Tags:
Symantec, PC Anywhere, 12.1, Connection problem
I can't connect to my Mom's computer - her host is waiting for a connection, my remote is configured exactly like her host (encryption set to none, IP address is correct and ping-able). The connection times out when I try to connect. Both computers are running PC Anywhere 12.1 on Vista. My Mom can connect to my computer when mine is in host mode with no problem.
I can connect from my computer to a third computer that is neither on her network nor mine. We opened the ports on her router and disabled Windows firewall. She ran netstat -a and confirmed that port 5631 is listening.
She is able to connect from a laptop on her wireless network to her host computer. Please tell me what I am overlooking! What else do I need to check or set in order to connect to Mom's computer?
Both my computer and the host were running AVG antivirus. I disabled it on both PCs, but it didn't help. I was able to connect to the other PC with GoToMyPc, and played around with the settings on the host computer (verified the port forwarding, turned on DMZ, disabled the Windows Vista firewall, etc.) and am stll having no luck connecting Mom's PC Anywhere host. I tried putting in the first 3 numbers of Mom's IP address and using 255 for the forth, so I could see if the computer was visible to PC Anywhere, and it wasn't. I saw another PC there, and attempted a log on and it was able to connect but obviously, I didn't have the user name and password. So the key to solving this must reside on the host computer, right?
If your mother is using same network configuration as I suppose it is, it means you can see her in Network Connection. Otherwise is a network connection issue not a problem with Pcanywhere. Still, if she can connect throght this connection to your host it means everything is fine with the connection and the problem might be: port fordwarding (open both ports) or a firewall setting. Review again on your mothers pc if host is started.
And one more thing. She connects directly to a public ip. Its easy like this. But if you want to connect to a network ip you must call public ip after you forward him to a specified network ip with a range of ports.
I can't see Mom's computer in Network Connection - she is not at the same location as I am. The port forwarding is set up - she has a Linksys router - in the Applications and Gaming tab, we entered 5631 TCP to forward to 192.168.1.100 and 5632 UDP to the same. Is there anything else we need to set there? We turned off the firewall completely in the router, and also turned of Windows firewall temporarily to see if we connect. Still no luck. The host on Mom's computer was running and waiting for a connection. Netstat -a showed that port 5631 was listening.
My PC Anywhere remote is set to call the public IP address: 72.148.xxx.xxx. I don't quite understand what your last advice is regarding forwarding a specified network ip with a range of ports. Please explain this. Thanks for your efforts.
sure, If you are using public ip, she connect to you through that public ip 72....x.x.x But you to connect to her pc, you must connect to the public ip of router. Your mother must have port fordwarding those 2 ports and the setting saved in router. The connection however needs a public ip or domain name. (as yours). Check from your mom's pc the www.whatismyip.com and try connecting through that ip.
OK, Let's review again settings: Your pc is using a public ip. Your host can been reached from wherever you what. Your mother's pc is using a network ip but is online through a router. The router has a public ip but your mother's network ip (192.168.0.x) is forwarded from that public ip from router for those 2 ports. She has off firewall and by me if she can connect on your pc it's all ok at her pc. If you try to connect to her pc you can't. What ip are you connecting to her? I guess is the router's ip. Is your computer able to connect to another public ip outside your network?
Before in question title you told that she is able to connect from laptop from a wireless network on her pc. Is that wireless access point/router in same network she is? If yes, its normal and easy to connect without problems.
72.148.xxx.xxx this must be the router's ip or something like that. One more thing, try reviewing your pc's status. By me must be only in your pc the issue. If still no reach leave me an contact id to send you another pcanywhere address to check if you can reach it.
Most of what you say above is correct except: My pc is also on an internal network and I connect through a router with a public IP (I have set up port forwarding on my end also, for when I am host for her to connect to me, which works fine). Her laptop is on a wireless network from the same router. What should I check on my PC for status? I already tried connecting to two other PCAnywhere hosts and I was able to connect to those with no problem. It is only hers that I can't connect to and I can't figure out why! Any other ideas? Thanks again for continuing to try.....I hope this hasn't stumped you!
I didn't see if it was tried above, but can we limit the equations here - can you put your machine and her machine in the same network and see if you can connect? Even another laptop with PCAnywhere would do - anything to take the router out of the equation.
If you can connect to it on the LAN, it is a router problem - if not, it is a local PC problem (windows firewall, AVG, something else)
I don't know how our machines can be installed on the same network as we are 1000 miles away from each other. She has another machine in her home (besides the laptop) - do you want me to try connecting between those 2 machines?
I am temporarily using gotomypc in order to connect to her PC. We installed that and had it up and running in 5 minutes with no problem. How did that program install and work with the router when this one is giving so much trouble?
What I don't understand is that when I type "netstat -a" in a cmd window on her machine, I get the following lines: TCP 0.0.0.0:5631 HENRYL:0 LISTENING UDP 0.0.0.0:5632 *:*
Is that what I'm supposed to see, or should I see a local or a public IP address where the 0.0.0.0 is shown?
>>do you want me to try connecting between those 2 machines?
That would be fine.
>>How did that program install and work with the router when this one is giving so much trouble?
Gotomypc is clever in that it bypasses the firewalls - they do that by initiating the connection (they being both the server and the client). You aren't actually connecting to your server with gotomypc, you connect to their website and their website connects to the server - this works because of the client software you had to install on the server machine. Hopefully that made sense :)
You would only see a public IP if she has a public IP installed on her machine - 0.0.0.0 is any ip
That tells you that the firewall is still blocking those ports... Start by revisiting the port forwarding in the router. Disable the Windows firewall entirely for now.
I've tried disabling both the router fire wall and the Windows fire wall to no avail. Please see the attached jpeg. It is the port forwarding page from my router. Is there anything I should change here? Are there any other router settings I should check?
I finally got over to Mom's house and tested the connection from her internal networked PCs. I was able to connect from another computer on Mom's network when addressing the internal IP address 192.168.1.100. I was not able to connect from the second computer when addressing the public IP address. I tried this with and without router and windows firewalls and it worked the same whether or not the firewalls were disabled. I also called their ISP (AT&T) to verify that the ISP was not blocking the connection (they said that they were not, but could not offer any more tech support than that).
If grc.com still reports the ports as "stealthed" then the ports are being blocked. If it isn't the Linksys config, it's the ISP.
Make sure that there are no conflicting entries on the port triggering page. You don't want any port triggering set up for these ports, you want port forwarding.
As a last resort to rule out the router firewall, you could test by putting the PC in the routers DMZ. This can be dangerous, as this exposes all open ports directly on the Internet, so make sure file and print sharing is off, Windows firewall is on, and that there are no unnecessary Internet services, like FTP or a web server running. (If you don't know how to tell, probably better not to do this.) Just do a quick test, and get that PC back under protection.
susanbs, I tend to agree that it is an ISP issue. Dynamic ip addresses normally do not find themselves to the correct machine all the time. Try using a DNS software to connect to your machine by name. Like no-ip.com. Down load it and run it from your Mom's PC. On your machine just use the dns name you assigned to your mom's machine.
If it all fails use Logmein.com, it's like Gotomypc but they do offer 30 days free and if you are not going to do data transfers (like pc Anywhere) you can use the free software. Enjoy.