A while back, I helped a friend with some computer issues. At first I tried to help them over Facebook, but when that wasn’t working, I knew I had to actually see the screen and be able to control the machine.

At home, each of my computers has TightVNC. That way I can gain access to a machine without leaving mine. Doing that over the Internet is a little harder.

There are tons of programs out there that do that like, LogMeIn. A recent one I hadn’t heard of was featured on Lifehacker, called CrossLoop. It is essentially a VNC server, but you don’t need to know your IP Address (which most people don’t).

I decided to give it a try. I downloaded it, but after having to go through a ton of pages of them trying to get you to upgrade to the pro version. It was really annoying.

With VNC, you need to know the IP Address of the machine. Over the Internet this can be very difficult. So to fix this problem, it gives you an access code and then you can give that to the person you are sharing your screen with. But just because you have the access code, does not mean you can gain access right away. The sharer has to allow it.

It sounds pretty simple and easy, but how easy is it? From the time I sent my friend the download link to the time I saw her screen was about two minutes. Not bad.

What about chatting with the person to find out what’s going on. Open up Notepad? No. CrossLoop has a built in chat. I think most VNC servers do, but I haven’t messed with that. It was really easy to talk with the person on the other end, one thing about it was I could not chat and see what was happening on the screen at the same time. I had to close that chat to see what was going on and to work on it.

There are a ton of other features in CrossLoop, like file transfers, which work very nicely. And with the pro version, you can customize it for your business.

In conclusion, CrossLoop is a great tool for those of us who family and friends come to to fix their computers. Even if they are computer illiterate, it’s still really easy to work on their computer from long away. There are still some minor issues and annoyances, but overall it is a great tool.