Windows Live Messenger 8.0 and Remote Assistance

A lot of people ask me for help, and I LOVE Remote Assistance so I can
see their screens. BUT - it doesn't work when the person needing help
is behind a NAT ... any kind of router, WiFi hotspot, home network etc.
I've been experiencing this problem for a while and hoped that, maybe
Windows Live had addressed it. So, I upgraded both my computer AND the
person needing help to Windows Live Messenger. I still get the error:
"Remote Assistance connection could not be established because the
remote host name could not be resolved. Please try again"

Is there anything I can do to make this work?

I've already tried every suggestion I could find ... send the request
via email and edit the IP address to the user's public IP (no work),
turn off firewalls (no work).

Thanx
Chris

Hi,

Remote Assistance is actually a Windows feature, it's just spawned by Messenger and as such,
Messenger upgrades aren't going to address this problem.

If the user is being a NAT with UPnP support, this will work, otherwise it's a no-go. The
majority of home routers support UPnP nowadays, but a lot of times it simply needs to be
turned on in the configuration.

On public WiFi it isn't going to happen though.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2006 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
--


"RV Chris" wrote in message
oups.com...
A lot of people ask me for help, and I LOVE Remote Assistance so I can
see their screens. BUT - it doesn't work when the person needing help
is behind a NAT ... any kind of router, WiFi hotspot, home network etc.
I've been experiencing this problem for a while and hoped that, maybe
Windows Live had addressed it. So, I upgraded both my computer AND the
person needing help to Windows Live Messenger. I still get the error:
"Remote Assistance connection could not be established because the
remote host name could not be resolved. Please try again"

Is there anything I can do to make this work?

I've already tried every suggestion I could find ... send the request
via email and edit the IP address to the user's public IP (no work),
turn off firewalls (no work).

Thanx
Chris