Having a problem using video with Windows Messenger

[Plinkerton]

My mom is trying to talk to her relatives in Israel thru Windows Messenger. She has the camera hooked up and working, and it puts a picture on the screen and all that, so I know it's working.

For some reason, it just won't connect to the other camera, which is also funcitoning fine. They've tried to use NetMeeting also, and it doesn't work there either. They have exchanged IP addresses, and plug them in and all that, and it didn't make a difference.

Also, I don't know if this is related, I used to have no problem connecting with them thru remote assistance, but for some reason, it doesn't work anymore, and it mentions something about a host not being able to connect or something like that.

I'm trying to be as detailed as possible, but my mom is severly computer illiterate, and I am only going by the details she can give me, which as you can see, isn't much.

The guy she is trying to talk to is pretty computer litterate, and he is having trouble getting it to work as well. My mom has a brand new computer, running Windows XP Home, and the settings and defaults and all that should pretty much be plain vanilla. They haven't messed with anything really.

I'm not sure what they could have done that could mess up the Remote Assistance, and why this isn't working either, as the instructions on the microsoft site were followed thoroughly.

Hopefully this isn't some obscure thing that no one will be able to figure out. I'm hoping it's an easy fix that someone here will have an idea of. She really doesn't want to have to call someone, and pay them way too much money for some simple thing.

Thanks a lot everyone,
Plink

[G-Man]

It might be the firewall. Turn it off and try again. Make sure the other computer's firewall is also turned off.

Regards,
G-Man

[Plinkerton]

You know, that thought had crossed my mind. How do they turn off the standard SP2 firewall? I'm not using SP2, so I can't really give them any hints. They are using a standard DSL connection and using XP to do all the connecting. No other DSL software.

Thanks a lot.

[Plinkerton]

Alright. It's not the stupid firewall. She completely turned it off.

I don't understand why the remote assistance isn't working anymore either. All the things that need to be checked to make it work are checked. All the "allow remote assistance" this and that.

He had her screw something up that disabled it, and I don't know what it is. This is annoying. I just got a camera to, to try to fix this with her. It just won't connect. It says the host can't connect, or can't be found. Something like that.

Any ideas?
Thanks again,
Plink

[Leeper]

If you get the host can not connect there is definatly a port blocking thing going on.


might not be on the PC side, some ISPs like to disable the SIP ports to save bandwidth.

[Plinkerton]

I see. I've heard of ports being disabled and what not. Is there some control panel where I can just go and turn them all on?

I poked around a bit, but didn't find anything that looked like anything that would relate to that.

[Plinkerton]

So, can anyone tell me how to make sure the ports are all enabled? I have no idea where to start checking this.

Thakns,
Plink

[level]

Open Network Connections

Right click appropriate icon-->Properties-->Advanced Tab-->Settings-->Services Tab

This will tell you what ports are open for MS Messenger.

[Plinkerton]

Thanks. I don't think I ever would have found that.

There are a bunch of things called msmsgs with a number after them. That's the only thing I can see that looks remotely like MSN Messenger. Is that it?

Should I just check the boxes next to all of them and then see if that works?

Thanks a lot for listening to all my stupid questions. I'll get this working sometime...

EDIT: I do see something called Remote Desktop, so maybe if that's not checked on my moms computer, that's the issue I'm having in being unable to connect with her. I'll give that a shot. Still not positive about the MS Messenger though.

[level]

Yes, those are the ones for MS Messenger. They should be checked by Messenger when you boot up. Check and make sure your msmsgs.exe process is running in Task Manager.

[Plinkerton]

Thank you much. I'll give that a shot tonite.

Plink