Yesterday I discovered that Microsoft's Remote Assistance app that is built into Windows XP actually works. I was skeptical that it wouldn't be able connect through the various routers and firewalls in place between me and the person I was trying to help out (afterall, it's still next to impossible to simply send a file to someone over and IM client). To my surprise it connected with ease and didn't require me to tweak any settings anywhere. No port forwarding, no nothing. The user experience was actually really good too. I was able to connect to my brother-in-law's laptop thousands of miles away and control his machine as if it were my own with very minimal lag. Quite an impressive experience and it will be extremely valuable when I am providing tech support to family and friends. It's much easier to just do things for people than to try and describe everything on their screen to them without even being able to see it yourself. I would agree with what Omar says about needing a way to offer other people assistance, instead of always having to explain to people how to invite me to assist them.