You may receive a "Remote Assistance failed" error message on a Windows XP-based Internet Connection Sharing client computer that uses the Internet Connection Firewall feature (313492)

SYMPTOMS

Consider this scenario: You send a Remote Assistance invitation to a Windows XP-based Internet Connection Sharing host computer from a Windows XP-based Internet Connection Sharing client computer. The client computer has the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) feature enabled. You receive an error message that is similar to the following:

Remote Assistance failed. Please try again.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if all the following conditions are true:

The Internet Connection Sharing client computer uses the Dpnhpast.dll file to establish communication with the Internet Connection Sharing host computer.
The Internet Connection Sharing host computer does not start all services correctly.
The Internet Connection Sharing client computer believes that the Internet Connection Sharing host computer is running Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition.

RESOLUTION

Service pack information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322389 How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack

Hotfix information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

Date         Time   Version            Size    File name
--------------------------------------------------------------
28-Nov-2001  10:42  5.1.2600.21        30,208  Dpnhpast.dll