0
For a while I've been using remote assistance to help sort out my parents Vista system remotely from my Windows 7 system. Historically its been reliable but the last couple of times I've used it I've been kicked off after around 5-10 minutes of access. (last time I put it down to isp problems but it happened today as well)
So far it happens from both work and home on two different windows 7 machines as I talk to their PC.
Has anyone got any suggestions as to how to fix or diagnose what the problem is? I suspect it might be an anti-virus/firewall thing (I can't remember which one they're using at the moment but I'll see if I can find out) or even possibly a virus at their end of things.
Looking in the event log at my end I'm just getting a somewhat unhelpful Event 18 "The Remote Assistance session was disconnected remotely." which isn't great but suggests the network connection has been blocked.
In particular I'm looking for suggestions I can try when I'm next physically there, obviously I can try via their network and probably use wifi tethering with my phone so I'm on the wrong side of the firewall.
Note suggestions to use an alternative aren't useful here, thats my plan B if I can't make this work.
PeterI
Posted 2012-07-19T17:40:56.087
Reputation: 135
What happens when you lose the connection? Can you then reconnect immediately? This shouldn't be the cause (it would be poor design if it was), but just out of curiosity, could it be the screensaver or power-management kicking in? If the remote system is sitting there idle (no local keyboard/mouse activity), them maybe the system is going into standby. – Synetech – 2012-07-19T17:45:53.643
nope it's game over and you have to reconnect remote assistance BUT I don't seem to lose the Messenger connection I used to get the remote assistance invite. – PeterI – 2012-07-19T21:22:14.027
> nope it's game over and you have to reconnect remote assistance Yes, but how? Can you just connect again from your system or do you have to do something with your parents system? > I don't seem to lose the Messenger connection I used to get the remote assistance invite. So then you do still have an open connection (of any kind) to it? – Synetech – 2012-07-19T21:38:44.490
You need to send over another remote assistance invite before you can reopen the connection. – PeterI – 2012-07-20T10:29:21.257
> You need to send over another remote assistance invite before you can reopen the connection. From their system right? But do you still have any sort of connection still open when Remote Desktop goes down? That is, can you rule out their system simply going into standby or powering down as the cause? – Synetech – 2012-07-20T13:38:09.153
It's not going into standby as far as I can tell. – PeterI – 2012-07-20T21:45:17.053
Are they using the computer when it happens? Are they playing games or viewing streaming video or some other activity that could bog down their CPU or Internet connection? – Synetech – 2012-07-21T00:42:07.530
Nah, oddly this time when I tried it seemed to hold up much better. The anti-virus is running as a firewall (I was configuring email and needed port 995/465 opening so I could do encrypted email) – PeterI – 2012-08-07T15:08:52.087
I'm going to blame the AV / Firewall being a bit over zealous at the moment. – PeterI – 2012-08-07T15:16:32.127