My elderly dad uses a Macbook Air M2 to connect to the Internet. He usually reads the news, watches some soccer and whatnot, but most importantly each week I do a one hour Facetime sesion with him and my mom. The key thing here being that the support person for this computer is me and I don’t live where my parents do. Turns out that while macOS is stable enough so that the coputer can run unattended for years, Facetime is logging him out of his iCloud account, so Facetime doesn’t work. My dad doesn’t remember his iCloud password, so it’s a tricky thing to make him enter the right password thorugh the telephone (he’s also half deaf).
I think you can get the idea that this situation doesn’t seem to be improving any time soon.
What tool could I use so that I can connect to this computer and perfomr these types of tasks? I know about Apples own Remote Desktop but i’m pretty sure that this would only work with predictable local IP addresses, not dynamic ones. I have never used TeamViewer or Jump Desktop, so I’m asking for recommendations here. The setup needs to be as solid as a rock.
If you look at Jamf or other Mac MDM tools (ATP used to be sponsored by one quite a lot, but I can’t remember the name), some of them come with a number of free licenses (usually specific to one device,m so when that device dies or is sold you’ve lost one of the free licenses) but these usually allow you to remotely connect to a device.
Alternatively, if you have something which would allow VPN into your home network (maybe your router or a NAS supports it) you may be able to talk him through adding him to your network on demand and using VNC or Screens.
I have had good experience with TeamViewer when I had used it to provide remote support to my uncle who is a senior citizen.
For Team Viewer, you will need the other person to give you the codes on the screen and accept the request for you to access computer. However with registered account it should be possible to have centralised location where all devices are shown
Teamviewer is a good tool. And with proper set up, you can configure the keys so that they never even have to read them to you.
The warning on that though is that it is supposedly “free for personal use,” but they do not give you any criteria for that. So at any time, you can all of a sudden find that your license is invalidated and you are required to buy the professional version. Given that the professional version is $50 a month, that’s probably more than you want to spend.
For a number of my clients, I just use the screen sharing in Zoom. There is an option where you can control their screen. It is definitely not as good as the other tools, but it works fine. I don’t know whether it would work for letting you edit system settings though. There seem to be some restrictions.
All good options. You could also set him up on a Tailscale network with you and then do “local” admin/screensharing. A friend helps his mother this way.
