Remote assistance not working help please

happyhero

Hi My father has a PC with Windows XP on it and lives abroad, when I visit him I always end up sorting his PC out with the few odd problems he has and I do this for friends too sometimes since I am reasonably ok with sorting out any software/hardware problems.

However I am at home now and my father wants me to sort something out for him that hes given up on. He managed to send me an email stating that the ADMINISTRATOR WOULD LIKE YOUR ASSISTANCE, where I click on an attachment to connect with his PC to give him remote assistance. Every time I do this it comes up with "Remote Assistance connection could not be established because the remote host name could not be resolved. Please try again."

Now I know very little about remote assistance and I thought that I had to have XP PRO to do this but when I read on the internet about it, it sounded like it may be possible without PRO.

We tried the obvious things and both turned off our firewalls but it made no difference.

So is there something I can do to get this working or do I have to have PRO and if so, is there another way to do this that will give me more or less the same facilities to work on my fathers PC.

Any help appreciated

albertross_2

Try vnc

http://www.realvnc.com/

Does he have a router, or modem?

Is RA listed as an exception in his windows firewall? (port 3389)

Are you using messenger or email?

yellowlawn

How to set up Remote Desktop Web Connection in Windows XP from Microsoft

happyhero

albertross wrote:

Try vnc

http://www.realvnc.com/

Does he have a router, or modem?

Is RA listed as an exception in his windows firewall? (port 3389)

Are you using messenger or email?

Hi albertross, he tells me they have just updated his system and he doesn't need a router now and plugs straight into the socket on the wall. He says they have recently installed glassfibre cables outside to do this. I'm a bit unsure what he has now according to this, does it make any sense to you?

Dont really know about the RA bit, would need a bit of guidance on that.

We both currently use (dont groan) Incredimail but have the other email programs installed if required. And both dont use messenger but have it installed. I think the kids use it both ends.

happyhero

yellowlawn wrote:

How to set up Remote Desktop Web Connection in Windows XP from Microsoft

But this tells you staright away that you need PRO which I do not have.

Peter_Griffin

i was unable to get my XP Remote Assistance to work (my work have a company that we contact for IT support) but they put me through via MSN Messenger this has a very easy to use remote assistance but obviously this would require you and your father to MSN but if you do i would highly recommend it,

hope this helps

albertross_2

vnc is similar to RD, just install the server on the remote PC and the client on yours, open up port 5800 and 5900 on the firewall at the receiving end, put a password on.

Just run the server when you need to connect at the client end (rather than running at startup), and get him to email you his ip address, http://ipchicken.com/ , and connect.

http://www.realvnc.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi

It sounds like he has a cable connection of some sort, so if he doesn't have a router, make sure his firewall is turned on (with an exception for his vnc port).

The free vnc session isn't encrypted, but you can get him to put a password on for a bit of added security (also changing the ports from the default of 5900 may be a good idea).

eye_wink

You dont need XP Pro to do windows remote assistance as I managed to link to my brothers pc and neither of us have XP Pro. We did get the error message you mentioned but turning off the firewall got around that. The advice about opening up the ports on your firewall is correct, I just havent figured out how to do it yet!

durain

have a look at https://www.logmein.com. you can use the free software if you just want remote control. works very well over ADSL line when both PCs are on NAT.

happyhero

albertross wrote:

vnc is similar to RD, just install the server on the remote PC and the client on yours, open up port 5800 and 5900 on the firewall at the receiving end, put a password on.

Just run the server when you need to connect at the client end (rather than running at startup), and get him to email you his ip address, http://ipchicken.com/ , and connect.

http://www.realvnc.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi

It sounds like he has a cable connection of some sort, so if he doesn't have a router, make sure his firewall is turned on (with an exception for his vnc port).

The free vnc session isn't encrypted, but you can get him to put a password on for a bit of added security (also changing the ports from the default of 5900 may be a good idea).

Hi albertross, thanks for the help but there are loads of downloads and some require licences so not sure which ones we need, any guidance please?

Also do you know what the differences would be doing it through messenger, ie easier or more limited etc?

sra

I've also been trying https://www.logmein.com for the past few weeks and found that it works extremely well.

You just view the desktop through a browser window and you can go fullscreen and it's as if you're actually sitting in front of it.