Ok, I've never shared files in Netmeeting and I'm not sure if I have all my prefs set up right to do this. My Mother was going to grant me access to her desktop last night as she lives out of town and I was going to try and help her out with some problems she was having (I've heard Netmeeting is good for this) but when we tried to do it, the 'desktop' icon wasn't highlighted to allow it (it was there, we just couldn't click on it). I read in the help that is because we are already sharing another program but we weren't. Also, on the sharing screen it said 'not in call' but we were in a call (on the main screen where the video shows, of course it showed 'in a call'). What am I doing wrong? I have Win98SE and she has WinXP but I wouldn't imagine that would be a problem would it? Also, am I limited on what I can do to her computer? Will I be able to download updates to her computer this way and do scandisks and what not? Thanks in advance!

once you set your mothers netmeeting up to share desktop. she will have to click on call - exit and activate remote desktop sharing. once you are finished fixing her problems you can have her deactivate the desktop sharing.

you should be able to run scandisk etc on her PC for her. if you are talking about downloading Windows updates it depends on how you are connecting to her PC. if its dialup modem then no because you'll only have the one connection. If she has cable or DSL then you should be able to run them for her.

Ok, bear with me here. Can't I just do the 'Program Sharing' part of Netmeeting to do what I want to do or do I have to do the 'Remote Desktop sharing' to have access to her computer? I realize that Program Sharing would be to share a particular program but when I went to that option last night 'desktop' was in there. If I'm understanding you right, I have to do the Remote Desktop Sharing so I can edit her files or fix things? Sorry if I'm seeming dense here but there are two different options in there and I did see the Remote Desktop Sharing in there as well when I was searching around. I guess that was my problem. I was trying to use the program sharing option not remote desktop sharing......uh-duh... :)

remote desktop sharing is for when you want to access your pc from somewhere else. it acts as if you're logged in. sharing the desktop allows you to access the other person's computer, but if the person thinks you're being malicious, all she has to do is hit a key or move the mouse and tada, you've lost control. So both methods access a computer...the former gives you total control and the latter is more like supervised control. You should be able to share the desktop. I do it all the time with my friends (they have windows ME and i have windows XP). You shouldn't have any problem. I start netmeeting, click on call, then "host meeting". I accept the default parameters. My friends then type in my ip address, and connect to me. Then they click on the box with a hand on it (share programs). They click on desktop, allow controllable, then ok. you're not limited by anything. You can initiate downloads on her computer, etc. You can even shutdown or reboot the computer, etc.