that would work if I had her labtop. but she is in another state and not very
good with computers so that would not help with the problem Im having with
helping her get her labtop wireless so she can pick up a wireless service in
here apt building. Thanks though.
So the situation is that you're technical.
Your mother like most people, is not.
You don't know windows vista back to front to the extent that you can
tell her over the phone 'cos you don't have that OS. But you could
figure it out if you were in front of the computer..
Wireless Routers double up as wired routers. This also lets one
configure them. So, she could connect Wired.
Then with VNC, you could view her computer, and hence, set up a
wireless connection.. You can prob have the same computer connected
wired and wirelessly, to the router.
There are ways to use VNC to control her computer, and instead of her
doing the port forwarding, you do it. (called a reverse connection or
something). RealVNC can do this. lifehacker had a good article on it.
In this setup, they still call the computer being controlled "The
Server". But your VNC viewer actually listens, and the so-called
server, does a "reverse connection" and connects to the viewer.
There is also a thing called PCHelpWare, that makes things easy for
the end user, shifting difficulty to the geek. It can do like a
reverse connection, but instead of the end user going through the
options to make the VNC Server do a reverse connection to your comp.
You can use a method - I think mentioned on lifehacker too - to make
an EXE that is a VNC server configured to make a reverse connection to
your ip.
So you set up your VNC Listener on your end, set up the port
forwarding on your router. Send her the PCHelpWare VNC server EXE ,
she runs it, and hey presto. Useful if used many times, or if dealing
with idiot end users all the time. If your ip isn't static / it
changes, you can configure a txt such that when the EXE is made, it'll
connect to your hostname rather than your ip, and there are guys like
dyndns or no-ip who can give you a permanent hostname and then you get
software on your comp, to tell them of any change of ip.. or some
routers can be set to do that. I've never done that though, i've got
a static ip.
Another option is what anybody does when they can't set up a wired or
wireless connection.
You call your router people, and your ISP people.
The only time you'll get thrown between them is if you have a bad or
wrong cable, or a bad network card or something . But you should be
able to get logged on by calling them.
They mostly deal with idiot users, since they are the majourity. The
issue may be the price of the call, and holding on the line. You just
have to give her the telephone numbers! These guys are techies that
DO know it back to front to the extent of setting it up.
