - you're here and they are there.

One solution that makes all this easy, is remote computing. There's several tools on the market that enable remote computer and one of the leaders in this space, Cirtix, has anew tool GoToAssist Express.

It's in beta right now but you should check it out. Why?

Since it's in beta, it's free for you to try out and currently features:

One-way screen sharing

XP, Vista and Mac attended and unattended support

Multiple sessions

File transfer

Chat

Remote diagnostics

Reboot/reconnect

We geek folk know why we should consider a remote solution - so we can do tech support.

But maybe you're an accountant and need to help someone use Quickbooks, Peachtree or Microsoft Accounting? Using a remote control solution you can help just as if you were there. Of course using a hosted solution like NetBooks or QuickBooks Online - there's no need for a remote support option.

Maybe you need to help someone get some graphics work done - you can now help them remotely.

If there's ever been a time when you need to help someone with a computer issue (hardware or software) a remote support tool can help. Windows Vista takes a bit of getting used to. Instead of spending 45 minutes on the phone helping someone, use a remote support tool to do it for them while they watch.

Other remote computing solutions include Symantec's PC Anywhere, WebEx, Logmein, Laplink

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