Hi all,

I've got a question for you, but let me explain the situation first. A few weeks ago I sold three family members a PC. The thing I didn't realize at that time however was, the fact that these people are idiots. AND the fact that they would keep calling me for the most stupid problems, and even expect me to drive over there (150 km!) every so-many days to help them out with their problems. The infuriating part, is that these problems are usually extremely simple to solve (a few clicks of the mouse), and if you ask them on the phone just what they've done, the answer is always: nothing.

This is maddening! So I want to do this another way. I'd like to install some remote access software onto their PC's so that I can take over their PC from my home. I tried the XP built-in solution of 'remote help', but that doesn't seem to work. I keep getting the errors, and a connection is never established. My guess is this built in solution is probably no good, so I'd like to try something else. The first thing that came to mind was PC Anywhere, but this is a commercial package, *and* it's software by Symantec, with which I have had bad experiences with in the past...

So my question is: which software can do this good, clean and simple? Preferably free software, but this isn't required. I'm more than willing to pay a fair amount if the software is good.

Well, at the very least I've learned one big important lesson: never sell PC's to family members. The think they bought your valuable free time with it, and expect nothing less than support at any time of the say, preferably on-site.