Remote assistance will not launch. Please help


System. Windows 2003 SBS standard SP2 all patches up to date.

I have a strange problem where I can’t get remote assistance to launch on
this system. The problem seems to be that the remote assistance application
will not start. I see the problem regardless of which side makes the request.

Note I’ve been trying to debug this with systems that are local to the lan.
I can get other machines to remote assist each other so the problem is not
anything to do with port mapping. It is simply that for some reason the
remote assistance application will not start on the SBS system.

In all of these examples the user on the sbs machine is the administrator.

Example 1: Windows Server 2003 requests assistance to another system.
1) I have Windows Messenger 5.1 running on the SBS 2003 machine
2) I request remote assistance via help and support or either via messenger.
3) The request is sent to the expert machine.
4) The “expert” accepts the request.
5) I get a message on the SBS “novice” system indicating that the expert has
accepted the request
6) The expert systems launches the remote assistance application
7) The remote assistance application never launches on the SBS machine.
Actually nothing seems to happen on this machine
8) On the “expert” machine I get the dialog box stating “Remote Assistance
cannot connect because (username) denied the request for help. Where
(username) is the windows messenger username.

Example 2:
Request from the XP “novice” machine to remote assistance to the SBS
“expert” machine
1) From within messenger on the “novice” XP machine ask the user on the SBS
machine for assistance.
2) Within Messenger on the SBS machine I get a request for remote assistance.
3) The SBS user accepts the request.
4) Messenger on the SBS “Expert” machine says you have accepted the request
5) Messenger on the XP indicates that the invitation has been accepted.
6) Nothing further happens on the SBS “expert” machine.

I seen KB article kb330113 Remote Assistance, Application Sharing, or
Whiteboard Session Does Not Start After Remote Computer Accepts Your
Invitation but this refers to having both windows messenger and msn messenger
installed on the same machine. The SBS machine only has windows messenger
installed

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Observing Client Sessions
    ... This is a feature of Windows XP, and you can make use of it with SBS. ... Look up 'remote assistance' in the XP online help for instructions on ... the server desktop and run Server Management. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • RE: Offer Remote Assistance Not Working
    ... > Thank you for posting to the SBS Newsgroup. ... > I understand that on the SBS 2K3 server, you cannot offer Remote Assistance ... you may want to contact Microsoft CSS directly. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Remote assistance will not launch. Please help
    ... If the Remote Assistance checkbox is unchecked, ... In all of these examples the user on the sbs machine is the administrator.. ... I request remote assistance via help and support or either via messenger. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • RE: Remote Assistance not working
    ... My SBS is 2003 SP1, ... I can start the Remote Desktop Help Session Manager without any errors. ... The Remote Assistance policy is set to ENABLE. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Remote assistance will not launch. Please help
    ... If the Remote Assistance checkbox is unchecked, ... I see the problem regardless of which side makes the request. ... In all of these examples the user on the sbs machine is the administrator.. ... is the windows messenger username. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)