Vista - Remote Assistance for novice with XP to expert with Vista

What are the things that an expert running Vista needs to know to
successfully help a novice running XP via Remote Assistance?

I support friends and family via RA. In the XP to XP world I found that
using Live Messenger was generally reliable. I have now upgraded to Vista
Ultimate. I get a variety of failue scenarios trying to accept invitations
now. No successes.

Most commonly, I get one of the following:
1. I accept the invitation. The novice gets a notice in Messenger that I
have accepted, but nothing else happens on either computer.
2. I accept the invitation. The novice gets a notice and a dialog box to
grant sharing permission. I get an indication that I am viewing the novice
desktop, but my screen is black.
3. I accept, the novice gets a notice in Messenger and I get an indication
that an attempt is being made. Eventually times out saying novice must have
stepped away from computer.

I can deal with firewalls, registries, and more. I find lots of snippets
here and there that give me clues, but can't find my way to a definitive
approach.

Can someone point me to a KB article or something else that could answer
this simple question.... What are the things that an expert running Vista
needs to know to successfully help a novice running XP via Remote Assistance?


-=Rich=-

forget all that... and use www.crossloop.com

you can thank me later for this tip...

2 things you must have in mind, disable UAC and Defender before the session,
since these have some problems with crossloop




"urbanmicro" <urbanmicro@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:EEECC118-62A5-4200-A9F4-71E05D5D0D98@xxxxxx

I use Remote Assistance to help XP users from my Vista machine but I use the
email method. If they have Outlook Express I tell them to pick the email
option if not I have them pick the Create a File option and email it to me
with whatever they use for email. Have never had a problem connecting.

"urbanmicro" <urbanmicro@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:EEECC118-62A5-4200-A9F4-71E05D5D0D98@xxxxxx--
Mark R. Cusumano
Skype Name: mark.cusumano
Web: http://The-Padded-Cell.spaces.live.com

Hi Rich,

This may be able to help. It also has some links to KB articles.

Remote Assistance

Shawn

Mark,
Are you using Vista against XP novices?

Independent of this particular challenge, I had trouble with email
invitations due either to NAT or DHCP IP address changes in the past. Was
having pretty good luck with Messenger until this. Your suggestion is worth
a try.

I'll keep digging until I solve this one way or another.
-=Rich=-

"Mark R. Cusumano" wrote:

Yes, I am on a Vista Laptop and the people I am helping are on XP machines.
Most of them are using webmail and do use either Outlook Express or
Messenger so their only option is to create the Invitation File and email it
to me through their webmail or whatever mail reader they are using. So far
I have had no problems. I have tried with with all combinations or
router/routerless connections (ie neither side is behind a router, both
sides are behind a router, one or the other side is behind a router) and
haven't had any problems but then again the routers didn't have any unusual
settings in them.

"urbanmicro" <urbanmicro@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:F39F267B-A48D-43DD-A5D9-CA97F559271C@xxxxxx--
Mark R. Cusumano
Skype Name: mark.cusumano
Web: http://The-Padded-Cell.spaces.live.com

I agree with Mark. I use the same method between Vista and XP.
However, I've stuck with telling the person on the XP machine to use
their regular email program and have not had anyone contact me via Express.
Mark R. Cusumano wrote: