CrossLoop Lets You Fix a Friend or Relative's Computer Remotely

Over the last several years, CrossLoop has been reviewed by such excellent publications as CNet, The Wall Street Journal, MakeUseOf and LifeHacker.  I tried it out and now I swear by it.  For those of you who don't already know about this tool, let me set the scanario.  Grandpa, Grandma, your aunt, your uncle, your friend, your co-worker (fill in the blank) who has deemed you their own personal tech support - needs help with their computer.  You have plans tonight (or not) and just don't want to drive all the way to his/her house just to fix the computer.  

CrossLoop is an extremely simple tool that you can send to that person in need of computer help.  You can send them a link to download it (click on the CrossLoop logo up top to download it).  Once they download CrossLoop, they then click the "Share" tab and send you (by phone or by e-mail) their Access Code.  They click the "Connect" button (under the Share tab) and you click the Connect button under the Access tab.  They then have to click the orange Yes button.  So, legally, you cannot connect to them without their permission.  You get two minutes to connect to their computer once they've clicked on "Connect," and there is a timer that counts down.  Once you see their desktop, you can minimize their little timer control panel to get it out of the way.

The How-To Geek
wrote up a beautiful tutorial with screenshots on how CrossLoop works from start to finish.  


Once you've fixed your friend or relative's computer problem, you can get back to your plans for the evening.  Any tool that allows you to do that is gold, at least in my opinion. 

Comments

  1. You may also want to try free Ammyy Admin
    http://www.ammyy.com

    It doesn't require installation or specific config. It works behind gateways NAT without port mapping as well as within one LAN.

    Good alternative though!

    ReplyDelete
  2. All I can say is "Wow"! Nice recommendation on Ammyy Admin. I declare it better and quicker than CrossLoop. I'll admit I was getting many dropped connections with CrossLoop (free version) and it took a while to connect. Ammyy Admin, which I had never heard of before now, is faster, stays connected, and other than a quick on-the-fly installation, it is simpler for the person being helped to connect to. I'd like to include the link on my sidebar for customers to use.

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