using remote assistance

[Mike Downey]

Is anyone successfully using remote assistance? It seems like a good idea,
but from what I can tell, it uses the local computer's IP address, so I
can't figure out how to use it behind a NAT router. I'd also like to be
able to change the port that it waits on, if possible, since I use Remote
Desktop and already forward that port to a server.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[purplehaz]

Maybe this will help you some.
How to change the listen port for remote desktop:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306759

 

[Mike Downey]

Thanks. I'm aware of that information, but I haven't figured out the exact
relationship between Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance. I have a hunch
that they are closely related and that Remote Assistance may even be Remote
Desktop connected with the /console switch to connect to session 0.

Any idea on how to handle NAT?

 

[purplehaz]

Nat and remote assitance I'm not sure. If you could "point" the remote
assitance to the wan ip of your router then forward the connection, but like
you found out, I don't know if you can specify the ip address with remote
assitance like you can with remote desktop. Sorry couldn't help more.

 

[R. McCarty]

Get the user to go to http://whatismyip.com and write down their
"True/Visible" IP Address. Then get them to send you the Remote
Assistance request. Simply edit the request and substitute the
router 192.168..IP for their ISP's assigned address. I've used this
a number of times and it works fine. You just have to make sure
that their router has port 3389 open/forwarded for Remote
Assistance to work.

 

[purplehaz]

He could get the ip from the router, but I didn't know you could edit the
request. Interesting, thanks for the info, I'll have to give it a try.

 

[Mike Downey]

Yeah, that's about the point where I'm stuck. Thanks for your help, though.

 

[Mike Downey]

OK, I think I've got this figured out. I used the suggestion from purlehaz
and changed the following registry key to 3390:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStatio
ns\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber

Then, I opened up that port on the router and restarted the computer. I
then created a RA request to a file and copied it to my remote computer.
There's a section in there that goes "ipaddressort;computernameort". I
just opened the file in NotePad and changed the computername to the FQDN of
the router IP and the corresponding port to 3390.

Worked great. Thanks to both of you for your help with this.

Mike

 

[purplehaz]

Cool, glad you got it and I learned something too. I didn't know you could
just edit the request. Thanks for the info.