I get a phone call from my mum nearly every Goddamned day, frantically pleading for help with some computer problem or other. They invariably turn out to be complete fucking nothing which any half-way sentient being should be able to solve with just two hands and a grain of common sense. Every time it happens I have to stop what I’m doing and trek over to her place to sort out whatever bullshit non-problem she’s come up against and I’m getting fucking sick of it (can you tell?)
I was just wondering, is it possible for me to remotely connect to her computer and fix her problems from my house? I have a Mac and she has a laptop running Windows XP, a platform she resolutely refuses to update, (and a good thing too since it took me several years to teach her how to work that). Is there any software I could install on either my or her computer in order for me to fix her problems without having to go round in person?
Many thanks.
P.S. - I don’t know any more about computers than any average person.
I’ve used LogMeIn for years, but it went from free to pay last year.
Although I still use LogMeIn, it is more than I really think it’s worth. I’ve been considering switching to TeamViewer. I do not have experience with it, but hear good things
My immediate thought is that she wants to see you; the computer non-problem is just an excuse. I suggest that you should make some time and have a serious talk with her.
I went through something of the same exact thing with my mom for many years. I told her I owned a Macintosh and knew nothing of WinTel boxes. I also told her to quit being such a goddamned cheapskate and buy a new machine, and if wants my help, it should be a Macintosh.
I asked her one day “Why do you want a computer?” … she turned her head, thought a few seconds, looked at me and said “Because everyone tells me I do, and frankly, I hate computers”. Apparently her first experience was at work with a PDP system, so she claimed a mental block.
So if your mom just surfs the internet, buy her an iMac … plug and play … and get your handyman tools out because she’ll be calling you everyday to fix something around the house.
My mother has Win2000. She basically uses it as a glorified typewriter. She has no internet connection. The computer used to belong to my grandmother, who had AOL and played solitaire and a really old version of Jeopardy. She adopted the computer when my grandmother moved into a retirement home, because the old DOS machine she used as a glorified typewriter was no longer repairable.
She did just move to a Smartphone, though, and texts me now. Thank goodness. Sometimes her texts go on for pages, like it’s email (which she had at work-- she knows how to use it, she just doesn’t like people having unfettered access to her).
For awhile we gave my Mom an extra iPad, and we could use FaceTime to fix her computer. Of course, I was there and was contacting one of my sons to tell me which buttons to push. She loved watching that.
We found out she had wifi that she’d never turned on. Once that was up, we could get her printer to work.
Her system was so old that it would lag every third word while typing an email. She wouldn’t get rid of it, though, because it was too outdated to give away and it was wrong to throw away things that are still working.
But an iPad wasn’t a computer. So that was all right. We made sure it had her favorite solitaires on it, and that she could send emails. She loved FaceTime and being able to use it while sitting in her comfy chair. It was really all she needed.
Umm…not sure. I thought you were supposed to. I don’t really know why I thought that, tbh.
I highly doubt it’s that. For all my ranting, we’re pretty close. My parents don’t live very far away from me and we see each other every Sunday regardless, and usually once during the week anyway. Besides, she’s very active at her local Church and has quite a wide circle of friends, so it’s not like she’s starved for company. The main reason why mum keeps running into computer problems is because she’s always putting herself out for other people. This is, obviously, a very laudable trait but, like anything, it can be taken too far. For example, she has a friend who lives in Holland and this friend wants to set herself up as a Dutch teacher for recent immigrants. For this, mum’s friend (let’s call her Jane), needs a computer and an e-mail account. Unfortunately, Jane doesn’t own a computer, and even if she did it’d be about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. When it comes to computers, Jane is to mum what a stick of celery is to Steve Wozniak.
Anyway, on hearing of Jane’s new ambition, mum decided to open a new gmail account in Jane’s name and act as an interlocutor. Basically, mum’s plan is to e-mail Jane’s would-be students as Jane, relay the students’ replies to Jane over the phone, transcribe Jane’s responses (one thing I’ll say for mum, she can touch-type) and then respond to the students from Jane’s e-mail account as though Jane herself were responding. It’s bananas, but like I said, mum loves helping people.
For me, this means teaching mum how to use gmail and troubleshooting for her when she gets stuck. Given that it took me years to teach mum how to use hotmail, I anticipate an uphill struggle. Indeed, just this week I had to show her (a) how to send an e-mail and (b) get her to understand, on a conceptual level, how it is that gmail saves your e-mail drafts automatically as you type. This may sound trivial, but when you consider that (a) that you can only hear the question “But how does it know??” so many times before you’re overcome by the urge to head butt your way through the wall just to get out of the house, and (b) Jane’s g-mail account is all in Dutch and I don’t speak Dutch[sup]*[/sup], you can see how it might be a little frustrating. Especially when you get a phone call at 10pm and have to go round because she’s seen a new pop-up and thinks it might be a virus.
Anyway, thanks again for all your suggestions. If I can get them to work I’ll be a much happier bunny
[sup]*[/sup][sub](mum does, but she and Jane apparently speak some weird dialect which apparently has so little in common with mainstream Dutch that she can’t understand the words on the gmail links. Don’t ask.)[/sub]
Mom can only make you help her help the Dutch lady if you refuse to let her know that you don’t have the extra time
you have never told your Mom that enough is enough
you can’t tell her
she will never understand that you have limits
or you can see & operate her computer at 10 PM from your computer after just waking up.
