I don't know if you know anything about this problem but not only can't I fix it, I can't even figure out how to google it. And you have always struck me as good with computers and good with searches.

My mom lives on the east coast and I am in Texas. Last year, after much hair pulling, we finally got both our computers set up so that I could control hers. We went thru Windows messenger. She uses messenger to “ask for remote assistance”. About 2 months ago it stopped working. She sends me the request but I never even get it.

On the other hand, I can ask her for assistance and she can take over my computer. (Trust me, we don’t want to go there).

My husband and I have tried turning off firewalls, removing spybot and ad-aware (temporarily), going thru other networks like the local coffee shops, using Vista (yuk - mom and I have XP), creating new windows messenger accounts. We cannot get a handle on what has changed or even where to start to fix this. This weekend we will probably wipe my hard drive and try reinstalling everything BU THIS USED TO WORK and I have no idea what to do.

So, I was hoping you could give me a clue or even a few things to google.

Thanks for any help.

Hey Colleen -

I googled "windows messenger remote assistance" which returned hundreds of articles. Before you dump your hard drive give that a try.

Here's an example...

Article

Hope this helps!

Colleen,
I help Marcie with her computer using remote control, it is a great feature! We don't use Windows Messenger, Marcie just goes to her start button, then go to programs, then accessories and then scroll down to remote desktop connection. Then she requests me to help her and then she OK's me and I am able to work on her PC from that point.

Colleen, I just tried to follow my own advice in my last post and I am not sure that it is correct. I have Windows Vista now and on my old PC, I had XP and it was called Windows remove assistance, not desktop. Let me take a closer look and see what I can find.

Well, I couldn't find the remote assistance in my program list where it used to be so I did a search in help for it. (click the start button and then scroll to and choose help and support and type in remote assistance)
I am sure it is in my program files somewhere but in the windows help, it came up with a link to click to start remote assistance:




When I clicked on the link that the help file provided, remote assistance opened up:

Thanks for all the posts. I think you may on the something and I knew Karen was our resident genious.

Robert, believe me I tried that. Nothing I managed to google addresses my problem of once being able to do this just fine and now not being able to do this or of only having the assistance go one way (mom to me as opposed to me to mom). Too late, we have dumped my hard drive and I already spend 20 minutes with mom and I still cannot see her computer but she could control mine. Also, Ted thought he backed up everything so I could restore my settings, etc. Nope, backed up OK, restore not working. May have lost 15 years of quicken data which is sitting on the back up drive not reachable. whole 'nother problem.

Karen, both mom and I use XP and if you can specify which method to use with XP I'd love to try your way. Wait, I just found it on my computer but it is slightly different. Start, Programs, Accessories, Communications, Remote Desktop Connection.

When I click that I get a little pop up box asking me to specify the computer. What goes there? And who starts, the helper or the helpee? Oh Lord, this is driving me crazy. Spent over an hour yesterday tryiing tohelp mom order a pair of shoes. IT shouldn't be that hard.

Karen, I just tried your second method. When I do the search, I don't get a link like yours or even something similar but way down at the bottom, I get a link to OFFER REMOTE ASSISTANCE. I'll try that for now, if I can instruct mom on how to find her IP address.

If the satellites show an "erruption in North West Texas" today, it's me exploding with frustration.

Colleen, when Marcie and I did it back when I had XP, it was very simple, Marcie scrolled through her programs, found the remote assistance entry, which I think was located in accessories and then just put in my email address to request help. We didn't need to use Windows messenger nor did we need our IP addresses.
Marcie is away until tomorrow but when she gets home and sees this post, I am sure she can give you a step by step how to do it with XP. My memory stinks so I am afraid I can't remember exactly but I bet I can find the directions if I search.

Colleen, I think this is the method that Marcie and I used:



1. Choose Start, then Help and Support. Under the heading labeled Ask For Assistance, click Invite a Friend to Connect to Your Computer with Remote Assistance.


2. Click Invite Someone to Help You. There are three options: Use Windows Messenger, which we already discussed, use email, or Save invitation as a file (the latter two work in the same way).


3. Type the email address of the person you wish to invite in the box provided and click Invite This Person. Or click Save Invitation as a File (as I said, both work the same).


4. Type your name in the box that says, "Enter your name: From (the name you would like to appear on the invitation)." After this, specify how long you want the invitation to last before it expires. The maximum time allowed by default (except for XP Professional) is thirty days. You should also come up with a password and communicate it through the message somehow.


5. Click Send Invitation (if you chose the email option) or Save Invitation (if you chose to save a file). Tell the person you sent it to that he must verify the message even though a warning may come up through Outlook or your browser. The file you are sending will either be called RcBuddy.MsRcIncident or RAInvitation.msrcincident.


6. In order to open the file, the person you sent the file to will have to double click it. They will then be shown the window from Remote Assistance asking for the password and the option to connect to your computer.


7. If he gets past this point, you will then be asked for permission to allow him to share control of your computer.

At this point, you should know how to start a Remote Assistance session. It's up to you and the person you're working with to fix the problem that required Remote Assistance in the first place. So make sure you trust the person you invite. The reasons are obvious.

Karen, I'm printing this out (as soon as we finish reformating my drive and re-installing all my software). I think that might work. I'll give it try this weekend and report back.

Our daughter just got her laptap back from the police (it, along with jewelry, china and a TV, was stolen 3 months ago when her house was burglerized.)

So far she has only had a little time to try to mess with it to find what condition it is in. The thief has HIS screen name and id on it and seems to have put in his password protection so she can't even find if any of her programs or files are still on the computer! She also was not able to figure out how to reach her wireless Internet connection. It sounds like a job for the Geek Squad. Any opinions on how recoverable her programs and data may be?

Kathy, this is beyond me, lol. I think you are right, this might be a geek squad job.

Editing to add, I just did a search on password crackers and there are some listed at this site and several of them are free. Kinda makes you wonder why we bother to password protect our laptops!

Here is another program, $30 for instant password recovery or free if you wait 72 hours for the results.

Thanks, Karen, I'll have my husband take a look at what you found and see if he can help her.

You might want to look at VNC for remote control. We used it all the time at work, and my sysadmin had the VNC Server set up on my PC's at home so that he could come and poke around when I had a problem.

We used RealVNC--there's a free version, and a paid version. It comes as a viewer and a server, the viewer is used to login to a machine that has the server set up and running. I used the viewer from home all the time, but I'm no good at actually getting the server running.

Oh, Kathy, I feel real sorry for your daughter. YIKES!! I did just see a AAA ad for 20% off Geek squad services. If you have AAA you may want to look into it.

My problem has still not been solved. I cannot tell you how many ways I have tried to get to my mom's computer. The last one involved internal and external IP addresses.

I hope to try www.logmein.com but it requires mom to download and run a file. So I need hours of immense patience to walk her thru that.

We often both end up in tears.