No web cam or Remote Desktop in XP

[mike_n_herrin]

I'm throwing this out very quickly before i leave for work so it'll be a bit incomplete, until i get home this evening.

My mom and I have Win XP pro (volume licenses). each running custom home built machines. Until she moved last year we were able to web cam and use remote desktop with ease. She still has DSL but it's a different provider, although same town and same phone company owns the lines. We also used to be able to use the web cam video chat in both AIM and Yahoo, but now we can't do that either. I can't recall the error message at the moment, and i know that's the specific error folks will need to help. the desktop error is something like "unable to establish a remote connection" and the AIM/Yahoo doesn't give an error, it just doesn't connect. although it tries for several seconds.

anyway if you would, just chew on that and then when i get home tonight i'll give the exact error messages =) i threw this out this morning, just in case there is a general issue that I might need to address. I'm thinking there is something going on with the provider, since I think that is the only thing that has changed.

thanks guys

 

[Corny]

sounds more as if someone activated a firewall or so .. i never heard before that a provider blocks h232 (or whatever the correct name is )

 

[trinket]

Yeah, weird that you say most things have remained the same. The provider could be blocking specific ports (like some will to disallow you running your own mail server, or others that block or throttle P2P traffic) but it might be on your local side as Corny said. A few things:

Microsoft's Tip Page. You probably know most of this, but the "Configure Your Router" section has information on which ports need to be opened up for your RDC, and the links within that section ("How to Manually Open Ports...", etc.) could be helpful (even if you don't have a router).

http://www.chicagotech.net/rdesktop.htm also has some tips including your error message around halfway down.

 

[Matt1809]

Did she put a router between the modem and her computer, or change the router she used. If so the NAT is probably blocking the connection. Try putting her computer's local IP in the DMZ or turn on port forwarding for the specific ports.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

well we didn't get a chance to try the web cam this evening so i don't have any better info for you. when i was home last she didn't have a router all she had was an external DSL modem that connected to the phone jack on one end and the computer's ethernet port on the other.

when i say most things are working i just mean she doesn't always tell me when something breaks/stops working until i go home so i can fix it then. i was last home in july and i didn't see anything else not working.

i'll try tomorrow to put up the exact error message.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

ok well crap i was googling around and i think i found the error message.

Remote Assistance connection could not be established because the remote host name could not be resolved.

 

[Corny]

not resolved? that would mean the dns is not working. which is kinda strange since i assume websites are working

 

[mike_n_herrin]

well we got the web cam working. it worked without having to do anything first time around. remote desktop still no go and same error. web sites work fine.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

/\ lol you know for something that is part of windows i've had a number difficult issues with it over the last few years. then again there are all sorts of security issues i guess with having software that does this sort of thing. i'll have to wait until i go home at christmas and fiddle with it more i guess. of course then i wont be here to try it. lol.

 

[trinket]

AFAIK you'd have to set up a VLAN or tunnelling to get RD to work across disparate broadband services. I tried to set it up a while back for an office and I had to open ports and forward ports and all kinds of jiggery pokery and it still wouldn't work.

That difficulty hasn't been my experience at all in terms of consumer services; I've Remote Desktopped with a few people on different services, broadband and dialup, without any issues. But you mention an "office" above, and that can be a whole different game in terms of corporate grade firewalls, port opening and blocking, etc. But the average home PC connect to the Internet shouldn't require a whole lot. If they're using a router, you may need to do a little extra like open some of those ports.