As most self-acknowledged techies eventually figure out, providing pro bono technical assistance to family and friends comes with the reputation. This doesn’t prove to be much of a problem when they live down the street or around the corner, but when distance comes into play, and you need to walk Uncle Joe through editing his registry over the phone, things get much hairier.
Remote access solutions such as Virtual Network Computing (VNC) meet this need, and allow you to administer PC help from afar when properly configured. But they hit a major snag when dealing with the most seriously dysfunctional computers, since they all require working operating systems to function. That means you’re out of luck when Uncle Joe’s spyware-infested eMachine can’t even load Windows anymore.
