A few weekends ago, I went to my hometown to see my parents and dog. And being the good son I am, spent some time working on my parents’ computer, a Dell running some sort of XP Home Media center or whatever. “Working on” their computer usually means patching, defragmenting, and uninstalling whatever crap the FiOS installers or my sister put on there. This time, I replaced the AVG Home Firewall/Anti-virus monstrosity with Microsoft Security Essentials, and installed XP service pack 3. I also deleted the Verizon and Google toolbars, and some icons off the desktop.
The next day, my dad calls me to complain about “everything looking different” and his email not working. Within 20 seconds, I know this isn’t going to get fixed over the phone. I sigh to myself, and begin to steel my spine for the road of pain and frustration that lies ahead. I know what I must do: UltraVNC SC.
UltraVNC SC (Single Click) is something I heard about when I worked at the help desk at college, and have attempted to get working at least once in the past. It’s a tool that allows you to access someone’s computer remotely through the internet, as if you were standing behind it. From the official website:
UltraVNC SC is a mini (166k) UltraVNC Server that can be customized and preconfigured for download by a Customer. UltraVNC SC does not require installation and does not make use of the registry. The customer only have to download the little executable and Click to make a connection. The connection is initiated by the server, to allow easy access thru customers firewall.
If that didn’t make sense, let me expand: by having the “customer” run the application on their computer, their computer becomes the VNC server. When they “Click to make a connection” it sends an invitation to whatever computer is specified in the executable file, allowing the person at the remote location to connect to the customer computer and fix the problem. This means it requires no configuration of the customer computer or network, nor does it install anything. All you have to do it create the executable, send it to the person you are trying to help, and set your computer to listen for incoming connections. I will break the steps down further.
STEP ONE: CREATING THE EXECUTABLE
Follow the directions here. Basically, you put a text file that includes all the settings, a logo, and an encryption key into a zipped folder and upload it to their executable generator, and it gives you a link to download the executable file.
The text file I used to create the following examples is here.
STEP TWO: DISTRIBUTING THE EXECUTABLE
This might be harder than it seems. A lot of email providers such as Gmail and……..whatever else people use won’t let you send .exe files as attachments. I found the best way to do it was to host it on a web server, so you can just tell your parents to surf to sector930.com/help.exe and save the file to their desktop.
STEP THREE: PREPARING YOUR COMPUTER
Download and install UltraVNC onto your computer. In the example I am using here, I am using port 5555, so that will have to be forwarded through your router/firewall to your local machine. You might also have to turn off your local Windows firewall. Once they are ready to connect, open a DOS command prompt, and navigate to C:\Program Files\UltraVNC and enter the following command:
vncviewer.exe -listen 5555 -dsmplugin MSRC4Plugin.dsm
This command will open UltraVNC Listener on port 5555 and use the encryption plugin. Once you are listening, have the person you are trying to help open the executable file they downloaded from your web server, and you should see something on your screen. From there, it’s up to you.
I decided to create a prepackaged executable for the Sector, and am including examples of possible logos we could use below:
This one is probably the least likely to confuse parents.
Yashi Mash!
This one is probably the most likely to confuse parents.
The possibilities are endless!
What, no nudie pics? I’m looking at you, JOEL.
You can even have Mac users connect into UVNC SC using Schnitz Remote Lite, but they will have to enter your IP address. Another alternative is to use an AppleScript wrapper to type in a dynamic DNS name. The one on UMW’s Remote page types in the first three octets of the Help Desk’s IP range.