Help without anyone leaving home.
Some problems do not need a van or a workbench. We get on the phone, you click one link, and I can see your screen while we talk it through. You watch everything I do, the whole time, and it stops the second you want it to.
No mystery, no software you have to understand.
People are right to be careful about letting anyone near their computer from a distance. So here is exactly how it goes, step by step, with nothing left out.
We talk on the phone first
You call me, or I call you at a time we agree. We stay on the phone for the whole thing. You are never handed off to anyone else and there is nobody else involved.
You open one link I send you
I text or email you a link. You click it, and a code appears on your screen. Nothing happens until you read me that code, which means I cannot connect unless you actively let me.
We fix it together
Your screen stays on and you see every single thing I do, as I do it. I talk you through what I am clicking and why. If you want me to stop, say so and I stop.
The connection ends
When we are done you close the window and my access is gone. It is not left running in the background and I cannot get back in later without you starting the whole thing again.
Best for the fiddly things.
If the problem lives inside the screen rather than inside the box, this is usually the fastest way to sort it.
Printers, email and programs
Email that stopped collecting messages, a printer the computer refuses to see, a program that will not install or has started behaving oddly. These are settings problems, and settings can be sorted from anywhere.
Pop-ups and unwanted extras
Toolbars you never asked for, a browser that opens on the wrong page, adverts appearing where they should not. I can clear most of that out while you watch. If it turns out to be something deeper, I will say so rather than pretending otherwise.
Showing you how, not just doing it
Half the time what people actually want is to be shown. Sending photos, joining a video call, saving a document somewhere you can find it again. We can go through it as many times as you like, and I will write the steps down for you afterwards.
A quick second opinion
Not sure whether something is a real problem or not? Ten minutes on a screen is often enough for me to tell you it is nothing, or to tell you it needs proper attention. Either answer is worth having before you worry about it all weekend.
When online help is the wrong answer
I would rather turn a job down than take your money for something that was never going to work. Online help cannot do anything about hardware. If the computer will not turn on, will not reach the desktop, is making a noise, is overheating, or needs a new drive or more memory, there is nothing to connect to and nothing I can click. Those want a drop-off or a mail-in.
It is also the wrong tool for anything involving cables, routers, printers that need physically moving, televisions, or a house where the Wi-Fi is fine in one room and hopeless in another. That is a visit, because somebody has to be standing in the room.
And one thing worth saying plainly, because it is the reason a lot of people are wary of this in the first place. Real technicians never ring you out of the blue to say they have detected a problem. Scammers do, constantly, and they use the same kind of screen-sharing tools I do. That is why I only ever connect after you have called me, on a number you found yourself. If you want to know what the scam version looks like so you can spot it a mile off, I have written the whole thing up here.
Prefer to do it another way?
Online is only one of four. Every one of them ends with the same honest answer.
Drop It Off
Bring your computer to me in Storrs, leave it with me, and collect it when I call to say it is done.
Start a drop-off →We Come to You
I come out and sort things where they sit. It is $99 to get me there, which covers the first hour.
Book a home visit →Online Help
We talk on the phone while I look at your screen over the internet, so nobody has to leave home.
See if it suits you →Mail It
Too far to drive? Ship it to me and I will send it back to you once it is working.
How mail-in works →Give me a ring and we will see if this suits you.
If online help is not the right answer I will tell you that on the phone, before either of us has spent any time on it.