Remote Assistance failed. Please try again.

Ok , I've been connecting to my Dad's computer many times to help him with it using Remote Assistance (we both have XP Home) and it has worked great. Now all of a sudden I click on the "rcBuddy.MsRcIncident" attachment (we use email invitation) ans I immediately get the "Remote Assistance failed. Please try again." Web dialog box as it attempts to load. I fear something is corrupt on my system and want to know if I can "reload" the Remote Assistance feature in any way. (I sent him an invite and it worked fine.....I just can't get his invite to work.

Any Suggestions???????

Thanks

Paul

 

Is xp's sp2 update involved:

Windows XP SP2 Firewall blocks offers of Remote Assistance
See:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=555179

See pictures:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/security/productinfo/XPSP2/networkprotection/firewall.aspx

Also: Some programs seem to stop working after you install Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/842242


Could turn xps firewall off temporarily to test. Altough, as I understand it, sp2 disables messenger and alerter services by default and a bunch of other services besides. I'm not real sure if turning off the firewall would be an acurate test as the needed services may still remain disabled.

The answer may be found somewhere in here via google:
http://groups.google.com/groups?num=100&hl=en&lr=lang_en&q="remote+assistance"+xp+sp2

I'll look for ya' but if you find it before I do, please remember to update your post with the fix. Also please let me know if sp2 is not an issue since this is what I am assuming at the moment.

 

Actually I had installed sp2 but found it interfered with a few old games I still enjoy playing so I did a system restore to get rid of it. I don't see any evidence of it on my machine after the restore and everything else seems to work just fine. Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I tried all the links but none seem to help...............


Paul

 

How about a file called Dpnhpast.dll? Either of you have it and what version is it?

See:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q313492

Are either of you using any firewall?

Is your father using sp2?

========
It may help to pinpoint who's computer is having the problem. Do you know someone else you can use this process with? I'm not going to assume the problem is on your end. Experience with the unexplainable and unexpected have taught me to approach problems in this manner. Before you spend any more time trying to fix what may not be broken confirm first that it is broken.

 

Try getting your dad to send a new invitation, they expire normally after 30 days (which is the maximum) so that maybe the case....

HTH,

 

Check in Admin Tools> Services to make sure all the necessary permissions are enabled.

- Zander from this thread.

That thread has a lot of good info and links. Maybe something there will help you sort it out, though with both of you running XP Home???

This page from MS doesn't differentiate between Home & Pro.

Johanna

 

Oops! That was sort of a goof on my part. Actually, Home and Pro both support remote assistance. It's remote desktop that Home doesn't fully support. Home can be the client in a remote desktop session but only Pro can act as the server. My fingers sometimes get ahead of my mind and with the two similar names I tend to get the two mixed up. Sorry about that.

 

remote assistance helper!

Thanks Joanna I didn't realize that "remote assistance helper" was not running. I found it in the services area and turned it on.......haven't tried a remote hookup yet but I think that will fix it.........I'll let you know

Thanks again
Paul

 

Ok, I finally tried to use remote assistance again but got the same result.............Failed trying to load..........sheesh!

Paul

 

Was the computer you were trying to connect to your dad's computer again? If so, are you sure the problem isn't on his end? If you right click on my computer>properties>remote there's a setting that says "allow remote assistance invitations to be sent from this computer ". I would check with him or whoever and make sure they have that setting checked.

Have you tried using either MSN Messenger or Windows Messenger to make the connection?

Do either of you use a router to connect to the internet? If so, there could be something that's not configured right for this. If this is the case it would be my guess that that it would be more likely to be a problem on his end than yours. I could be wrong. My daughter uses a router and I can connect fine with her but I've never tried using an email to do it (guess I'll have to give it a try to see). I've always used MSN Messenger. I don't use a router so I don't know if they come configured by default for this type of thing or not. I imagine some do and some don't. I can see where it wouldn't be much of a problem using Messenger to connect but trying to connect through an email might be a different story. If he's using a router have him check to see if the necessary port is open. Remote assistance uses port 3389. If he's using a software firewall of any type it could be the cause of the problem too. Again, it shouldn't really be a problem using Messenger, but using an email invite might be a different story.

Have you checked in your event viewer. If not, I'd try making the connection and when it fails click start>run and type eventvwr.msc and have a look around in there and see if there's anything there that points to the problem. You can sort them by date so it shouldn't be to hard to find it if there is one there related to this. Double click on an event to see the details.

One last thing. Double check to make sure the Remote Desktop Help Session Manager service on your computer didn't somehow get disabled. When you started it before, did you set it to manual or automatic or did you just start the service. It needs to be set to manual or automatic in order to start when it's needed. Otherwise, you'll have to start the service manually each time before you try to connect. Mine is set to manual and seems to work fine. I don't recall ever changing it so I'm guessing that's the default. Could be wrong.

 

I found this article. I don't know if you've seen it or not but it's a pretty good guide from MS about using remote assistance.

Step-by-Step Guide to Remote Assistance

The following is a quote from the article.

If you haven't tried using Messenger, I'd give it a try. If you have a router or a firewall, check to make sure that you don't have outgoing traffic blocked on that port. If that's not the problem, Perhaps your dad has installed SP2 and the firewall is interfering when you use an email invite. Let us know if you've tried this or not. Until I hear otherwise, I'd still suspect a problem on his end rather than yours.