Remote Assistance

G

Guest

Hi, I would like to be able to offer Remote Assistance through MSN Messenger
and my questions is in regard to port forwarding. The person I would like to
assist is behind a router as well as I am. Do I, the person receiving the
invitation for Remote Assistance have to open port 3389 on my router or does
the person who needs assistance have to open port 3389 on their router?
Also, which protocol
needs to be enabled, TCP, UDP or both.
 
C

Clay Calvert

Hi, I would like to be able to offer Remote Assistance through MSN Messenger
and my questions is in regard to port forwarding. The person I would like to
assist is behind a router as well as I am. Do I, the person receiving the
invitation for Remote Assistance have to open port 3389 on my router or does
the person who needs assistance have to open port 3389 on their router?
Also, which protocol
needs to be enabled, TCP, UDP or both.

Per this article, no forwarding has to be set up if initiating the
assistance through MSN. Port 3389 needs to be allowe out, but nearly
every home router allows outbound traffic by default.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/rmassist.mspx

FYI, only RDP only needs TCP, but will use UDP for streaming audio if
it is available. Otherwise, it will channel the sound over TCP.
Clay Calvert
(e-mail address removed)
Replace "Z" with "L"
 
G

Guest

Clay, thanks for the reply and article reference. I'm certain that port 3389
needs to be forwarded since we both are behind routers. I'll try it tonight
and will post back the results.
 
C

Clay Calvert

Clay, thanks for the reply and article reference. I'm certain that port 3389
needs to be forwarded since we both are behind routers. I'll try it tonight
and will post back the results.

From near the bottom of the article:
----------------------------------------------
Note: If the person who is being helped is behind a firewall, NAT, or
ICS, Remote Assistance will still function as long as the person being
helped initiates the session via Windows Messenger. However, as stated
above, Remote Assistance will not work in cases when the outbound
traffic from port 3389 is blocked.
----------------------------------------------
I bet that that MSN is proxying the RA session, so both computers
initiate an outbound connetion.
Clay Calvert
(e-mail address removed)
Replace "Z" with "L"
 
G

Guest

Enabling port 3389 on the host router did not solve the problem. I get the
following "Remote Assistance connection could not be established because of a
network connection timeout. Please try again."

Note - I'm using Widows Live Messenger and the other party is using MSN
Messenger 7.5. Would that make any difference?
 
C

Clay Calvert

Enabling port 3389 on the host router did not solve the problem. I get the
following "Remote Assistance connection could not be established because of a
network connection timeout. Please try again."

Note - I'm using Widows Live Messenger and the other party is using MSN
Messenger 7.5. Would that make any difference?

I don't know. You'd think they'd be compatible.
Clay Calvert
(e-mail address removed)
Replace "Z" with "L"
 

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