ORelay for

Fix your parents’ computer from your phone

You are the one the family calls when the printer stops, the computer “is being weird”, or a pop-up says it is infected. ORelay puts their computers on your phone. Most calls end in a minute, with no drive over and nobody’s computer taken away.

Sound familiar?

“The printer isn’t working.”
Nine times out of ten the spooler is stuck. One tap on your phone restarts it and tells you it cleared the jobs.
“It’s so slow.”
See the processor, memory and disk right now, and whether the disk has been full for a month, before you guess.
“A box says I have a virus.”
Open the screen, see the box for yourself, close it, and show them what a real warning looks like.
“Is it on?”
You know before you call. If it has not checked in since Tuesday, somebody unplugged it.

How it goes

  1. Install it once

    On a visit, or over the phone: they run the installer, and either you scan the code it shows with the ORelay app or they read you a short code. From then on their computer is in your list, with a name you chose.

    The ORelay Android app’s computer list: six computers in two groups, Office and Home, each with its state and readings.

  2. They stay in charge

    The ORelay window on their computer shows exactly what you may do: see the screen, control it, run commands, move files, change power. They can switch any of it off, or all of it, and no remote user can switch it back on. Every screen session starts view-only; taking control is a separate step, and they see it happen.

  3. Fix most things without the screen

    The quick fixes are the calls you get most: restart the print spooler, flush the DNS, clear temporary files, restart the computer. Each one runs, says what it did, and goes in the log. For the rest there is a command window, the files, and the screen itself, from the phone or a browser.

    A computer’s page with its quick fixes: the print spooler fix just run and marked done, with its note.

  4. Hear about it before they do

    An alert when the disk passes 90%, when a computer stops checking in, or whatever you set, by e-mail or a notification on your phone. The disk gets cleared on a Sunday afternoon instead of during a Tuesday-night call.

    Alerts in the ORelay Android app: a critical processor alert, a disk warning and a computer offline, each with its computer and when it fired.

What it costs

Free, with no time limit, for up to 5 computers: theirs, your aunt’s, and your own.

If the family grows past five, Pro is $20 a month for 50 computers and 3 people, so your sister can help too. There is no commercial-use detector deciding that helping your dad looks like work.

Start freeEvery plan

What it is not

  • It is not a way in behind their back. The ORelay window on their computer shows what you can do, and they can switch it off.
  • It is not antivirus, and it does not patch Windows. It is the way you see what is going on and fix it.
  • A computer that is switched off cannot be reached. ORelay tells you it is off, which is usually the answer.
  • On Windows and Mac the window and the code are there today; on Linux the same switches are set from the command line.

Using something else today? How ORelay compares with Chrome Remote Desktop and TeamViewer.

Looking after an office’s computers · Everything ORelay does