Remote Assistance and XP SP2

[Guest]

I use Windows XP Remote Assistance (RA) to connect to some 250 computers.
After the install of SP2 RA did not function. After selecting the Remote
Assistance, Remote Desktop and File and Print Sharing exceptions in the
firewall settings it still did not work. After hours on the phone with
Microsoft they still had no solution (one tech told me I need 2gig of ram to
even install SP2 and that was my problem!).
I did some more testing on my own this morning and using the program call
Active Ports I was able to figure out that there are two settings in the
firewall I needed to add in order for it to work. First add an exception for
the program Helpsvc.exe which is located in
C:\WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\Binaries and then add an exception for port 135.
This worked for everyone of our systems on SP2. I hope this is helpful to
others.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I use Windows XP Remote Assistance (RA) to connect to some 250
computers. After the install of SP2 RA did not function. After
selecting the Remote Assistance, Remote Desktop and File and Print
Sharing exceptions in the firewall settings it still did not work.
After hours on the phone with Microsoft they still had no solution
(one tech told me I need 2gig of ram to even install SP2 and that was
my problem!).
I did some more testing on my own this morning and using the program
call Active Ports I was able to figure out that there are two
settings in the firewall I needed to add in order for it to work.
First add an exception for the program Helpsvc.exe which is located in
C:\WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\Binaries and then add an exception for
port 135. This worked for everyone of our systems on SP2. I hope this
is helpful to others.

You mean this?

Windows XP SP2 Firewall blocks offers of Remote Assistance
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=555179

2 Hours on the phone with Microsoft Technical Support and none of them
pointed you to this article?
Last Revised: 8/22/2004 (1.0)

 

[Bill Sanderson]

And note that this article was written by an MVP--not by Microsoft staff.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

And note that this article was written by an MVP--not by Microsoft
staff.

Noted.

*grin*