BleepingComputer.com: Introduction and Remote Assistance

[FONT=Arial] Hello ya'll from Texas. I am new to this forum. I am trying to learn as much as I can about computers particularly Win Xp Pro which I own. From reading other forums, I think this is a place I will call home. (Some forums I have read, have made the person feel like an idiot, I haven't read that here, which is nice.) I guess I will pose my first question: Can anyone explain Remote Assistance to me? My friend seems to be able to get on my computer, but I do not understand why I can not get on hers for some reason. We both have cable access on the internet.

Thanks

Welcome to site Psychdoc. Hopefully your a psychologist as some of the people here need some help

I hope you do not mind that I have moved your post into the appropriate categeroy. We like to keep it organized here so people can find the answers they need quickly.

There are two things that need to be done for someone to successfully connect to you via remote assistance. The first is that it must be enabled. You can enable it by following these steps (eventually I will write a tutorial on this):

Click on start then click on control panel. Double click on the System Icon. Then click on the remote tab.

You must put a check mark in the box labeled Allow remote assistance invitations to be sent frmo this computer. Then click on advanced and put a checkmark in the Allow this computer to be controlled remotely. Now you can send out invites and people can connect to you.

There is one problem with this though. Remote Assistance uses a tcp port 3389 whic all firewalls will block by default on your computer. Therefore if you are running a firewall or have a hardware router you must enable tcp port 3389 to reach you.

Hope this helps

Grinler one assumes that both computers must have all those items set the same.

But it sure would seem that this is just leaving a door open for the 'script kiddies'

Hopefully there is some kind of password needed before this is allowed. And you would only activate it just before needing it and disable it immediately after using it. Who is paranoid?

Only the person whos computer you will be taking over needs the port open. If you will be doing it to both computers, then yes, both computers must have port 3389 open.

You can set it so that noone can connect to your computer using remote assistance without a password.

If you are concerned about the port always being open which is a valid concern, then you are going to have to open the ports only when you need them. The only way around that is you have ip addresses that are static, always remain the same, and then you can configure rules just for your friends particular ip address and vice-versa.