Does Remote Assistance work?

[Guest]

Does Remote Assistance work with high-speed Internet? I have never had
success with it in countless tries. I am the "assistant", not the one seeking
assistance. When someone sends me an invitation the connection appears to be
starting; my computer says it is attempting to reach the other computer, but
it times out. Both computers are connected to high-speed Internet via a
router. The problem seems to be that Remote Assistance is just trying to
connect router-to-router (192.168.1.2 to 192.168.0.2 -- different ISPs,
different routers) rather than across the Internet to the actual IP addresses
(70.xx.xx.xx for me, also 70.xx.xx.xx for the other user).

I know that dial-up users can make it work because both people have direct
IP addresses and are not going through a router. I am surprised, though,
that Windows XP is not more accommodating for those with high-speed instead
of dial-up.

 

[molsonexpert]

Does Remote Assistance work with high-speed Internet? I have never had
success with it in countless tries. I am the "assistant", not the one seeking
assistance. When someone sends me an invitation the connection appears to be
starting; my computer says it is attempting to reach the other computer, but
it times out. Both computers are connected to high-speed Internet via a
router. The problem seems to be that Remote Assistance is just trying to
connect router-to-router (192.168.1.2 to 192.168.0.2 -- different ISPs,
different routers) rather than across the Internet to the actual IP addresses
(70.xx.xx.xx for me, also 70.xx.xx.xx for the other user).

I know that dial-up users can make it work because both people have direct
IP addresses and are not going through a router. I am surprised, though,
that Windows XP is not more accommodating for those with high-speed instead
of dial-up.

A couple of things come to mind: first, the proper port must be opened
(3389). Second, if you're using a broadband router, I think you need to
configure the private addresses on the router that you would want to connect
to. So if the computer that needs assistance is 192.168.1.1, you would need
to access the config utility for that router, and add that IP address using
port 3389.

steve.

 

[R. McCarty]

Two things, One, before the Ticket is sent have the person do a
WhatIsMyIp.Com to get their WAN address and include it in the
message body of the ticket. You can use Notepad to edit the RA
ticket and substitute the WAN Address in the ticket. Before you
actually open the ticket, try a Ping to the destination PC.
Many Modem/Router's need port 3389 opened for the traffic to
be allowed. On your system, don't use DHCP - assign it a static
Address from your range. Then setup persistent port forwarding
from Port 3389 to your Static/Permanent IP.
On some systems the Ticket will attempt to route from the modems
address to the client PC (192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.2) but this also
has the problem of addressing behind a NAT device.
Finally, most 3rd party Firewalls are RA-assistance aware, but can
sometimes interfere with a RA session. Fast User Switching must be
enabled for RA to function as well.

 

[Guest]

I have that set on my router, but the person trying to get assistance from me
is a computer novice and does not know how to access the router...