Hiho,
Another solution can be UltraVNC SingleClick (UVNC SC) or PCHelpWare.
Both are VNC like solutions. PCHW is free for everything (even for commercial use).
They both need physical access on the server, thats the bad thing about it. But they are very easy to use, as all the techie things is done by YOU (the computer expert). The user only have to download a small self-contained exe from your website (about 100-300kb) and doubleclkick it. Connection established. No installation necessary, either on userside nor on your side (viewer). UVNC SC even deletes itself after the session ends and leaving no trails on the remote pc.
Chat, Filetransfer and controlling the desktop of the remote PC is available with that.
No router/port-forwarding necessary on userside, as the server initiates an outgoing connection to the viewer (you are in listen mode). The user pc only must have normal WAN access.
The way it goes is this:
First you create a server-package with your actual data (your IP, username, password, blah, blah, blah). Very easy to do with PCHW as you start the viewer, enter your desired parameters and press the "Create Server" button. Then you can find a ready to release small exe file on your harddisk. Now upload this single exe to your webspace or wherever it can be accessed from the others. Then you press the "Start" button in your viewer and wait.
Second you tell your mother to download this package with her browser and start it somehow. The server connects to your viewer and you can begin controlling. So your mother only must be able to download a file and start it. No need to know whats going on under the hood.
You can create the server package in different ways so that the user must either enter a login/Password or that the connection is made automatically and without user activity (after starting up the server of course).
All features known from UltraVNC are available. So you can make direct connections, use the mirror drivers (but that needs install on the remote/userside pc! - but it works without the drivers as well, only slower) and repeater connections (when you are sitting behind a firewall as well). You can setup your own repeater or use the UVNC public repeater.
So this solution is excellent for helping in technical problems. Its not convinient to get a permanent access to your own home pc from everywhere in the world (User activity on remote side necessary!).
I just try to use the free 1scdll.dll from PCHelpWare in my own application to get up a remote support system for our company helpdesk with ticket support and such things. We'll see if i can get this to work. As i said, PCHW is free also for commercial use and you are allowed to build and deploy your own app with the 1scdll.dll (even if the dll is closed source) or use their ready to use apps (server and viewer) that can be customized with own gui elements (texts, background, company logo, blah).
HTH anyone
CU
JoTo
Links:
Ultravnc:
http://www.uvnc.com/PCHelpWare:
http://www.uvnc.com/pchelpware/index.htmlUVNC and PCHW Forum:
http://forum.ultravnc.info/