Remote Assistance programs...

I received a nasty, harrassing email from an anonymous
hotmail user. I contacted Hotmail, and also did a little
work myself by doing a look-up on the IP addy. It turned
out that the email was sent from my ex boyfriend's
computer. When I confronted him, he denied, later called
me up to say his friend admitted to doing it, as a joke.
Says the 'friend' got into his PC using a remote assistance
program. The friend has Windows XP, ex has Windows 98.
Would that even work? Also, how did the ex's IP addy show
up and not the friend's? Also, no one was at ex's house to
accept someone getting into his PC. Also, where would one
look to see if someone has that sort of program on their PC
unknowingly? Thanks!

"Mchel" wrote in news:7cf501c49550
:

I received a nasty, harrassing email from an anonymous
hotmail user. I contacted Hotmail, and also did a little
work myself by doing a look-up on the IP addy. It turned
out that the email was sent from my ex boyfriend's
computer. When I confronted him, he denied, later called
me up to say his friend admitted to doing it, as a joke.
Says the 'friend' got into his PC using a remote assistance
program. The friend has Windows XP, ex has Windows 98.
Would that even work? Also, how did the ex's IP addy show
up and not the friend's? Also, no one was at ex's house to
accept someone getting into his PC. Also, where would one
look to see if someone has that sort of program on their PC
unknowingly? Thanks!

Technically it is possible. You can install a program like VNC server,
and when your router and firewall don't exist or are configured well,
anyone with the right password can take over your computer. Doesn't
matter which OS both computers are running.
The server intercepts keyboard, mouse and monitor signals, and redirects
them to the client. So the friend would virtually have been working on
your ex's PC, and so used his IP address.

Win98 does not natively has any remote access software. You could use
Look@Lan www.lookatlan.com to check if your ex's IP has any open ports
at the moment. If there are no open ports, he has no externally
accessable remote access software now.

Caution: Look@Lan will do a portscan. It is possible that your ISP will
detect that, and while it's not illegal, it could be prohibited by your
ISP.