Remote assistance not working through msn messenger

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Guest

Hi all,

I have an interesting problem which is confusing me.
I help support a number of people world wide and when need be use remote
assistance.
However when the person submits the request through msn messenger I get the
request, I click on it, and nothing happens. The remote assistant connection
client does not start.
Getting them to save the request through help and support and send it to me
works fine.
I've de-installed then re-installed msn messenger and windows messenger.

A couple of points I've noticed.
When I go into help and support and go through as if I am going to invite
someone (So I can hand hold the remote person through the screens), help and
support says windows messenger is not installed. (Windows messenger shows as
installed in windows components)

When I try to start Windows messenger it shows up in task manager for about
1 second then promptly disappears.

It USE to work even if it couldn't connect sometimes because of incorrect IP
addresses because they were behind a router. Either way it would TRY to
connect. It does not now.

Any help would be appriciated.

Terry
 
In (e-mail address removed) Terry
Summers said:
Hi all,

I have an interesting problem which is confusing me.
I help support a number of people world wide and when need
be use remote assistance.
However when the person submits the request through msn
messenger I get the request, I click on it, and nothing
happens. The remote assistant connection client does not
start.
Getting them to save the request through help and support
and send it to me works fine.
I've de-installed then re-installed msn messenger and
windows messenger.

A couple of points I've noticed.
When I go into help and support and go through as if I am
going to invite someone (So I can hand hold the remote
person through the screens), help and support says windows
messenger is not installed. (Windows messenger shows as
installed in windows components)

When I try to start Windows messenger it shows up in task
manager for about 1 second then promptly disappears.

It USE to work even if it couldn't connect sometimes because
of incorrect IP addresses because they were behind a router.
Either way it would TRY to connect. It does not now.

Any help would be appriciated.

Terry
Click to expand...

I can't say for certain that this will solve your problem but
one thing I do know is that in order to stop seeing "Windows
messenger is not installed" within Remote Assistance, I had to
uninstall Windows Messenger 5.1 and reinstall version 4.7.

You can obtain version 4.7 from the web site listed below.
Scroll down to the section titled "For remote assistance" and
click on "Click here" within the second bullet point.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/messenger/download.asp

Direct download of Windows Messenger 4.7
http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/4/0/44035C82-FEFC-49BB-965F-A20DF645AD0B/mmssetup.exe

Good luck

Nepatsfan
 
Thanks for your help Nepatsfan,

It yielded some interesting results.
Windows messenger was uninstalled going by add/remove programs, windows
components.
Tried installing it from the link, it said a newer version was installed so
it couldn't install.
I de-installed msn messenger, tried installing Windows messenger same thing.
I went through the registry looking for references to c:\program
files\messenger
and deleted all I saw.
THEN it would let me install windows messenger.
I then re-installed msn messenger.

The re-install of Windows messenger means help and support now see's I have
it, so I feel it's 3/4's of the way to being fixed.
Now when someone sends me a request via msn I get "The invitation from
(e-mail address removed) to start Remote Assistance was declined. The program
is disabled or is not installed on your computer".

I know I've struck that before and overcame it.
But if anyone can help short track me it would be muchly appriciated.

Terry
 
Don't mean to intrude, but I have a very similar problem with remote
assisstance. Would like to use this to help my Mom with her computer, but am
trying to work the bugs out using my two desktop computers first. Both
computers are in the same room, and both run XP (one Home Edition, the other
MCE). Symptons seem similar to this original post; invitation received ok, I
accept, but nothing happens. Remote Assistance is enabled on both computers.

I've searched MS's KB, but found no solutions. Getting a bit frustrated
with this, and wonder if I would be better off with a separate application?
Maybe something like LapLink? My first preference is to use the basic
Windows application, so if anyone is aware troubleshooting guides, I would
really appreciate the help.

Todd
 
Hi Todd,

Yes it is a frustrating problem.
A work around is to use Start, then help and support, and create the request
through "Ask for assistance". (Theres an option of saving the request as a
file)
Then it can be e-mailed to you or sent through msn by dragging the file
created into the chat.

If the request is created as a file it works fine.
Another thing I've found is sometimes if they are ADSL an incorrect IP
address is put into the request.Open the request in notepad or your favourite
text editor, look for
RCTICKET="65538,1,xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3389

The x's are the IP address. 3389 is the port.
So if the IP address is wrong, you can get the correct one by getting them
to goto
www.whatismyip.com, That tells them their REAL internet IP address
and allows you to check and/or change it if needed.

My originial problem as described by my first post was because Windows
messenger was not totally installed. De-install and re-install does not work.

As put in the reply from Nepatsfan
You can obtain version 4.7 from the web site listed below.
Scroll down to the section titled "For remote assistance" and
click on "Click here" within the second bullet point.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/messenger/download.asp

BUT for me to be able to install it again I needed to search and delete any
branch that contained "C:\program files\messenger" as any part of it.

The problem I have now I think is that my version of windows messenger is
not the same as the person sending the request.
I'll try to find an updated Windows messenger as I know SP2 rolled out a new
messenger.

Use the work around for now, it works a treat.

Terry
 
Did you reboot your computer after you uninstalled Windows
Messenger 5.1? If you didn't, that may account for the messages
you received about a newer version still being installed when
you went to install version 4.7. Deleting the registry keys you
found may have caused the problems you're dealing with now.

One thing you might want to try is reinstalling Windows
Messenger version 5.1. It's available here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...73-5f8c-4b9a-940f-9157a3b3d774&displaylang=en

You'll be asked to restart your computer when the installation
finishes. Once your system restarts, check Remote Assistance
and see if Windows Messenger shows up as a viable option.

I did find an old post on this subject that you might want to
take a look at.

http://tinyurl.com/cfn74

Good luck

Nepatsfan



In (e-mail address removed) Terry
 
Nepatsfan,

MANY THANKS!
We fixed it.
Once I imported the reg entries and rebooted she was away and racing.

You've helped me fix something thats been bugging me for 2 months odd.
Hope I'll be able to repay the favour sometime.

Terry
 
You're welcome. Glad to hear you were able to get that fixed.

Nepatsfan

In (e-mail address removed) Terry
 
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