Remote Helpdesk support for FREE

This post will go over how to provide Remote Helpdesk support for free by using Team Viewer.  Team Viewer is great for helping out family and friends with their computer issues as it allows you to securely connect to their machine and take control of it.

I am going to break up how it works into two sections. The first will go over what you have to do on the machine YOU will be working from. The second section will go over what the “END USER” will have to do.

Requirements:

• Windows Desktop
• Fast reliable internet connection
• Phone or Voice chat through a messaging program. *Not required but helpful*

Section 1 ( Help Desk person )

1.) Go to http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx

2.) Find the download button and click on it to start the download of the software. As of Dec 3rd 2009 the download is prominently displayed on the front page.

3.) Run the application and install it.

4.) Because you will most likely need to use it again I recommend doing the “Install”. Click “Next”.

5.) Because you are using it to help a family member just select “Personal / Non-commercial”.

6.) Make sure these two check boxes are “ticked off”.

7.) Make sure that “Normal installation” is selected.

8.) Make sure “Full Access” is checked off.

9.) If you did it correctly you should see:

10.) You are now ready to ask your family member to control their computer. This is done by clicking on the “Connection” drop down menu in “Team Viewer” and selecting “Invite partner”.

11.) This will open up your default mail program and have an email filled out to tell the person to download the very small TeamViewer software so that they can allow you to remote control their computer. If you only use webmail the link that get’s sent out is:

http://www.teamviewer.com/download/version_5x/TeamViewerQS.exe

12.) Tell them to click the link and install the software and walk them through installing it. In section 2 I will go over what they see.

13.) Tell them once the “Ready to connect” shows up on their window, you need them to read the ID and Password from their screen so that you can connect and help them remotely.

14.) Once you do that you will then make a connection to their machine. You will notice there is a bar at the top of the screen. This bar allows you to do many actions like transferring files.

15.) When you are done just hit the big red “X” in the top tool bar to close your connection with the end user.

Section 2 (End User)

1.) When they click on the link from the email they will be asked to “Run” the program. Click “Run”.

2.) Once the program runs this window will popup. Please notice that there is an ID and Password box. These will be empty for a few seconds while the client is talking with the “TeamViewer” severs to encrypt the traffic. Eventually there will be information in these boxes. The person doing the “helping” will need to know what these items are in order to connect to your machine.

3.) The end user should read the ID first “Helper” Once they type that in the “Help” will then need the password that is listed.

4.) When the person connects you will see there user ID and bunch of things you can do with the software. If at any time you no longer want the person using your machine you can click the “X” button or you can click the “mouse” button near the bottom right to take away the ability to “click” but still see. You call this presentation mode.