I'm trying to help my Dad to fix some spyware on his XP boxen. I did have it all tied up nice but he had to reinstall when he made a mistake and deleted nearly all the applications!

So I thought I'd give remote assistance (RA) a go. I checked that it was enabled along with remote desktop in the Control Panel > System > [Remote] tab and then via Start > Help > "Get a friend to help ..." had him send me an invite.

The invite is a small XML file (688 bytes) that looks like authentication data and includes an IP address and the rdp port number.

The file is called RcBuddy.MsRcIncident

I'd love it if I can somehow use that info, eg via rdesktop or krdc (is that just a FE for rdesktop?) to connect. I tried but didn't get a response with rdesktop.

Any chance?

Edit: I found http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/lo...hp/t17547.html and http://www.linuxforum.com/forums/ind...ode=linearplus and nothing helpful about this after an extensive search.

Oh and I should say, I know about VNC and services like PC Anywhere but I'm 200 miles away and can't install anything on the machine until I get access and was kinda hoping that I could use RA

Well like they already said there: If he can't install and configure VNC himself then the only way I can think of right now would be loading a QEMU image of Wintendo and use that. Come to think of it there's another option maybe: those Wintendo Live CD's like BartPE. I don't know if RA was stripped out though...

Have you considered service like GoToMyPC.com? Maybe just do the 30day trail till you get something else working.

gotomypc requires a credit card to access their free trial ... so I'm not going for that

I also came across logmein (Log Me In) and imintouch (I'm in Touch).

logmein offer a free version.

But, as it happens I have access to a Windows XP (home) laptop this evening so I'm trying that - I've read that ti works to provide assistance just not to ask for it, go figure. Once I'm in I reckon on installing TightVNC, but we'll see.

I'm still expecting to be scuppered by firewall problems.

In response to the question - can I use a RcBuddy.MsRcIncident to access an XP box from Linux over eg rdp? - I'm guessing that neither of you know?

I'm not familiar with RcBuddy.MsRcIncident.

If the remote system is Windows XP Pro, then yes, you can use rdesktop.

When you set up Remote Desktop on XP Pro to allow users to connect remotely, which ever profile you add to list of remote users must have a password. XP Pro RD listens on port 3389, same as Terminal Service. If there's a home router in place, then will need to configure port forwarding of port 3389 to the XP Pro system.
It's limited to only one session and will blank out the local monitor, which may not be very useful if you need to see what other user is doing.

I get files like this and I can't find anything to extract the info from the file to connect with various linux rdp programs.

- iport
- usernameass
- anything else?

I can look in the file but can only extract ip and pass, and i need the user too

Tight-vnc works on winsxp
http://www.tightvnc.com/

Tight-vnc works on winsxp
http://www.tightvnc.com/

tightvnc works in winsxp
http://www.tightvnc.com/
My aplogies for triple post