Supporting Users and Troubleshooting a Windows® XP Operating System Exam Cram™ 2 (Exam 70-27)

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Remote Desktop uses Windows XP Professional security features to grant or

deny access based on user permissions. Therefore, keep in mind the follow-

ing security considerations:

➤ You cannot typically make a connection to an external, nondomain com-

puter outside your firewall because Remote Desktop uses Terminal

Services and Remote Assistance technology that requires a specific port,

TCP port 3389 by default, to be open for the connection to work.

➤ Remote Desktop does not allow simultaneous remote and local access to

the Windows XP professional desktop.

Using Remote Assistance for

Troubleshooting

Remote Assistance enables a desktop support technician to view or share

control of a user’s computer running Windows XP. For remote assistance to

commence, either the “novice” must invite the “expert” to view or share con-

trol of the computer or the expert must “offer assistance” to the novice, who

must accept the offer.

The feature allows the user to invite a trusted person (the expert) to remote-

ly and interactively assist them. This feature is useful in situations where col-

laboration with a user is required to resolve remote computer problems.

Members of the Administrators and Domain Admins groups have Remote Desktop

Connection privileges by default.

Be aware of the difference between Remote Desktop Connections and Remote

Assistance. A Remote Desktop Connection establishes a new session. Remote

Assistance attaches another user (the expert) to an existing session.

To use Remote Assistance, both the novice and expert need to be present at their

computers and must cooperate with each other.

Remote Assistance requires that both computers are running the Microsoft Windows

XP operating system or later.

The Remote Assistance session can be initiated by either the novice or the

expert. A request for assistance is generally made through the local Help and

Support Center (see Figure 8.16).

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Figure 8.16 The local Help and Support Center with the Ask for Assistance option in the upper right.

A user can invite an expert by using email, Windows Messenger, or Outlook

Express. If the novice is on the Internet, anyone running Windows XP or

later can be invited by him to view his desktop, and with permission, the

expert user can share control of the novice’s computer.

An expert can offer assistance to the user first, but the option to receive an

offer must first be enabled on the novice’s computer by editing the local pol-

icy settings, under Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates,

System, Remote Assistance, Offer Remote Assistance (Enabled).

In this scenario, the expert offers assistance through a Help and Support

Center Tools in the Help and Support Center, shown in Figure 8.17. Once

the offer is made and the novice accepts the offer, the expert can view and

“take control” of the novice’s computer.

When the novice clicks the Allow Expert Interaction button, the expert performs all

actions under the novice’s user security context and therefore assumes the same

level of network access and local computer privileges as the novice.

To allow experts outside your organization to establish Remote Assistance connec-

tions (for example, outsourced technical support), the preferred connection method

is through a VPN account because it doesn’t need to open TCP Port 3389 on the fire-

wall.

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Figure 8.17 An expert’s Help and Support Center displaying the Offer Remote Assistance option.