remote assistance connection failure: client behind router

[tg]

I routinely help people with their computers using Windows XP's remote
assistance utility. I guide the client to e-mail me a remote asistance
invitation (I never use windows messenger) and then I click on the received
file to connect. Clients on a adsl modem never give a problem, whereas
clients on a router I can never connect to. I did a bit of googling about
this to find it is a common problem. Routers block remote assistance
invitations and I'd appreciate help to tackle this problem.
One client I know has a Mentor adsl wireless router Model: ADSL-MR4CW/UK.
There is zero support for this router on the internet, however I've been
able to download the whole software interface for this router and I've
posted it to see at:
http://home.freeuk.net/tonj/mentor/10.0.0.2/doc/index.htm
if you click the above link you should be able to see the whole config
interface of this router - as if it was plugged into your own pc. The ip
address of this router is 10.0.0.2. There's so many different settings I'm
confused about which one will unblock the router to allow the remote access
invitiation in. I can't see anything in this router that says firewall
either...
NB: I read on the internet that one fix was to open the remote invititation
with notepad and replace the IP address in it with the IP address of the
clients router but this has never worked for me - perhaps I'm not altering
the invitiation properly but I've never found exact instuctions of how it
should be done. I also read something about 'port forwarding' but I can't
find that setting in this router either.
Thanks for any help.

 

[Nepatsfan]

As far as port forwarding goes, it looks as if you can set that
up on the Virtual Server page. You would need to enter 3389 in
the three boxes that refer to ports, leave TCP selected and enter
10.0.0.X (where X is the last number of the IP address of the
machine in question). Right now X would either be 4 or 6.

As far as editing the invitation goes, good luck with that. I've
either had people connect their computers directly to the modem
or use Windows Messenger. If neither of those is an option, take
a look at these articles:

Note the instructions on page 4 of both articles:
http://www.scscc.com/smnr/Remote Assistance4.pdf

http://www.scscc.com/sigs/eBookRemoteAssistance.pdf

You're going to have to find out the Public IP address of your
client. The easiest way to do that is to have them go to
www.whatsmyip.org and pass along that info to you. You'd then
enter that IP address in the invitation where you see all the
y's.

RCTICKET="65538,1,yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy:3389;10.0.0.x:3389;CLIENTPC:3389,
encrypted connection info

Good luck

 

[tg]

As far as port forwarding goes, it looks as if you can set that up on the
Virtual Server page. You would need to enter 3389 in the three boxes that
refer to ports, leave TCP selected and enter 10.0.0.X (where X is the last
number of the IP address of the machine in question). Right now X would
either be 4 or 6.

As far as editing the invitation goes, good luck with that. I've either
had people connect their computers directly to the modem or use Windows
Messenger. If neither of those is an option, take a look at these
articles:

Note the instructions on page 4 of both articles:
http://www.scscc.com/smnr/Remote Assistance4.pdf

http://www.scscc.com/sigs/eBookRemoteAssistance.pdf

You're going to have to find out the Public IP address of your client. The
easiest way to do that is to have them go to www.whatsmyip.org and pass
along that info to you. You'd then enter that IP address in the invitation
where you see all the y's.

RCTICKET="65538,1,yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy:3389;10.0.0.x:3389;CLIENTPC:3389,
encrypted connection info

thanks fir this really good feedback Nepatsfan. I'll give it a go and post
back let you know how it went.

 

[Melvin]

Consider actually using Windows XP Messenger instead of e-mail to submit the
remote assistance invitations.

The situation you describe is where your client's PC is behind a router (aka
Internet gateway) that uses Network Address Translation ("NAT") and has a
built-in firewall.

The beauty of Messenger is that - when the client submits the RA invitation,
it will negotiate with the router to open a route from the router's external
IP address to the client's internal IP address. Once the negotiation is
complete, the address & socket port to use (on the router) is communicated
to your Messenger and you can connect to the client's PC without any
under-the-covers fiddling. The NAT mechanism automatically "translates"
from external IP address / socket port to internal IP address / socket port.
Also, when your RA session is done (and the RA invitation time period has
elapsed), the route is automatically closed; this reduces the client's
exposure to hackers.

The e-mail mechanism for submitting RA invitations simply can't handle the
situation where the user is behind a firewall.

The negotiation I mention above uses a mechanism called Universal Plug &
Play ("UPnP"). This mechanism is built into Windows ME & Windows XP. In
order to use it your client's router needs to be UPnP-aware
(UPnP-configurable). Vendors of NAT routers that support UPnP include
Linksys (they have problems - avoid), SMC (solid), D-Link (solid). Check
with your router manufacturer to see if they support UPnP. Also check to
see if you've got the latest firmware update for the router - sometimes that
will add UPnP if it isn't already there, or it will provide a more
up-to-date release of UPnP (bugs eliminated).

 

[Shaun Tisdall]

Hi TG

I too have one of these routers - I read with intrest that you have some
user interface software for this router - is there any chance you could post
a link - the one you have on freeuk seems to be dead.