Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Windows XP Remote Assistance
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley
As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.
Got an "I don't understand what your talking about computer owner friend, family member, or alike? Been looking into "PC Anywhere" or others? Well, read this:
Remote Assistance is one of the best timesaving features of Windows XP. It does, however, have its limitations: (1) Both you and your consultant-friend must be running Windows XP; (2) If the person requesting assistance has a dial-up connection, he has to stay connected continuously from the time the invitation goes out until the Remote Assistance session ends.
Remote Assistance may or may not work with home- and small-office DSL and cable modems. It doesn't work if either you or your consultant-friend is running the free version of ZoneAlarm (although you can configure the for-pay version of ZoneAlarm to open up port 3389). There's nothing magical about port 3389; it's just the hard-coded port that Remote Assistance always uses to communicate between two PCs.
As more small offices and homes use fast Internet connections with DSL and cable modems — and the number of firewalls increases — the chances of being able to get Remote Assistance to work has sadly decreased. The problem isn't fast connections; RA works very well indeed over a fast Internet connection. The problem is the proliferation of firewalls. Most firewalls block port 3389.
MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".
