Remote Assistance Cannot Make the Connection

[Guest]

I have Vista Home premiu. I am trying to connect to someone using remote
assistance. That person is on XP with sp2. All seems to work until the end. I
get his email, click on the attachment, enter the password and is says
'connecting". I then get the following message...

WINDOWS REMOTE ASSISTANCE (Window)
Remote Assistance Cannot Make the Connection
The person you are trying to help might have closed Remote Assistance

At the other end, he is waiting for my reply and nothing arrives.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Is he behind a router?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Guest]

I guess. He connects to the intgernet via broadband cable (Optonline.net)

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Then two things need to happen:

1) You need to edit the RA file in a text editor and change the IP to his
external one. Right now it has the one assigned to his machine by the router
(192.168.x.x). There are many sites that can be used to determine is
external IP, but the easiest way is to log into the router and check the
settings.

2) He needs to enable port forwarding on port 3389 in his router to his
machine, or it will not forward the request sent from your machine.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Steve Urbach]

Hi,

Then two things need to happen:

1) You need to edit the RA file in a text editor and change the IP to his
external one. Right now it has the one assigned to his machine by the router
(192.168.x.x). There are many sites that can be used to determine is
external IP, but the easiest way is to log into the router and check the
settings.

2) He needs to enable port forwarding on port 3389 in his router to his
machine, or it will not forward the request sent from your machine.

Isn't it kind of lame for Remote assistance to NOT recognize the possibility
of a router and ASK: "Is this person on your local net?" and if "No", use some
means to determine the 'current' router 'public IP' (you would still need to
forward the port (?? does UPnP have that ability to set a time limited
forward??) and use that in the message (I bug reported this LACK in Vista
Beta). Many of us +are+ behind NAT routers (and some don't even know it).

S

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Steve,

To get the external IP, the router would have to report it to the system.
They don't, by design the router handles translating the signal between
source and destination without exposing the IP. Part of what a router does
is block signals that originate from an external source to prevent unwanted
intrusions. It's not a bug as it is how a router works, and Vista cannot
include information not available to it.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Steve Urbach]

Hi Steve,

To get the external IP, the router would have to report it to the system.
They don't, by design the router handles translating the signal between
source and destination without exposing the IP. Part of what a router does
is block signals that originate from an external source to prevent unwanted
intrusions. It's not a bug as it is how a router works, and Vista cannot
include information not available to it.

I understand that <G>.
What I *think* RA should do since it /should/ know that the machines IP falls
within the RESERVED Private IP range (Class C) and *offer* to help resolve the
issue. +and+ most people using this feature are not that savvy

"Windows has detected that you may be behind a Router and would like
permission to determine the public IP address of the router for inclusion
within your invitation. No other identifiable information will be sent."
"OK" "Cancel"
OK would allow use of thos "tools" we use to determine" the public IP
without the routers need to report directly to the PC.
( I used DSL Reports)
The IP that just fetched this page is
68.165.<rest munged for obvious reasons>

This *assumes* that port forwarding works and firewall's do not block
port 3389

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Steve,

Understood, and I don't think it's a bad suggestion.

This *assumes* that port forwarding works...

Which will render external IP determination moot unless the user knows how
to get into it and set it up (and if they can do that, they can just get the

and firewall's do not block port 3389

Which they invariably do.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Steve Urbach]

Hi Steve,

Understood, and I don't think it's a bad suggestion. Thanks


Which will render external IP determination moot unless the user knows how
to get into it and set it up (and if they can do that, they can just get the


Which they invariably do.

If we did not have *bad* people, we would not need firewall's.
If we did not *need* firewall's, how simple this would be.
Sigh!