Remote Assistance May Not Work if Internet Connection Firewall Is Enabled

View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q310608

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SYMPTOMS

When an expert attempts to connect to a novice's computer, the expert may receive the following error message:

A Remote Assistance connection could not be established. You may want to check for network issues or determine if the invitation expired or was cancelled by the person who sent it.

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CAUSE

This problem can occur if the Internet Connection Firewall has been enabled after the Remote Assistance invitation was created.

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RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, use either of the following methods.

Create a new Remote Assistance invitation while ICF is enabled, and then send the new invitation to the expert.
Disable the Internet Connection Firewall while the expert attempts to establish the Remote Assistance invitation.
Restart the novice's computer, and then have the expert establish the Remote Assistance session.

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

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MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about the Internet Connection Firewall, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

283673 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283673/EN-US/ ) HOW TO: Enable the Internet Connection Firewall Feature

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