Have you ever thought how to remotely take control over remote computer and do some jobs such as installing software or configuring applications? Without moving from your room, without purchasing and installing third party software on remote host?

This tutorial will show you step by step how to use XP's native tool to do it!

Actually it is possible! You can use natively implemented function in Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition. It is not easy to find Remote Assistance as it is hidden in Help and Support not as you could expect in Programs or Accesories .

Remote Assistance is designed for amateur support, so everyone can ask for support more experienced friend and everyone can get support from friend. It works in LAN network environment as well as via Internet. Person requiring support needs to send an invitiation to friend in one of three ways:

1. Via instant messaging using Microsoft Messenger.
2. Via email using Outlook Express.
3. In any other way using invitation as file, can be sent as email attachment via website based email accounts.

Remote Assistance works similar to Kerberos authentication process. To get support you have to generate and send an invitiation (ticket) which is valid for set period of time. It means that your friend will be able to connect to your computer within this time only using this particular invitation. Remote Assistance is 'on' as default and set to expire after 30 days as default. You can change this settings by clicking right button over My computer icon, choosing Properties, Remote tab and clicking Advanced button in Remote Assistance section. (See pic.01)

Pic 01.

The advantage of Remote Assistance is that expert joins user's session on remote host, so less experienced user is able to watch expert's activity on the screen. It has also positive security issue as user can disconnect expert at any time by pressing Esc button. Additional security issues for Remote Assistance are:
- remote session can be established only by confirmation and permission issued by user,
- taking control over remote computer can be done only by confirmation issued by user,
- expert can take a part as passive watcher or active - by the choice of user. Meaning that expert can passively watch the remote screen and give some advices to user via for example phone, internet communicator or implemented in Remote Assistance chat board, or take an active control over user's keyboard and mouse,
- expiration of invitation can be managed by user and can be set up from 1 minute up to 30 days, or can be expired at any time by user,

How to set up and send invitation to Remote Assistance?

1. Go to menu Start > Help and Support.

Pic. 02

2. Click on link Invite a friend to... as shown on photo below:

Pic. 03

3. Than click on Invite someone to help you.

Pic. 04

As you can see, later on you will be able to monitor your invitations and their status by clicking the link below Invite someone to help you.

4. Choose how you will deliver your invitation to your experienced friend. You have 3 options here: by instant message using Microsoft Messenger, via email from Outlook Express or as file attachment to email send from different application or website.

Pic. 05

Now you can choose how to deliver your invitation? If you want to send it using Microsoft Messenger click Sign in button (1). Make sure you have an account created before sending invitation in this way. You can also choose to send it via email from Outlook Express but you have to have at least one email account set up in Outlook Express. If you want to send it from OE just type in your friend's email address (2) and click Invite this person link (3). If you want to save invitation as file and deliver it in other way just click on Save invitation as file link (4).

5. If you want to send invitation via email from OE, just type in friend's email address and click Invite this person link.

Pic. 06

Type in your name (1), potential message to your friend (2) and click Continue button.

Pic. 07

Go through the process set up expiration time (1), make sure you set up password for the conection (2,3,4) and press Send invitation button (5).

Pic. 08

Just confirm sending via OE and that's it! Job's done.

6. If you want to save invitation as file and send it as attachment via other email client application or website:

Pic. 09

Pic. 10

Just go through the process and save file into known location on your hard drive.

Pic. 11

Saved file you have to attach to your email or send in other way to the expert, do not forget pass a password to the expert too. From security point of view it is disadviced to send password and invitation in the same email. Recommended way is to contact expert for example via phone or letter.

What does invitation include?

From technical point of view it is good to know what is included in invitation file. Please look on photo below:

Pic. 12

You can see that most of information included is not encrypted causing potential security risk. However in this tutorial I am not going to focus on security issues but on technical information.

Output above shows that Remote Assistance will communicate on port 3389. This is important information in case of potential connection problems. Port 3389 remains open in XP's system firewall if you have set up Remote Assistance 'on' (it is 'on' as default), however you may need to open port 3389 if you use firewalls other than system's one.

If you still have connection problem when you try to connect to remote computer via Internet, you may need to forward port 3389 directly on required computer. How to redirect/forward ports you will find in my other tutorials in Networks section.

If you still experience connection problems you may need to compare IP addresses in your invitation and your current public and private IPs. If Internet Service Provider (ISP) from remote computer's side assigns IP dynamicaly and IP lease time is relatively short (for example shorter than 24 hours) or your private IP address is assigned dynamically by DHCP server your IP addresses may change. In such case you will need to generate another invitation and send it to the expert.

Pic. 13

Conecting to remote computer.

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