Under Windows Vista we cannot find how to do the following:

1. Delete a remote assistance help invitation.
2. Set the expiration for an invitation during creation - never given the
option.
3. When viewing dialog for System Properties Remote Tab Advance Button,
all the Remote Assistance Settings dialog options are dimmed except the
option to create invitations for computers running Vista?

These options are pretty intuitive in Windows XP, but not in Vista. Thank
you for any help.

"Blue Max" wrote in message
...
Under Windows Vista we cannot find how to do the following:

1. Delete a remote assistance help invitation.
2. Set the expiration for an invitation during creation - never given the
option.
3. When viewing dialog for System Properties Remote Tab Advance
Button, all the Remote Assistance Settings dialog options are dimmed
except the option to create invitations for computers running Vista?

These options are pretty intuitive in Windows XP, but not in Vista. Thank
you for any help.

As an administrator run gpedit.msc and check the "Computer Configuration -
Administrative Templates - System - Remote Assistance - Solicited Remote
Assistance" group policy. If its enabled you will see what you see in items
2 and 3. Make sure its "Not configured". You can then configure the
expiration time period in the Remote Tab Advanced button. You can delete
individual invitation files from the folder you save them to. Search for
files with the .msrcincident extension. Go to "Start - Search".

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

Thanks, Sooner A1. You are probably right on the money. I had edited group
policy to enable this option because it supposedly allowed us to lengthen
the expiration time frame. However, I also have noted, after the fact, that
the article providing this information was for Windows XP (which information
we successfully used to correct a Remote Assistance issue between XP and
Vista machines on the local network).

Since you are familiar with this subject, perhaps you can clarify a few
issues:

FIRST, can we select any available expiration time-frame on the drop downs
in Vista? In XP there was a group policy setting that limited the time
frame to something like 30 hours, or whatever, even though there were longer
options on the drop downs. As such, we had to edit group policy in XP in
order to utilize the longer expiration periods, up to 99 days. So is Vista
different or do we have to disable a limit here too?

SECOND, does the expiration setting in Vista affect all open invitations?
We have presumed this must be the case because there is no option to specify
the expiration period when creating individual invitations.

THIRD, I can get Vista Remote Assistance to work fine on our local network,
but cannot get it to work over the internet using an invitation file.
Remote Desktop connects fine between our computers over the network, so I
thought we had all the proper ports enable and routed through the firewalls,
but Remote Assistance still fails to connect. Is there a chance that Remote
Assistance is using a different port than the 3389 port used for Remote
Desktop? I also have noted that we do not have a Remote Assistance Offer
Help Users group on any of our Vista Ultimate machines; a user group often
referred to in Remote Assistance articles. Any ideas?

Thank you to the max from the Max.

******************************
"Sooner Al [MVP]" wrote in message
...
"Blue Max" wrote in message
...
Under Windows Vista we cannot find how to do the following:

1. Delete a remote assistance help invitation.
2. Set the expiration for an invitation during creation - never given
the option.
3. When viewing dialog for System Properties Remote Tab Advance
Button, all the Remote Assistance Settings dialog options are dimmed
except the option to create invitations for computers running Vista?

These options are pretty intuitive in Windows XP, but not in Vista.
Thank you for any help.

As an administrator run gpedit.msc and check the "Computer
Configuration - Administrative Templates - System - Remote
Assistance - Solicited Remote Assistance" group policy. If its enabled
you will see what you see in items 2 and 3. Make sure its "Not
configured". You can then configure the expiration time period in the
Remote Tab Advanced button. You can delete individual invitation files
from the folder you save them to. Search for files with the .msrcincident
extension. Go to "Start - Search".

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

"Blue Max" wrote in message
...
Thanks, Sooner A1. You are probably right on the money. I had edited
group policy to enable this option because it supposedly allowed us to
lengthen the expiration time frame. However, I also have noted, after the
fact, that the article providing this information was for Windows XP
(which information we successfully used to correct a Remote Assistance
issue between XP and Vista machines on the local network).

Since you are familiar with this subject, perhaps you can clarify a few
issues:

FIRST, can we select any available expiration time-frame on the drop downs
in Vista? In XP there was a group policy setting that limited the time
frame to something like 30 hours, or whatever, even though there were
longer options on the drop downs. As such, we had to edit group policy in
XP in order to utilize the longer expiration periods, up to 99 days. So
is Vista different or do we have to disable a limit here too?

SECOND, does the expiration setting in Vista affect all open invitations?
We have presumed this must be the case because there is no option to
specify the expiration period when creating individual invitations.

THIRD, I can get Vista Remote Assistance to work fine on our local
network, but cannot get it to work over the internet using an invitation
file. Remote Desktop connects fine between our computers over the network,
so I thought we had all the proper ports enable and routed through the
firewalls, but Remote Assistance still fails to connect. Is there a
chance that Remote Assistance is using a different port than the 3389 port
used for Remote Desktop? I also have noted that we do not have a Remote
Assistance Offer Help Users group on any of our Vista Ultimate machines; a
user group often referred to in Remote Assistance articles. Any ideas?

Thank you to the max from the Max.


I don't see the option to lengthen the expiration time when I create an
invitation file on my Vista machines so I guess that means that option has
been removed for whatever reason. The means the expiration time you set in
the configuration window or via a group policy or via registry setting will
apply to all invitations. Its no longer on an invitation by invitation
basis...

Remote Assistance (RA) still uses TCP Port 3389. You might need to change
the public IP address in the invitation file. See the RCTICKET field in the
file. These articles, written for XP, should still pertain.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300692/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301529/en-us

I have not used RA that much except for testing over my local LAN or through
a test VPN tunnel. FWIW, I have started using TeamViewer to support one of
my sister-in-law's remotely. That works pretty well for me, even on a 56K
dial link which she uses, and something you might look into. Note its free
for personal use only.

http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

Hello Sooner,

I don't see the option to lengthen the expiration time when I create an
invitation file on my Vista machines so I guess that means that option has
been removed for whatever reason. The means the expiration time you set in
the configuration window or via a group policy or via registry setting
will apply to all invitations. Its no longer on an invitation by
invitation basis...

What a pity! It seems that in many ways XP was better thought-out than
Vista. It seemed so logical that the user might want to issue an invitation
to certain individuals that would have a quick expiration (one-time help
from a specific tech) and to other individuals with a long-term expiration
(such as a good computer-saavy friend). This issue also raises other
expiration questions like, does lowering the expiration time delete prior
invitations we expected to keep long-term? or do short-term invitations
receive an extension when the expiration period is raised? and so on.


Remote Assistance (RA) still uses TCP Port 3389. You might need to change
the public IP address in the invitation file. See the RCTICKET field in
the file. These articles, written for XP, should still pertain.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300692/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301529/en-us

I have not used RA that much except for testing over my local LAN or
through a test VPN tunnel. FWIW, I have started using TeamViewer to
support one of my sister-in-law's remotely. That works pretty well for me,
even on a 56K dial link which she uses, and something you might look into.
Note its free for personal use only.
http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx

Thank you for the recommendations regarding these issues also.

"Blue Max" wrote in message
...
Hello Sooner,

I don't see the option to lengthen the expiration time when I create an
invitation file on my Vista machines so I guess that means that option
has been removed for whatever reason. The means the expiration time you
set in the configuration window or via a group policy or via registry
setting will apply to all invitations. Its no longer on an invitation by
invitation basis...

What a pity! It seems that in many ways XP was better thought-out than
Vista. It seemed so logical that the user might want to issue an
invitation to certain individuals that would have a quick expiration
(one-time help from a specific tech) and to other individuals with a
long-term expiration (such as a good computer-saavy friend). This issue
also raises other expiration questions like, does lowering the expiration
time delete prior invitations we expected to keep long-term? or do
short-term invitations receive an extension when the expiration period is
raised? and so on.




You would have to test that. I never have nor have I even thought of those
issues quite frankly...

One thing you might look into is using the Remote Assistance (RA) "offer"
functionality. I do know that works between Vista Ultimate-to-Vista Ultimate
machines in a workgroup environment, ie. like my small two Vista home
network, and should work natively in a domain environment. I had to enable
both the "Solicited" and "Offer" group policies to get this to work. I could
directly address the RA offer by IP (or NetBIOS name) over my local LAN or
through a PPTP VPN tunnel. The latter is nice if the expert had to VPN into
a remote site to provide support.

These articles, written for XP, are still pertinent for the most part...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308013/

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;301527
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306496/

I presume this would work with Vista Business or Enterprise editions if used
in a workgroup environment also but I have no way of testing this.

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

Thanks Sooner. How did you find and enable "both the 'Solicited' and
'Offer' group policies" to get this to work? My problem is that the
policies are not displayed by default and help articles infer they are only
available while an offer is outstanding. Not to mention that most articles
refer to XP and don't take into consideration the changed names or altered
functionality in Vista. So how does one add permissions to a group they
cannot find? I'll take a look at the articles you recommended.

I like the concept of 'offering' help, but cannot seem to enable this
feature over the internet. You mentioned going "through a PPTP VPN tunnel,"
but we don't have a lot of experience in setting up a VPN. Furthermore, our
IP addresses are dynamically assigned, so we are using a No-IP domain name
to address our computers. Microsoft makes it sound like Remote Assistance
is a cinch, but it is far from any such thing! We do use Remote Desktop
over the internet just fine with the same two computers, and we can use
Remote Assistance just fine through Windows Live Messenger, but cannot get
RA to work directly over the internet, which may be due to the group
policies you mentioned. If you have any ideas we would be happy to
entertain them.

Thanks

**************
"Sooner Al [MVP]" wrote in message
...
"Blue Max" wrote in message
...
Hello Sooner,

I don't see the option to lengthen the expiration time when I create an
invitation file on my Vista machines so I guess that means that option
has been removed for whatever reason. The means the expiration time you
set in the configuration window or via a group policy or via registry
setting will apply to all invitations. Its no longer on an invitation by
invitation basis...

What a pity! It seems that in many ways XP was better thought-out than
Vista. It seemed so logical that the user might want to issue an
invitation to certain individuals that would have a quick expiration
(one-time help from a specific tech) and to other individuals with a
long-term expiration (such as a good computer-saavy friend). This issue
also raises other expiration questions like, does lowering the expiration
time delete prior invitations we expected to keep long-term? or do
short-term invitations receive an extension when the expiration period is
raised? and so on.




You would have to test that. I never have nor have I even thought of those
issues quite frankly...

One thing you might look into is using the Remote Assistance (RA) "offer"
functionality. I do know that works between Vista Ultimate-to-Vista
Ultimate machines in a workgroup environment, ie. like my small two Vista
home network, and should work natively in a domain environment. I had to
enable both the "Solicited" and "Offer" group policies to get this to
work. I could directly address the RA offer by IP (or NetBIOS name) over
my local LAN or through a PPTP VPN tunnel. The latter is nice if the
expert had to VPN into a remote site to provide support.

These articles, written for XP, are still pertinent for the most part...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308013/

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;301527
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306496/

I presume this would work with Vista Business or Enterprise editions if
used in a workgroup environment also but I have no way of testing this.

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

Just a follow-up to my last reply. I have read the articles you recommended
and they are the same ones we used in resolving an XP problem. However,
enabling the RA Offer settings in Vista did some funny things, like locked
our expiration options so they could not be changed. In fact, I think it
may have even been you that directed us to 'disable' or 'not configure'
these items in order to restore the expiration options. Anyway, you got it
to work between your Vista computers and we hope to do the same. We still
think it may relate back to having the proper groups available with
permissions for the proper users.

**************
"Sooner Al [MVP]" wrote in message
...
"Blue Max" wrote in message
...
Hello Sooner,

I don't see the option to lengthen the expiration time when I create an
invitation file on my Vista machines so I guess that means that option
has been removed for whatever reason. The means the expiration time you
set in the configuration window or via a group policy or via registry
setting will apply to all invitations. Its no longer on an invitation by
invitation basis...

What a pity! It seems that in many ways XP was better thought-out than
Vista. It seemed so logical that the user might want to issue an
invitation to certain individuals that would have a quick expiration
(one-time help from a specific tech) and to other individuals with a
long-term expiration (such as a good computer-saavy friend). This issue
also raises other expiration questions like, does lowering the expiration
time delete prior invitations we expected to keep long-term? or do
short-term invitations receive an extension when the expiration period is
raised? and so on.




You would have to test that. I never have nor have I even thought of those
issues quite frankly...

One thing you might look into is using the Remote Assistance (RA) "offer"
functionality. I do know that works between Vista Ultimate-to-Vista
Ultimate machines in a workgroup environment, ie. like my small two Vista
home network, and should work natively in a domain environment. I had to
enable both the "Solicited" and "Offer" group policies to get this to
work. I could directly address the RA offer by IP (or NetBIOS name) over
my local LAN or through a PPTP VPN tunnel. The latter is nice if the
expert had to VPN into a remote site to provide support.

These articles, written for XP, are still pertinent for the most part...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308013/

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;301527
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306496/

I presume this would work with Vista Business or Enterprise editions if
used in a workgroup environment also but I have no way of testing this.

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

"Blue Max" wrote in message
...
Just a follow-up to my last reply. I have read the articles you
recommended and they are the same ones we used in resolving an XP problem.
However, enabling the RA Offer settings in Vista did some funny things,
like locked our expiration options so they could not be changed. In fact,
I think it may have even been you that directed us to 'disable' or 'not
configure' these items in order to restore the expiration options.
Anyway, you got it to work between your Vista computers and we hope to do
the same. We still think it may relate back to having the proper groups
available with permissions for the proper users.

**************
"Sooner Al [MVP]" wrote in message
...
"Blue Max" wrote in message
...
Hello Sooner,

I don't see the option to lengthen the expiration time when I create an
invitation file on my Vista machines so I guess that means that option
has been removed for whatever reason. The means the expiration time you
set in the configuration window or via a group policy or via registry
setting will apply to all invitations. Its no longer on an invitation
by invitation basis...

What a pity! It seems that in many ways XP was better thought-out than
Vista. It seemed so logical that the user might want to issue an
invitation to certain individuals that would have a quick expiration
(one-time help from a specific tech) and to other individuals with a
long-term expiration (such as a good computer-saavy friend). This issue
also raises other expiration questions like, does lowering the
expiration time delete prior invitations we expected to keep long-term?
or do short-term invitations receive an extension when the expiration
period is raised? and so on.




You would have to test that. I never have nor have I even thought of
those issues quite frankly...

One thing you might look into is using the Remote Assistance (RA) "offer"
functionality. I do know that works between Vista Ultimate-to-Vista
Ultimate machines in a workgroup environment, ie. like my small two Vista
home network, and should work natively in a domain environment. I had to
enable both the "Solicited" and "Offer" group policies to get this to
work. I could directly address the RA offer by IP (or NetBIOS name) over
my local LAN or through a PPTP VPN tunnel. The latter is nice if the
expert had to VPN into a remote site to provide support.

These articles, written for XP, are still pertinent for the most part...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308013/

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;301527
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306496/

I presume this would work with Vista Business or Enterprise editions if
used in a workgroup environment also but I have no way of testing this.

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375


Are you in a domain environment or a workgroup environment? I presume your
an administrator or a user with admin privileges.

Your right in that setting those group policies negates the user from
setting the time limit. Its an either or situation.

By the way, I have never tried to offer over the public internet other than
through a VPN tunnel, ie. I VPN into a network then offer the novice user
(on that network) help via RA.

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

Hello Sooner,

The small office end of the internet link is a simple peer-to-peer workgroup
with a Linksys hub (switch) linked to a Qwest DSL router/modem. The home
end is a Linksys Wired/Wireless router where the main computer is wired
(Ethernet) to the router and about 5 or 6 laptops and an old desktop are
using the wireless connection. Both internet service providers assign
dynamic IP addresses, so we use No-IP in order to have a static domain name
for one computer on each end of the internet connection. In both cases the
routers pass calls to port 3389 through to the two computers running Windows
Vista Ultimate and the computer firewalls are configured to allow calls to
that port also. This configuration works great with Remote Desktop over the
internet, except for file transfers that are dirt slow. Still trying to
figure out what the problem is with the slow file transfers? We can
download a 100MB plus file in several minutes off the internet, yet it
almost requires a plunger to force a 1MB file through the Remote Desktop
connection!

On the other hand, we'd love to learn how to set up a secured VPN Tunnel
over the internet between these two locations. However, we have not had the
time to explore this fully explore this possibility. We have a lot to learn
about VPNs, domains, and trusted domains versus workgroups and simple
internet access. As you can tell, we are a little discouraged with the
Remote Assistance connectivity issue, especially since we already had Remote
Desktop up and running and thought that setting up RA would be a small
incremental task. Ironically, Microsoft makes Remote Assistance sound so
easy . . . just issue an offer over the internet and the other party simply
accepts!

Do you think a VPN would help? If so, are you aware of any good 'How-to'
articles on setting up a VPN tunnel between the two computers as configured
above? I do like the appeal of an encrypted private connection, but am
wondering whether it will slow down or speed up communication and files
transfers between the two computers?

I apologize for the unending cascade of questions, but getting advice from
someone who has successfully perfomed a task is often worth a dozen
knowledgebase or how-to articles.

Thanks again,

Richard

**********************
"Sooner Al [MVP]" wrote in message
...
"Blue Max" wrote in message
...
Just a follow-up to my last reply. I have read the articles you
recommended and they are the same ones we used in resolving an XP
problem. However, enabling the RA Offer settings in Vista did some funny
things, like locked our expiration options so they could not be changed.
In fact, I think it may have even been you that directed us to 'disable'
or 'not configure' these items in order to restore the expiration
options. Anyway, you got it to work between your Vista computers and we
hope to do the same. We still think it may relate back to having the
proper groups available with permissions for the proper users.

**************
"Sooner Al [MVP]" wrote in message
...
"Blue Max" wrote in message
...
Hello Sooner,

I don't see the option to lengthen the expiration time when I create
an invitation file on my Vista machines so I guess that means that
option has been removed for whatever reason. The means the expiration
time you set in the configuration window or via a group policy or via
registry setting will apply to all invitations. Its no longer on an
invitation by invitation basis...

What a pity! It seems that in many ways XP was better thought-out than
Vista. It seemed so logical that the user might want to issue an
invitation to certain individuals that would have a quick expiration
(one-time help from a specific tech) and to other individuals with a
long-term expiration (such as a good computer-saavy friend). This
issue also raises other expiration questions like, does lowering the
expiration time delete prior invitations we expected to keep long-term?
or do short-term invitations receive an extension when the expiration
period is raised? and so on.




You would have to test that. I never have nor have I even thought of
those issues quite frankly...

One thing you might look into is using the Remote Assistance (RA)
"offer" functionality. I do know that works between Vista
Ultimate-to-Vista Ultimate machines in a workgroup environment, ie. like
my small two Vista home network, and should work natively in a domain
environment. I had to enable both the "Solicited" and "Offer" group
policies to get this to work. I could directly address the RA offer by
IP (or NetBIOS name) over my local LAN or through a PPTP VPN tunnel. The
latter is nice if the expert had to VPN into a remote site to provide
support.

These articles, written for XP, are still pertinent for the most part...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308013/

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;301527
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306496/

I presume this would work with Vista Business or Enterprise editions if
used in a workgroup environment also but I have no way of testing this.

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375


Are you in a domain environment or a workgroup environment? I presume your
an administrator or a user with admin privileges.

Your right in that setting those group policies negates the user from
setting the time limit. Its an either or situation.

By the way, I have never tried to offer over the public internet other
than through a VPN tunnel, ie. I VPN into a network then offer the novice
user (on that network) help via RA.

--

Al Jarvi (MS-MVP Windows Networking)

Please post *ALL* questions and replies to the news group for the
mutual benefit of all of us...
The MS-MVP Program - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights...
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375