destop to laptop remote connection?

You can install Share My Desktop (a VNC server) on your mom's laptop.

Then you can use Chick of the VNC (a VNC client) on your G5 to connect to your mom's laptop.

If your mom is using a router, she will need to configure the laptop to use a static/manual IP address and then forward/map the appropriate ports through the router to her laptop.

I think you can also use Apple Remote Desktop (ARD). I recently purchased version 2.2 and it works great on a local network, wired or wireless. In the documentation it is somewhat vague about how to connect to a computer over the internet, but I think there is a way it can be done using ARD. I bought it for the same reason as you: 3 family members and 2 friends with Macs, and know one really knows how to fix or change stuff.

-jeff


G5 Quad; iBook G4 1.2GHz Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Sorry - I forgot to mention the best part about Apple Remote Desktop: The client is automatically installed with every installation of OSX 10.2 and higher. So your mom would not have to install any VNC or setup the corrrect Port-forwarding. If her Mac does not have an administrator account setup of some kind, she will have to create one. But that is a simple enough thing you can talk her through. If she is not up to that task, the ARD Administrator application lets you create a "Client Installer" CD which you can send to your mom and it will setup everything automatically, passwords and all. (You need the admin username and pw for ARD to login to your mom's Mac.)

-jeff

...or setup the corrrect Port-forwarding.

Yes she would still have to forward/map the appropriate ports through the router.

Sorry, that is correct. Although, 3 of the 5 routers I have setup for friends/relatives already had the correct UDP port forwarded. But this may have been done for some other purpose - iTunes/iPhoto Sharing - I'm not sure.

Is this the only "free" way to remote control a MAC?

Thanks.