Windows Remote Assistance Connections

[John Monahan]

When I try to hookup (an e-mail received) "Remote Invitation"
(.msrcIncident) from my Vista (Business) to my Vista (Home Premium) machine
(from where the invitation originated) it is not received. The Business
Vista machine accepts the correct password but I do not even get a dialog on
the Home Vista box asking for permission to let somebody access the system.
I get a dialog "Remote Assistant Cannot Make the Connection"



Details:-

Both systems are in the desktop mode with nothing running in the foreground.
I suspect it may be something to do with my DLink router (DIR-655). However
I can see the Vista (Home) computer files with no problem with windows
explorer on the Vista Business machine. Both machines have "never expire"
DHCP IP addresses assigned by the router. I allow port (135,TCP ) forwarding
on the router for the home vista machine. If I try to access the Home
computer via the IP address (second option via remote assistance) still no
luck. I get a dialog "Your offer to help could not be sent".



On the Home Vista I configured the firewall to allow exceptions for
msra.exe and raserver.exe and port 135. That still did not help.



The weird thing is that with the public domain program UltraVNC I can
control the remote desktop with no problem. Why can I do it with this
(crude) program and not with Vistas own program?

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

If it's behind a router, then the invite contains the machine's local IP and
not the one that is exposed to the outside world. You would need to edit the
file in a text editor (it will open fine in wordpad) and change it from the
192.168.x.x address to the router's external one.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

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

 

[John Monahan]

Thanks for the help Rick,
I'm still a bit confused what to do. As you suggested I opened the
invitation in WordPad. The relevant line seems to be:-
RCTICKET="65538,1,192.168.0.194:49473;24.23.149.254:25195,

I tried changing the 192.168.0.194 (referring to the Vista Home Premium
machine) to 192.168.0.1, the router local address. Did not work. According
to the DLink software the router WAN is:-

IP Address 24.23.149.254 (The second address listed above).

I tried changing the 192.168.0.194 (referring to the Vista Home Premium
machine) to 24.23.149.254, still no luck. I even turned the Firewall off on
the Vista Home machine. Also tried Port forwarding for the Vista home
machine (192.168 .0.194) ports 49473 and 25195 on the DLink router. All with
no luck.

Any more suggestions?

Thanks in advance....

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

According to the DLink software the router WAN is:-

IP Address 24.23.149.254 (The second address listed above).

This is the one I was referring to, the one seen by the outside world.

I tried changing the 192.168.0.194 (referring to the Vista Home Premium
machine) to 24.23.149.254, still no luck. I even turned the Firewall off
on the Vista Home machine. Also tried Port forwarding for the Vista home
machine (192.168 .0.194) ports 49473 and 25195 on the DLink router.

Try port 3389 to the internal IP of the target machine.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

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

 

[John Monahan]

Rich, I changed the line:-

RCTICKET="65538,1,192.168.0.194:49473;24.23.149.254:25195
to:-
RCTICKET="65538,1,192.168.0.194:3389;24.23.149.254:25195

No luck. Is that what you meant? BTW right now I have the firewall set off
on the Vista Home (target) machine.
Also does the .msrcIncident file have to be changed on the target machine as
well as on this machine? I assume not but just checking.

Getting desperate.
John

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

It's the 192.168.0.194 that needs to be changed. And no, it doesn't need to
be changed on the target machine, just in the RA file. It's what tells the
recipient machine where to go.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

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

 

[John Monahan]

Sorry for being so slow on this... I am a bit confused what machine is what.

To recap.... 192.168.0.194 is the target machine I want to control remotely,
192.168.0.1. is my local router, 24.23.149.254 is the outside internet
address it "points to"
and 192.168.0.192 is my machine here I want to actually work from.
should it be:-

RCTICKET="65538,1,192.168.0.194:3389;24.23.149.254:25195
or
RCTICKET="65538,1,192.168.0.192:3389;24.23.149.254:25195

Also what is the port 25195 for does it too have to be port forwarded.

Thanks for hanging in there on this
John

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

It's not the external address of your router that's needed, it's the
external address of the target machine that is needed.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

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

 

[John Monahan]

So
RCTICKET="65538,1,192.168.0.194:3389;24.23.149.254:25195 should work yet it
does not!

 

[John Monahan]

OK I got it to work!

I did not realize that you had to actually bring up the "Windows Remote
Assistant" dialog on the target machine
and send a file (or e-mail) each time for each session and WAIT for the
helper computer to respond . Then you have to acknowledge and grant control
etc.

I thought you can send the command from the helper computer and the target
machine would (only then) come up and ask if it is OK to grant permission
etc.

When I did it as above, it worked with no changes anywhere inside the router
network.

What I was really hoping for was something that would allow me to take over
the target machine from my end. With the process initiated by the helper and
only then granted or refused by the target. This is the way the
UltraVNC program is. I have Windows media center running on the target.
There is no keyboard or mouse! Have to connect one each time to control it.
Anybody got a better way?