Remote Helpdesk Questions And Answers
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Questions
 The
trial version disconnects every five minutes
The remote helpdesk trial is designed to disconnect every
five minutes to make the system unattractive to customers that do not
like paying for software. If the disconnections interrupts your testing
please contact support with the name of your company and we will be
glad to provide you with a trial version that will expire within a
month (without disconnects).
How
can I use Reverse Connection if my Support Officers do not have fixed
IP Addresses
If Remote Helpdesk is configured to use Reverse Connection,
the remhelp.exe will attempt to connect from your customers workstation
to your support officers computer. If your support officers computer
does not have fixed IP addresses then you need to use a third party DNS
Service like DynDNS
- DynDNS provide a DNS service that is free for up to five IP
addresses. Create a login with DynDNS and create a Dynamic DNS entry
'yourname.dyndns.org' with the temp IP address of your support officer
and then setup Remote Helpdesk Server to connect to the IP address of
'yourname.dyndns.org'. When Remote Helpdesk starts it will first obtain
the IP address from DynDNS and then connect directly to the IP address
of your support officer. DynDNS provide tools to easily change the IP
addresses of your support officers.
How do I setup a html page to run the
remote server
The remote helpdesk can be started by a link to the
executable file 'remhelp.exe' from a html page by placing 'remhelp.exe'
on your web server and creating a link on your html page to run the
remote helpdesk <a href="/remhelp.exe"> run remote helpdesk.
Check Example
Authenticode warning
If your users use IE "Internet explorer", a warning message
may appear depending on users local security settings, advising that
Remote Helpdesk does not contain Authenticode and asks the user to
press yes to continue, the software will then run on the users desktop
allowing your support staff to connect to the computer.
Because Remote Helpdesk is self configuring it is not
possible to get a Authenticode license, this is due more to limitations
with authenticode rather than Remote Helpdesk.
To overcome this problem suggest you display the following
information to advise any concerned users:-
----------------------------------------
When you run Remote Helpdesk software from our Web site you
may get the following security warning message:
"Warning: The authenticity of this content cannot be
verified, therefore it cannot be trusted...."
Solutions: Do any of the following:
Ignore the message and continue downloading the file. There is nothing
wrong with the file, so you can download it and run it as expected.
Download the file using a Web browser that does not use Authenticode
verification (e.g., Netscape Navigator or Opera).
Save the file to your hard disk, and launch it manually.
Cannot run remhelp from a web page
using Netscape
Netscape does not have an option to run executables directly from web
pages. It is suggested that you display advise as follows:-
For Netscape users, save the file
to your hard disk and launch it manually.
Can I remotely login at the remote
computer logon screen
No, Remote Helpdesk is designed to run as a normal
application and cannot be used if the user has not logged onto the
remote computer. Only installed services can view the login screen.
Can I reboot the remote computer
Create a bacth file called startRH.bat and write the
following line (with [Directory] modified as required):
[Directory]\remhelp.exe START
Startup regedit on the remote computer and add the batch
file to run under the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
When the remote computer is rebooted, it should autostart
the remote helpdesk connection.
If the computer in question has windows login screen
enabled, it must be turned off (if possible) to allow the computer to
restart directly into a windows session.
For example to autologin to NT,win2000,XP check...
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/13/
For Win95/98 check...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q152104/
note : Reboot command
has been added to version 7.2
Does the license cover providing services to
all my Users on the internet
Yes, as long as your helpdesk is located at a single site
there is no restriction on how many users that can download and run the
remote helpdesk server.
How to change the look and feel of remote
helpdesk server
Open one of the current bitmaps installed during
installation and modify as required. After completing the bitmaps,
start the remote helpdesk server (remhelp.exe), select setup, select
display, press new and then update the bitmaps to imbed the bitmaps in
the remhelp.exe
Remote
Helpdesk fails in Reverse Connection - Port in Use
Windows "Message Queuing" uses port 2105 and may block
Remote Helpdesk from initialing the port. To overcome this problem
change port to an alternative port. Thanks to pascal for advising of
the problem.
Updating Remhelp.exe on site without
Graphic Files
If you try updating the configuration of remhelp.exe on site and it
displays an error "Startup bitmap does not exist". Delete entries for
the "Startup Bitmap" and "Remote Session Bitmap" under "Display" Tab
and press the update button. If no entries exist for bitmaps the
program will update without modifying its embedded bitmaps.
Running Remhelp.exe
from a Bootable Disk
BartPE
can be used
to create a bootable disk for most operating systems. To run
remhelp.exe from BartPE, copy remhelp.exe and required sound files to
BartPE's temp ram drive (b:\) as follows:
Copy x:\tools\remhelp.exe b:\
Copy x:\tools\msacm32.dll b:\
Copy x:\tools\msacm32.drv b:\
Call b:\remhelp.exe
Thanks to Julian and Ken Corbett from eDecisions for their advice
concerning
BartPE.
Running Remhelp.exe
as a Service
Ken Corbett from eDecisions
advised that Remhelp.exe can run under a service on WinNT systems (NT4,
2000, XP etc.) by installing as follows.
Copy the following files to the computer:
Remhelp.exe - Your current working remote help desk file
Instsrv.exe – Resource Kit file to add services
Srvany.exe – resource kit file to manage service
Rmserviceremove.bat – Batch file to execute to remove service
when you’re finished
Rmserviceadd.bat – Batch file to execute to add service to allow reboot
Regtwek.reg – Reg adjustments per http://support.microsoft.com/kb/137890
Macro 1: Reboot Host PC – Add Service
DirCreate("c:\rmservice")
FileCopyPush("c:\rmservice\*.*","c:\rmservice\*.*",False)
Execute("c:\rmservice\rmserviceadd.bat")
Macro 2: Reboot Host PC – Remove Service (We don’t want to leave it
running)
Execute("c:\rmservice\rmserviceremove.bat")
Run your Add Service Macro and reboot when ready. Don’t forget to run
the remove Service or you’re going to get a connection every time the
user reboots.
Ken has kindly provided required files here
Printing using
MS Internet Server IIS
Ken Corbett from eDecisions has
kindly shared how he prints through a IIs server...
1:
Setup an internet Printer at the location the Tech will Work from.
1. Open Control Panel and open add remove
programs.
2. Click Add Remove Windows Components
3: Click Application Server
4. Click Details
5. Click IIS services
6. Click Details
7. Place a check mark next to
Internet Printing.
8. Click OK
9. Click OK
10. Click Next
2:
Once Internet printing is configured on the IIS server you can open the
web site: http://servername/Printers
Which will display the shared printers on the IIS server. Select the
printer you want to use, then under Actions click Connect.
Note:
You will not see the option to Connect if your trying it from the
server, you have to connect from a remote machine to see the connect
option.
3:
You should be prompted for a name and password to connect to the
printer, enter your user info and the printer should be added to the
client PC allowing you to print over the internet.
Note:
Windows XP would require installing IIS if your not using a full
server, IIS is available on the XP CD.
Enjoy
Dropouts and
Connection Stability
Dropouts can be caused by a number
of factors and can be difficult to trace. Below are some suggestions to
check.
Local Firewalls.. If possible turn
off your local firewall and check if stability is improved. Under your
firewall options, there may be settings such as "application
monitoring" that may be detrimental to
the operation of Remote Helpdesk;
Local Router Problems... Make sure
TCP is enabled for the port used, try disabling options like 'smart
packet filtering' and retest;
Network Line speed and duplex...
make sure line speed and duplex settings are matching the required
settings for your router;
Faulty Network Card...You may need
a network sniffer to determine if network card is operating as expected;
ADSL Connections...Some adsl
networks may fail with faulty phone filters, unplug phones
and retest;
Faulty network Line to ISP...Run a
ping against a known server at your ISP for 15 minutes to
determine if packets are dropped (ping with -t option);
Connection problems from your
ISP... Run a ping against a known www server for 15 minutes to
determine if packets are being dropped (ping with -t option). Check
with your ISP if other users are having problems with dropouts.
Vista - will pre 7.3 versions of Remote Helpdesk
work with MS Vista
Help Files for Remote Helpdesk
will not open under MS Vista.
Remote control of a computer with Aero Glass enabled can be very slow
because
windows api's are converting the aero glass image into a non aero glass
image
on the fly. To disable AeroGlass, under Remote Helpdesk Client
(remhelpc.exe), Options Menu, 'Remote Display' Tab, change colors to
256 colors. AeroGlass works under 32bit colors only.
Remote Computer
Information fails under Vista, anybody requiring it, will need upgrade
to the latest version of Remote Helpdesk.
Laptop Power Settings - Remote Sessions
disconnect when Laptops Hibernate
Create a Macro
called "OnConnect" that automatically runs on connection to check power
saving settings. If the power setting is set to "Laptop" (which in the
registry is 1), display the control panels Power Setting Configuration
screen.
Dim
LaptopSleep$
LaptopSleep$ =
RegistryReadStr("HKEY_CURRENT_USER","Control
Panel\PowerCfg", "CurrentPowerPolicy")
If (LaptopSleep$ = "1") or (LaptopSleep$ = "4") or
(LaptopSleep$ = "5") then
If (OS$ =
"WIN95") Or (OS$ = "WIN98") Then
Execute(GetWindowsDirectory$
& "\Control.exe","Powercfg.cpl")
else
Execute(GetSystemDirectory$ &
"\Powercfg.cpl")
Endif
EndIf
Auto Update from Web Server - remhelp.ver
Invalid under MS IIS
MS Internet
Server doesnt recognise ".ver" as a valid mime type and will not serve
it to clients unless the mime type is added as per following
unstructions. Thanks to Anthony Mizzi for advising and providing
instructions.
Follow instructions as per... http://www.hostmysite.com/support/dedicated/IIS/newmime/,
but under step #4, right click on the sub-folder containing
the remhelp.exe and remhelp.ver files.
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