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How to: Use Fog Creek Copilot an alternative to Remote Assistance
I’ve known about Fog Creek Copilot for some time now, but I never really tried it before. I knew there was an offer to use Copilot for free on the weekends, so I decided to try out Copilot today.
The method for setting up a Copilot help session is as follows:
- Step 1 – Helper initiates help session
- Visits Copilot.com
- Clicks on Help Someone tab
- Enters name
- Clicks Go button
- Enters the email of the person being helped
- Downloads and runs Copilot Helper program
- When Copilot Helper runs, it establishes a session with a remote server that will connect the two computers together.
- Step 2 – Help Receiver accepts help session
- Email invitation received from Fog Creek Copilot Support
- Or Receiver contacted by phone from the helper
- Receiver accepts invitation
- Visits Copilot.com, clicks on the receive help tab, enters a 12 digit code the helper was given.
- or Visits embedded link which automates the previous line
- Download and Run Fog Creek Copilot
Once the session is established, the Helper can quickly access the issue to be resolved.
The helper can use Copilot as follows:
- Navigate through the Receiver’s system to take appropriate action.
- Copy files quickly from the Receiver’s system to Helper’s desktop
- Copy files from Helper’s system to the Receiver’s desktop
- Perform ctrl-alt-delete to reboot the system – the copilot gives the option of reconnecting automatically after the reboot occurs.
A few notes about Copilot:
- The window displayed session remaining information in the window Title bar, so you can see how much time is left
- The Copilot software allowed creating a session with one PC, then allowed a session with a completely different PC. That was very useful today when I needed it.
- I can definitely see the value in this service. Only 2 steps and you’re connected and no worries about whether the System will allow a Remote connection or not.
- Transferring files to/from the Helper/Receiver is easy. Helper can do it all.
- The pricing on this service seems reasonable, when I was doing Tech Support as part of my job I could have used a tool like this. It would have really made my life so much easier.
I spent a couple of hours today working with someone who needed help with a PLESK control panel. The Copilot software made the Tech Support session pretty painless. When the connection process takes only two steps, it’s really easy to explain.
If you’re looking for an alternative to Remote Assistance why not give Copilot a try for free on the weekend. You never know, it might be exactly what you’ve been looking for.
How to: Provide Technical support using Remote Assistance
When family and friends have computer issues, who do they call? Many times its their personal IT support person. They call him or her up, then try to describe the issue(s) they’re having. Depending on the circumstances, this can either be a short conversation or a long drawn out one.
A picture is worth a thousand words
Finally, after the attempt to describe the issue. The IT person tries to make a best guess at what the problem is, then tries to walk the person on the other end of the phone through the steps to resolve the issue. If only the IT person could see what’s going on, they’d make an observation and make an informed decision on what was really happening with your computer. What could have taken the IT person 2 minutes to do in person ends up costing them 30 minutes or more trying to explain what to do over the phone. Not that we don’t love talking to you for that long. It’s more like we’d rather spend that time socializing with you instead of trying to describe how to fix an issue without seeing what’s happening.
I have a suggestion to avoid the frustration of your tech support person. Use Remote Assistance to give your IT person remote control of your computer. They can usually solve your problem quickly and help both of you avoid a lot of grief.
Remote Assistance to the rescue
Remote Assistance is basically a way to allow a remote user to see what’s going on with your computer. When you first connect, they are in monitor only mode. Your IT person can ask for control of your computer to make the necessary changes to your computer’s configuration. Once you permit access they will see your computer in a window. All mouse actions and keyboard strokes are sent as if your tech support person were right there.
How to setup a Remote Assistance session
One note before we begin. This usually works better if you have high speed internet like Cable Modem or ISDN. If you have dial-up you might NOT want to try this.
- Press the Computer Start button
- Select the Help and Support Menu
- Select Invite a frind to connect with Remote Assistance
- Click invite someone to help you
- Type email address
- Invite this person
- Enter your name in the from text area
- Enter your problem detail in Message text area
- Click Continue > button
- Set Invitation Expire time. Default is 1 hour. Set it to an appropriate time that will allow you to notify your IT person that you need the tech support. Don’t forget, you will need to permit control of your computer.
- Enter password and password confirmation.
- Click Send Invitation
- When the IT person receives the email, they will open the attachment and type the password to connect with your computer.
- They will press the Take Control button on their Remote Assistance screen
- Click the Yes button when you see a dialog asking if you want to allow Control of your computer.
- When they have finished, you can press the Disconnect button on the Remote Assistance page.
Note: Your invitation will still be good until it expires. So if you set the expiration for two hours, it will be good for two hours. Make sure you delete the invitation once you are done.
- Press the Computer Start button
- Select the Help and Support Menu
- Select Invite a frind to connect with Remote Assistance
- Select View invitation status
- Select Invitation
- Press Delete button
I realize there have been many articles written on Remote Assistance. I had to do a tech support call tonight and decided to include the direction here. Then I could reference this blog for future tech support calls.
The directions in this article provides one way of many to connect with another computer via Remote Assistance.