I had a family member in distress and they needed me to install some software for them but I was in a time crunch and could not visit them physically but I did have enough time to help them install the software remotely so I had been wanting to try a new solution (to using logmein) and TeamViewer was that solution today.
Before calling said family member (Merv), I went to the TeamViewer web site and downloaded the Full Client. I installed it on my mac - no issues. When you run the software you either hand out the codes (partner id and password) provided or a person provides you codes. I sent Merv a link to the file download section and he grabbed the full client as well (I sent him that one just in case he wanted to remote control other machines otherwise there is a ciient only version). Once installed and run, the client prompts you with a partner id and a password. He provided those to me over the phone but I imagine if we had been instant messaging it would have worked fine that way as well. So I plugged in those 2 values and voila, I saw his desktop.
I performed the software installs flawlessly on his machine - even rebooted and then reconnected afterwards ( if his TeamViewer client remained open and say I happened to lose connection and reconnect - I could use the same partner id and password, if the TeamViewer app closed on his side and re-opened, a new password was generated - which meant he’d have to provide that to me). Other than that, everything went flawless.
I see many options in the preferences that allow more customization to TeamViewer. One option is to delete any saved passwords on exiting of the app - I wonder if that would have made it so I could just use the same id and password throughout - something to play with later
Other interesting options are blacklist/whitelist, custom options for networking, screen resolution, etc. This application worked nicely with both of us sitting on LANs using private address space (behind NATs).
Definitely worth a try if you provide support to anyone remotely or if you’re looking to share your desktop to a few folks (like giving presentations).
Link:
TeamViewer
Feel free to email me or post a reply.
Email: c h u c k (at) g o f i x i t (dot) c o m
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