How do I set up remote access to help a friend straighten out some PC issues?

[roccenstein]

I want to connect remotely to my friend's PC from my PC at home (with his permission, of course) to help him straighten out a few issues he's having (he lives too far away from me to make a trip to his house for this practical).  I looked up how to set up remote access and found this page from Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/remoteintro.mspx

Is it really as easy as it's stated there?  If so, since I am wanting to connect to my friend's computer, I enter the full name of his PC when I go to connect, right?  So the only thing he needs to do is to allow remote access and give me his computer's name, correct?

Also, my friend is using Vista (Boooo!) and I have XP Pro, will that be an issue?

If I am wrong about this, please let me know, and if so, please either give me some instructions for how to set this up, or a link to a page that will show me, THANKS!!

[SuperDave]

There could be some issues with bandwidth. See here
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Windows-Vistas-New-Improved-Remote-Assistance.html

[roccenstein]

According to that article, someone using Vista could help someone using XP, but not the other way around.  That doesn't make sense.   If you can connect one way, why can't you connect the other?

[SuperDave]

Probably the same reason as why a new version of Word will open a file created on an older version but an older version of Word will not open a file created in Word 2007.

[JJ 3000]

check this out https://secure.logmein.com/go.asp?page=home&lang=en

[roccenstein]

I haven't downloaded that yet, but I wonder, since it's not a Microsoft product, will it then allow me to connect my XP machine to his Vista machine, and allow me control?

[tomshope]

Use "Crossloop" a free utility, This is better and it can be used on both pc's. I use it all the time with my
brother. Note: When you first connect to each others pc's it may not complete
the connection on the first try (you will see that your friends screen ONLY partially fills in), just reconnect once more and it will come up great.

See the faq's and download here>>>>

http://www.crossloop.com/ipage.htm?id=faq
 
 
Download site>>>>
 
 
http://www.crossloop.com/ipage.htm?id=download