Other Possible Remote Assistance Usage Scenarios

Other types of Remote Assistance scenarios are also possible for businesses ranging from large enterprises to Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) environments. Examples of possible usage scenarios include:

• A user who is having a problem configuring an application on her computer can phone the Help Desk for assistance. A support person can then use Offer RA to connect to the user's computer, ask for control of her screen, and show the user how to configure her application. This scenario is the standard one for enterprise Help Desk environments and is described in more detail in the section titled "Using Remote Assistance in the Corporate Help Desk Environment" earlier in this tutorial.
• A user who is having trouble installing a printer sends a Remote Assistance invitation to Help Desk using Windows Mail. A support person who is monitoring the Help Desk e-mail alias reads the message, opens the attached invitation file, and connects to the user's computer. The support person asks for control of the user's computer and walks him through the steps of installing the printer.
• A user is on the road and is connected to the internal corporate network using a VPN connection over the Internet. The user is having problems configuring Windows Mail on her computer, so she opens Windows Live Messenger and notices that someone she knows in Corporate Support is currently online. She sends a Remote Assistance invitation to the support person using Windows Live Messenger, and that person responds to the invitation, asks for control, and shows the user how to configure Windows Mail.
• A user who is having problems installing an application uses Easy Connect to request help from a support technician. Because this is the first time he has requested help from this particular support technician, the user must communicate the password for the session to the support technician using an OOB method such as making a telephone call. The next time the user needs help, however, he will not need to provide a password because of the trust relationship that was established during the first Remote Assistance session between them.

The preceding list is not intended to be complete-other corporate support scenarios using Remote Assistance are possible. Generally speaking, however, corporate environments will use Offer RA to provide assistance to users who phone Help Desk when they have problems. Some enterprises may also allow users to submit Remote Assistance invitations either via e-mail or by saving invitation files to network shares that are monitored by support personnel. Others might use IM applications that support Remote Assistance within the corpnet.

Note Helpers can have multiple Remote Assistance sessions open simultaneously-one session for each User they are supporting. However, Users can have only one Remote Assistance session in the Waiting For Connect state. The invitation that was created could be sent to multiple recipients-any of whom may connect. All subsequent connect attempts will be blocked until the first Helper disconnects, after which another Helper may connect. If the User disconnects the session, the Remote Assistance application terminates and no further connections will be allowed.