Unable to accept remote assistance invitations ?

[Leo]

Tentative answer:
KB article 555179
The Windows XP SP2 Firewall Exception Remote Assistance
does not include all of the settings required so that the
Windows Firewall will allow the incoming Remote
Assistance offers to be received.
To receive Offers of Remote Assistance, the target
(novice's) computer must accept incoming connections to
sessmgr.exe, helpsvc.exe and on TCP port 135. By
default, the Windows XP SP2 Windows Firewall feature
blocks incoming connections to sessmgr.exe, helpsvc.exe
and TCP port 135.

go to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?
scid=kb;en-us;555179&Product=winxp

for more details.

Note: I've modified the settings mentioned in the
icf..but as yet haven't tested them.. check back to this
post for updates....

Leo

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Interesting--thanks for posting this.

However, reading your original post and the KB article carefully, I don't
see how it applies to your situation.

This article is a peer-written article detailing additional exceptions
needed on an XP workstation with the SP2 firewall enabled, to receive
"Offered remote assistance."

This is a somewhat different mechanism than "Solicited remote assistance."
I believe you and your friend are doing "Solicited remote assistance."

"Offered remote assistance" is only available within a domain, and the
expert must be an administrator in that domain.

If I am reading your original post correctly, you are the "expert" and are
trying to initiate a remote assistance session in response to an invitation
from your friend, the "novice."

I don't see how the firewall is involved here at all--this is outbound
communication at your end, once the invitation token is received.

I wouldn't rule out something to do with SP2, however.

The only thread I could Google on this error tends to make me believe (it
wasn't fully resolved ) that this may be more related to the IM
application than to XP or SP2.

Can you pass the token (invitation) file a different way, as a test? Email?

reinstalling the messaging app would be my suggested fix--and my fuzzy brain
seems to feel that both the newest Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger might
both be a good idea.