Bosco’s Screen Share: Getting Started

Share your screen with a friend... Drive your friend crazy!

It’s never been easier!
It has never been easier to show your friend exactly what is happening on your computer. You have a Mac, your friend runs Windows? In the room upstairs or half a world away... If you can dial a phone, you can share screens with Bosco’s Screen Share. Sometimes, showing is a lot easier than telling. Or just doing it yourself is even faster! With Bosco’s Screen Share, you can drive your friend’s computer from afar.

Scroll down to learn how to share screens with a friend with Bosco’s Screen Share.

Overview
The Interactive screen sharing feature of Bosco’s Screen Share allows two friends to take turns sharing their screens with each other. It does this with a private, serverless connection over the Internet. This “Getting Started” document will show you the basics of using Interactive screen sharing. Web screen sharing is explained on the (you’ll never guess) Web Screen Sharing page.

Prerequisites

You need a computer running Mac OS X or Windows NT/2000/XP. Bosco’s Screen Share no longer supports Mac OS 9 or Windows 98/ME.
A 400 MHz or faster processor is recommended. Macs with a G4 or G5 processor will perform significantly better than Macs with a G3 processor.
256 MB or more of RAM is strongly recommended.
You and your friends with whom you would like to share screens should each have high speed Internet (or be connected on a high-speed LAN). Bosco’s Screen Share works “sluggishly” over a modem. More importantly, sharing screens is more fun when you talk on the phone, so using Bosco’s Screen Share over a modem might tie up your phone line.
Friends with whom you would like to share screens need to download and install Bosco’s Screen Share too.

Table of Contents


						1. Run Bosco’s Screen Share.
						

						    1a. The Welcome window
						

						    1b. The Interactive panel
						

						    1c. Expert mode
						
						2. Simulate a call.
						

						    2a. Answering a call
						

						    2b. Ask to watch your friend’s screen.
						

						    2c. Let your friend watch your screen.
						

						    2d. Watch your friend’s screen.
						

						    2e. Projecting
						

						    2f. Hang up when you’re done.
						

						3. Configure router and firewall.
						

						4. Invite a friend to call.
						

						5. Dialing a friend
						

						    5a. Clicking a link from an invitation
						

						    5b. Entering an address
						

						6. Favorites
						

						    6a. Adding a favorite

1. Run Bosco’s Screen Share. Launch Bosco’s Screen Share. If you use Mac OS X, you should add its icon to your dock. It looks very cool.		Figure 1: Bosco’s Screen Share in the dock



*1a. The Welcome* window** The first time you start Bosco’s Screen Share, you will be asked for your name and e-mail address. These are used when you connect to a friend’s computer so that they know it’s you connecting and not someone famous or beautiful.		Figure 2: The Welcome window



*1b. The Interactive* panel** Once you have closed the Welcome window, the main window will appear. It has two panels: Interactive and Web. The Interactive panel is for one-to-one screen sharing as explained in this document. The Web panel works with personal web sharing to publish your screen for many people to see. When the window opens, you may notice that it performs a couple of tests. The first test figures out what your Internet address is so that your friend can call you. The second test checks to see if your router and firewall (if present) are configured correctly so that your friend’s call can get through. It is okay if this test fails now — we’ll fix it in a later step. Interactive screen sharing works just like a phone. You dial a friend to share screens. You take turns sharing screens, just as you take turns talking on the phone. You hang up when you are done. If you don’t want to be bothered, take your phone off the hook. At the top of the Interactive panel is a picture of Bosco, which indicates the status of Interactive screen sharing: waiting for a call, sharing screens, or off hook. At the bottom of the Interactive panel, you’ll find address information and links, which you can use to help your friend call you.		Figure 3: The Interactive Panel



1c. Expert mode We should probably tell you about “expert mode” now. Choose Expert Interface from the Edit menu. Expert mode makes the window smaller and gives you just the controls you need to place and answer calls, take Bosco’s Screen Share off-hook, and get temporary privacy. You can switch between the expert and beginner (non-expert) modes using command-E on the Mac or control-E on Windows.		Figure 4: The Interactive Panel in expert mode

2. Simulate a call. You can get a good feel for how interactive screen sharing works by simulating a call. Doing this will allow you to watch your own screen in a window and get sense for how quickly Bosco’s Screen Share can update the view of your screen on your friend’s computer. Select Simulate Call... from the File menu.		Figure 5: Simulating a call.



2a. Answering a call You will be asked to answer a call from yourself. You can change how calls are answered in the Incoming Calls panel of the Preferences windows. You can have all calls answered, have Bosco’s Screen Share ask you to answer or ignore each incoming call, or have callers supply a password. You can also automatically reject calls from outside your LAN. That might be useful for a server which you only want to watch or drive from another computer on your LAN. Click the Answer button to answer the call.		Figure 6: Answering a call.



2b. Ask to watch your friend’s screen. Once you have answered a call, you and your friend can take turns watching and driving each other’s screen. This is similar to talking on the phone. You take turns. Click the Watch... button to watch your friend’s screen. Since you are just simulating a call here, you will be watching your own screen in a window.		Figure 7: Ask to watch your friend’s screen. (Expert mode)



2c. Let your friend watch your screen. When you ask to watch your friend’s screen, your friend will be asked to allow you to watch her screen. We do this to ensure each user’s privacy. You can change the policy for watching your screen in the Interactive panel of the Preferences window. You can set it to always allow watching, to never allow watching, to ask you, or to have a friend watch immediately when you answer their call. The last option is useful for servers or kiosks. You can set a separate policy for driving. So you might set watching to “On Answer” and driving to “Never”. So pretend you are your friend and let yourself watch your own screen.		Figure 8: Your friend wants to watch your screen.



2d. Watch your friend’s screen. Now you are watching your own screen in a window. While keeping the window visible, find something else to drag around on your desktop and watch how quickly (or slowly if you have a slow computer) the view of your screen updates in that window. You can expect a real friend to actually get better performance when watching your screen, as your computer is doing the work of both being watched and watching now. Note: On Macs, if you drag one of Bosco’s Screen Share’s windows around or use the menus in Bosco’s Screen Share, the view of your screen will not update until you stop dragging. Windows and menus in other applications work fine.		Figure 9: Watching your friend’s screen



2e. Projecting Sometimes, lots of friends will get together in a conference room and want to take turns talking and showing their screens to all their other friends. This is often called a meeting. If your conference room has a computer with a projector, you can connect to it and click the Project button to instantly share your screen. But sometimes, you will want to show a friend (who isn’t the sharpest Q-tip in the drawer) how to do something on her computer. Hit Project and start teaching. They will be able to watch full screen and see what a genius you are!		Figure 10: Ever been accused of projecting?



2f. Hang up when you’re done. Adios, au reviore, hasta la pasta... When you are done sharing screens with your friend, click the Hang Up button. Your friend will be unceremoniously dumped and will no longer be able to watch or control your screen. If you are on the phone, we recommend politely telling your friend when you are about to hang up screen sharing so that your friend’s feelings aren’t hurt.		Figure 11: Hanging up

3. Configure router/firewall When you start Bosco’s Screen Share, it performs a test to see if you have a router present and if your router and firewall are configured correctly so that you can receive calls from your friend. If the test was unsuccessful, you’ll see a message like the one pictured in Figure 13 after about 10 seconds of testing. Nothing to worry about — you just have a little work to do to get set up and it only needs to be done once. Note: If you are trying to share screens with a friend, only one of you needs to configure your router and firewall. The other one can call that friend with Bosco’s Screen Share without going through this nosebleed. If you are knowledgeable about networking, firewalls, routers, and IP addresses, here is the information you need to make this work: Your computer probably needs a static IP address on your LAN. Your computer’s firewall needs to have port 20229 open for TCP packets. Your router needs to forward TCP packets on port 20229 to your computer. If your computer goes through multiple routers to get to the Internet (e.g. computer connects to Airport, which connects to router via Ethernet cable), you need to have each router forward TCP packets on port 20229 in series. You can support multiple users on your LAN using different ports. The Preferences window of Bosco’s Screen Share lets you change the port on which it accepts calls. If that made absolutely no sense, we have a more detailed Router Setup Guide. We would suggest that non-technical users get help from a smart friend. We also offer setup assistance over the phone for a fee.		Figure 12: Testing router/firewall Figure 13: Router/firewall problem

4. Invite your friend. If you successfully configured your router and firewall (or did not have to), you can invite your friend to call you. Otherwise your friend should invite you. Choose Invite New Friend... from the Favorites menu.		Figure 14: Inviting a new friend



4a. Send the invitation. Enter your friend’s name and e-mail address, and a new e-mail message to your friend from you will be created in your e-mail program. The message has all the information your friend will need to call you: a link she can click, address and port number (in case her e-mail program does not support clickable links), and download instructions for Bosco’s Screen Share (in case she doesn’t have it yet). “So why do we have to do this?”, we hear you asking. Bosco’s Screen Share uses a serverless protocol. This lets it run faster and more securely than many competing products which are tied to a server. It requires much less configuration for a new user to download and call you. Also, most home users have dynamic (i.e. changing often) Internet addresses. The invitation mechanism sends your friend your current Internet address so she can call you. If you have a static (i.e. does not change) Internet address, you can indicate that in the Preferences window. The Favorites menu can tell the difference between your friends who have static Internet addresses and those who have dynamic addresses and work with them accordingly. If you’re an advanced user, you can drag or copy the Internet Link from the Interactive panel to their chat or e-mail program. Alternatively, you can tell your friend your Internet address and port as indicated on the Interactive panel.		Figure 15: Entering your friend’s name and e-mail address

5. Dialing a friend It’s a good time to mention that it does not matter who dials whom. Once the call is answered, you can each take turns sharing screens.



5a. Clicking a link from an invitation If you sent your friend an invitation, then you will wait for her to call you. If you received an invitation from your friend, then you will call her. If you have a decent e-mail program, you can click the screenshare link and you will be connected automagically. Unfortunately, not all popular e-mail programs are as decent as we would like!		Figure 16: Screenshare link in an invitation



5b. Entering an address Otherwise, you can click the Dial... button and enter your friend’s Internet address to call her. Usually, you will call on port 20229, but some Bosco’s Screen Share users may be acccepting calls on other ports. Check the Use custom port checkbox to change the port.		Figure 17: Dialing a friend manually

6. Favorites Favorites are friends with whom you share screens regularly. They appear in your Favorites menu. We mentioned before that most users have dynamic Internet addresses, which suggests that some friends with whom you share screens might have a static Internet address. The Favorites menu works well with both kinds of friends. Friends who have dynamic Internet addresses appear in your Favorites menu as Invite So-and-so..., while friends who have static Internet addresses appear in your Favorites menu as So-and-so (Computer Name). When you choose a favorite with a dynamic Internet address, you’ll send her an e-mail invitation like you did in Section 4. When you choose a favorite with a static Internet address, you’ll call her computer right away.		Figure 18: Favorites in the Favorites menu



6a. Adding a favorite While you are sharing screens with a friend, you can choose Add to Favorites... from the Favorites menu and your friend will be added to your Favorites menu. Bosco’s Screen Share can figure out whether your friend has a static Internet address or a dynamic Internet address and add her appropriately. Actually, Bosco’s Screen Share isn’t quite that omniscient. If you have a static Internet address, then you need to indicate that in the Identification panel of the Preferences window so that when your friends add you as a favorite, you will be added correctly.		Figure 19: The Add to Favorites... menu item