For quite awhile I've been looking for a remote access program that was simple and easy to use. In my circle of family and friends I'm known as the "computer guy". From time to time I get requests for assistance over the phone. Now I'm sure anyone who's done any type of PC assistance over the phone know how frustrating that you can't see what's in front of you. At times it's like trying to explain the sound of Pink Floyd to a deaf person. On top of that many who I help are the less than tech savvy newcomers to computers they don't know (or mix up) terms and jargon that more experience users take for granted.
My mother-in-law was prime example of this. She bought a newer computer last year. She does have some idea how to use but she craves to learn more and take full advantage of what a home computer has to offer. She in the past has asked me for technical assistance and though I managed to help her most times it was a bit frustrating at times trying to describe over the phone what she needed to do. A remote access program was what I needed. Trying to do it with Windows remote access required too many steps and would have been difficult to setup. I tried a few free and not free but they too lacked simplicity. I needed something so easy a cavegeek could figure it out.Then a friend made me aware of Crossloop through a magazine article. It was advertised as being simple to use and operate. Just recently they were even mentioned among the Top 10 downloads of the year by CNET's Download.com. So I downloaded and tried it on my own PC's and with my friend(who had told me about it) and it was fairly simple. So tried the next step and set it up with my mother-in-law. We had it setup and I was helping her in less than ten minutes.
In this tutorial I hope to show how simple it is to setup this program and begin using it in no time.
1. First step is to go to
Crossloop.com . You can setup one of two ways. First you download the program and install. Then as an option you can create an account (free) which allows you to keeps stats, leave comments promote your service etc. It's a nice feature for those wishing to use this as a service.
2. To install you go to the folder where you downloaded to and click on the icon to install the program.
3. To receive or give help you open going to your
Start button, then go to your
All Program menu menu and open Crossloop.
4.A small box will appear on your screen. It will show two tabs. One with "
Access" the saying "
Share".
5. On the "
Share" tab it will give you a twelve digit number. This number is randomly generated each time you use it. This will be the number you give to the person you wish to help you.
6. To help someone you use the
Access tab and ask the person(usually by phone or other means) for the twelve digit "
Share" number. You then hit the connect button. When they see the prompt on the other end they hit
Connect also.
7. You then will have another window open connecting to there computer which should show there desktop.
8. You then proceed to assist them or vice versa. For the first time it's a bit wierd watching someone else use your computer while you watch. Some other features you can do is to switch users and swap files.
9. When your finished you just hit
Disconnect. You be asked to rate the session and or leave comments about your experience
That about raps it up. I've used it with my mother-in-law a number of times with very little problem and I've been able to help her a lot more easily and with less headaches. Even my friend has his five year old son using it between there two computers and they play games together. It can't get much easier than that. I hope you at least have an idea of the steps to install and use Crossloop. For more information you can check out the website at:
http://www.crossloop.comCrossloop Blog:
http://crossloop.typepad.com/I highly recommend this program and feel you won't be disappointed with the results.
