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My friend is running Ubuntu 14.04. I need to give him some technical support, but I can't visit his house, so I want to stream his screen.

We both have pretty slow Internet plans (800 kilobits per second, both up and down.) I want fair resolution, enough to read text, etc. Therefore, the FPS will have to be very low in order for this to work on this speed. Even if the FPS is 0.5, I don't mind. That is enough for me to offer technical support.

I'd also prefer if it was easy to set up, as I'll have to explain to him over the phone how to set it up. I'd like if someone could offer me a step by step answer on how to set this up. If anyone does this and it works, I'll give them a bounty on the answer.

Can Skype for Linux do this? Remember that the resolution should be fair, and the FPS can be low.

He already has Open Broadcaster Software installed, but I've looked at it, and I couldn't figure out how to use it.

As for me, I can use any OS that may be needed for the occasion. Ubuntu, Windows, Android x86, OS X, even iOS. I actually prefer to do it in OS X though, as my laptop is a Hackintosh and I boot other operating systems from USB.

Fiksdal
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  • I do not think that Skype will work. But you can try to ssh into his computer (he "just" has to configure the router correctly - if he has one - to forward port 22 to his machine). This way you can either use X applications or a plain text interface to assist him. Or you can use Teamwiever, that should work also with low speed connections (but you loose quality). – dadexix86 May 04 '16 at 06:53
  • @dadexix86 I'll be talking to him over the phone, telling him what to do. I only need to view his screen. The ssh stuff sounds a bit tricky to set up? I am a normal noob and he is a king noob. With Teamviewer, is it possible to set a low FPS? – Fiksdal May 04 '16 at 06:57
  • Unfortunately Teamviewer is not so finely-grained. This might be related to the fact that it is a proprietary multi-platform software, so they have their own algorithms to reduce the quality and compress the image. `ssh` is not impossible to do, but yes it requires some work. But I am understanding it wrong maybe. I read about support and I forgot your original question. You just want him to stream, right? You do not want to give him support directly from your PC? – dadexix86 May 04 '16 at 07:03
  • @dadexix86 No, he will be operating the mouse and keyboard himself. He learns more that way. I'll just be telling him what to do. (Probably over the phone, to avoid using precious internet bandwidth). – Fiksdal May 04 '16 at 07:08
  • Then he can probably give a try to WebcamStudio http://askubuntu.com/a/3631/29595 – dadexix86 May 04 '16 at 07:13
  • @dadexix86 Does it support low fps? – Fiksdal May 04 '16 at 07:35
  • I personally never broadcasted from my pc, but by reading the instructions, it should :) – dadexix86 May 04 '16 at 07:36
  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/39261/discussion-between-fiksdal-and-dadexix86). – Fiksdal May 04 '16 at 07:36
  • Hi! Did you manage to solve the problem? – dadexix86 May 06 '16 at 08:15
  • @dadexix86 Hi! Actualy, I tried to install Webcam Studio on my friend's computer, but there was no working ppa for it, and no .deb file. Apparently, I have to compile it from source. There was this archive, and I have to run some terminal commands to compile and install it. But I wasn't sure which commands to run, and I didn't have time to try at that moment. Do you know how to do it? – Fiksdal May 06 '16 at 08:19
  • Never did, but usually there is a readme or install file in the package, with the instructions :) – dadexix86 May 06 '16 at 08:23
  • @dadexix86 Yeah, there was, but I didn't even understand that. I'm sure I'll figure it out when I have time. – Fiksdal May 06 '16 at 08:26

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I use x2go for stuff like this. It has settings for different kinds of bandwidth; screen resolution and what not.

See install instructions for server here: http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc%3ainstallation%3ax2goserver

And if you want to use the client on Mac OS X there seems to be a client; instructions here: http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:installation:x2goclient#os_x

Daniel Holm
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