Strange Remote assistance problem

[Gordon]

My mother in law is 86, is 250 miles away, and has an XP laptop (not sure
whether SP3 is installed or not) and is NOT, I repeat NOT, able to do much
in the way of technical "stuff" on it.
I usually do remote assistance via Windows Live Messenger.
However, in the last fortnight, something (or somebody!) has messed with
some setting somewhere and this is the result: She cannot log on to Windows
Live messenger at all. We have done disk cleanup, deleted cookies and temp
and temp internet files. I can log on to her WLM account from my machine,
but all she gets is "Cannot sign you on at this time" messages.
So, I though I'd try TeamViewer. Works here on my LAN, works from here to my
daughter's machine 150 miles away. When she clicks on the customer exe, she
gets a window up saying "No connection to the Internet" and the ID box
shows the local IP and no password.

I'm stumped as to what might be causing this. She can surf the internet,
download files, send emails, etc etc but NOT log onto WLM or use TeamViewer.
Any thoughts anyone?

 

[Malke]

My mother in law is 86, is 250 miles away, and has an XP laptop (not sure
whether SP3 is installed or not) and is NOT, I repeat NOT, able to do much
in the way of technical "stuff" on it.
I usually do remote assistance via Windows Live Messenger.
However, in the last fortnight, something (or somebody!) has messed with
some setting somewhere and this is the result: She cannot log on to
Windows Live messenger at all. We have done disk cleanup, deleted cookies
and temp and temp internet files. I can log on to her WLM account from my
machine, but all she gets is "Cannot sign you on at this time" messages.
So, I though I'd try TeamViewer. Works here on my LAN, works from here to
my daughter's machine 150 miles away. When she clicks on the customer exe,
she
gets a window up saying "No connection to the Internet" and the ID box
shows the local IP and no password.

I'm stumped as to what might be causing this. She can surf the internet,
download files, send emails, etc etc but NOT log onto WLM or use
TeamViewer. Any thoughts anyone?

You won't like my answer but I'm going to respectfully give it to you
anyway: have a local professional take a look. Unless she can get on the
Internet with TeamViewer or the like, there's nothing you can do from 250
miles away. So either go visit her or get someone local in.

Malke

 

[Gordon]

You won't like my answer but I'm going to respectfully give it to you
anyway: have a local professional take a look. Unless she can get on the
Internet with TeamViewer or the like, there's nothing you can do from 250
miles away. So either go visit her or get someone local in.

Thanks - I'd resigned myself to having to wait until I have physical access
to the machine - any tips on where or what I should start looking for?

 

[Nonny]

Thanks - I'd resigned myself to having to wait until I have physical access
to the machine - any tips on where or what I should start looking for?

Just in case: make sure you bring along an external drive, backup her
data, her email and Internet settings and be prepared to restore to
out-of-the-box condition.

Anything to save face with the mother-in-law and the wife, right? ;-)

 

[Malke]

Thanks - I'd resigned myself to having to wait until I have physical
access to the machine - any tips on where or what I should start looking
for?

Honestly, I don't know because I don't know what she's got on there. It's
possible she said "yes" to a security program offered by her ISP and now
she's got two firewalls going. It's also possible she said "yes" to some
screensaver she liked which turned out to not be a screensaver.

If she were here I'd run over for you, but you live in the UK, don't you? Of
course, if you want to pay for my airline tickets... ;-)

Malke

 

[Gordon]

Honestly, I don't know because I don't know what she's got on there. It's
possible she said "yes" to a security program offered by her ISP and now
she's got two firewalls going. It's also possible she said "yes" to some
screensaver she liked which turned out to not be a screensaver.

If she were here I'd run over for you, but you live in the UK, don't you?
Of
course, if you want to pay for my airline tickets... ;-)

When I win the lottery.......it would be nice to meet you!