He thought they "just worked".

Grats on fixing the mac =)

My personal preference when someones mac goes wrong is to laugh at them excessively and then tell them that I can't help them because I don't even know how to turn one one. And then laugh some more. With PC problems I laugh at them and then go and help. None of this remote assistance malarkey (too technical, kids these days, grumblegrumble).

This is what I've done all through uni when someone has asked for help fixing their PC

It's a very cool little feature, isn't it.
I've used it a few times with pg2114 and also with other Mac owning friends.
It's not just useful for problem solving, the other person may not know how to do something and demonstrating using screen sharing is a wonderful way to further someone else's knowledge.

Mark

I don't know what port forward is. I don't have much of a clue about what ports are. I know that you are not talking about the ethernet ports on the back (well I think you're not anyway). I know it is something to do with setting up a network but over and above that I am in the dark.

As far as I know to share a screen you chat with someone over IM and when they have told you the problem you click the little button on the IM window that lets you share screens. They click "allow" and then you continue to audio chat whilst having control of their screen.

I don't need to know about what ports he has on his router, or what ports are on mine.

CC

this short sentence describes everyone ive ever met, even my family

I have found a little vid of a bloke installing Adium on his mates Mac using iChat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oC85p8YTmM

JJ, how naive. Everybody these days has a router and nobody these days knows what they are, or do. Let alone how to port forward.

I'm a Logmein user btw, and if I remember rightly, it was suggested to me by one of you lot over two years ago.

I was being sarcastic. Considering what I do for a living, it would be slightly annoying if everyone and their granny were 100% familiar with the workings of their router.

These days, most routers support Universal plug'n'play. Provided that's enabled and working, the MSN user shouldn't need to do anything other than click "request remote assistance".

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301529

JJ

You say that screen sharing is a feature of the Windows OS since forever. I was looking for a YouTube video to compare how it is done on XP to how it happens on the Mac. I can't find one.

When I taught in schools the IT department did not offer support via screen sharing either.

Were you serious or was it a joke?

Ah yes, that would make more sense.

I know when I got my latest router (standard O2 thing), I just plugged it all in, fired up the browser and that was it. I had internetz.
Similarly, when I got my latest machine, I just plugged the network cable in, turned it on, and again, internetz. No configuration required (DHCP took care of that), at least for a basic home user perspective (didn't stop me tweaking the router to suit my preferences anyway).

I've never tried remote access via MSN, but I would imagine it's fairly straightforward.

It's called remote assistance and it's been a standard part of windows & MS messenger for at least as long as XP has been out. I think it may have been in 98.

I exaggerated a little; MS were not around 100 years ago.

However, remote sharing has been around in one form or other since the beginning. For example, in Windows 3.11 there was MS Netmeeting. Netmeeting was effectively a precursor to MSN. It allowed text, voice, video and application sharing. It was seen as a business tool for the conference room, so people in New York could see the same Powerpoint presentation while talking and waving to the guys in London.

However, it did need the users to be on accessible IP addresses. Typically it was used over corporate networks, since very few people had Internet and even fewer had "broadband". MSN is less complicated, more modern and better suited to home users.

You want a youtube? This bloke goes on and on and it's a painfully bad and confusing demo, but if you skip to 3:45 he does show using MSN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AXnRvBGjD0

Note, very few people in business would allow the use of MSN. There are many alternatives. When I started doing remote support back in about 1990, I used pcAnywhere which is still going strong. More often now, I use "Net Support" or the very easy and free "LogMeIn".

Yup

Call it a 'modem' and they'll - usually - know which box you're talking about

Say anything more and watch their eyes glaze over

I know what both are, but as far as I know, I have no use for either.

Thanks JJ that was pretty cool and despite the bloke not being a great teacher I enjoyed what he had to say.

MSN did look pretty feature rich. I am surprised that I have not come across this before. The Mac version looks a little prettier but I think the XP version has more features.

Thanks again.

CC