Best VNC / remote desktop software for assistance

Solution 1:

If you're planning on providing assistance to someone who is not very computer savvy, TeamViewer is going to make your life far easier. Yes, it is a closed-source commercial product – but the magical sensation you feel when establishing a connection using only an ID number makes it all well worth it.

For a while you might think you can pull off carefully setting up a VNC server and the required firewall/NAT rules to be ready for future support sessions, but it won't do you any good the day that your friend in need of assistance has changed their network setup or broken their server configuration by following some Hoary Hedgehog how-to.

It's pretty hard to get this part wrong:

With most of my clients, I don't even have them try to install TeamViewer. Session initiation looks like this:

1. At teamviewer.com/download, click the button beneath "TeamViewer QuickSupport".
2. Click Run.
3. Read me the ID and password.

Solution 2:

Rmemina is pretty easy to set up and use. Highly recommended for novice and expert alike. Install it with

sudo apt install remmina