Are there any good, secure, free (or cheap) apps out there like XP's Remote Assistance that would let me view and control my parent's system, which is running Win2000?

pkLike free VPN software?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=free+vpnAllochthonous....... PC anywhere will certainly do it for you . You might also wish to check out ..... https://www.copilot.com/ I believe there is a trial offer .
Pity you both dont have XP installed ........ it's built in .

DL65 >TightVNC< is exactly what you need. Absolutely free, remote control software.I believe this can be done with NetMeeting. I experienced it once. A friend introduced me to NetMeeting. Once we got it working at both ends, he granted my permission to take control of his desktop to see how it works. I saw his desktop on my computer screen and could control his machine.I actually think NetMeeting will work for what i want to do.

PKI thought you said, "secure"!!! Yeah, I see that NetMeeting leaves a port open according to ShieldsUp!, but isn't any program like this going to do that? Is that what you meant?

TightVNC does not seem to be very secure, either, is it?

This has to be easy to use. My dad is not very computer literate and the point of this is so i can help him better via the internet.

PKTightVNC can connect over SSL - i.e. a secure, encrypted channel. It is a mature, open source product, which means that thousands of hyper-intelligent ubergeeks have read the source code, checking for, and patching security holes.

NetMeeting, on the other hand, is by Microsoft. 'Nuff said."As-is"?

Here is what the FAQ says:

How secure is TightVNC?
Although TightVNC encrypts VNC passwords sent over the net, the rest of the traffic is sent as is, unencrypted (for password encryption, VNC uses a DES-encrypted challenge-response scheme, where the password is limited by 8 characters, and the effective DES key length is 56 bits). So using TightVNC over the Internet can be a security risk. To solve this problem, we plan to work on built-in encryption in future versions of TightVNC.

In the mean time, if you need real security, we recommend installing OpenSSH, and using SSH TUNNELING for all TightVNC connections from untrusted networks.

So do I need to intsall this OpenSSH in order to be secure?

This confuses me, to be honest.

PKOops - my bad. I thought they'd got that sorted already.

Do you know how to set up a VPN connection? That's a facility built into later Windows NETWORKING that enables you to create an encrypted PRIVATE "tunnel" between two netwoks/computers. You can send your VNC connection through this VPN tunnel. That would be easier than installing and configuring SSH (particularly on Windows).

Sorry it's confusing, but the nitty gritty of network security is pretty complex.No, I don't know how to do that. I am pretty dumb when it comes to networking.

I wonder if RealVNC would be worth the $30. It sounds more secure. I really wanted to find something free, but am also moderately CONCERNED about security.

I guess we will just use NetMeeting only in emergencies.

Unless anyone else has any suggestions.

PK