Windows XP Service Pack 2 firewall is blocking RRC's Tutor from connecting

Question

How do I get Ranger Remote Control to work with Windows XP SP2?

Symptoms

After deploying Windows XP Service Pack 2 to your workstations Ranger Remote Control Tutor is no longer able to establish a connection with the RRC client running on the machines.

Cause

Windows XP Service Pack 2 has many new features. The main feature is the network level application firewall included in the new security centre. 

By default, Windows XP SP2 will block all incoming communicationunless the application is specifically configured in an exclusion list.

Additional help with Windows XP Service Pack 2 Firewall configuration can be found at the following web sites.

Please note that these pages are for guidance only. This is a Microsoft issue and any information used from this website and its links are done at the customers own risk.


Customising Windows Firewall:
http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Customizing-Windows-Firewall.html


Controlling Windows Firewall through GPO's:
http://www.execsoft.co.uk/sp2/grouppolicyconfigXPSP2.pdf


Controlling Windows Firewall through GPO's continued. If you have Windows 2000 server you may need to download this update from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/

For more information on Windows XP SP2 go to Microsoft's web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/winxpsp2.mspx

Resolution

To allow Ranger Remote Control to function correctly you need to add the program executables into the firewall exceptions list.


There are five programs affected by the firewall by adding them to the exceptions list Windows will then open the necessary inbound ports to allow connections to be established.

Instructions

There are two ways the programs can be added to the exceptions list.


Option 1 - Manually add the programs into the exceptions list

Go to the new security centre and select the firewall option. Make sure that the deny exceptions option is un-ticked then go to the exceptions tab and manually browse for the executables.

Add the following programs

• C:Program FilesRanger Remote Controlpcijoin.exe
• C:Program FilesRanger Remote Controlclient32.exe
• C:Program FilesRanger Remote Controlpcideply.exe
• C:Program FilesRanger Remote ControlPCINSSUI.EXE
• C:Program FilesRanger Remote Controlpcinsscd.exe

Option 2 - Editing the registry

The instructions and registry keys needed to allow Ranger Remote Control to function correctly on a XP SP2 computers are below.

1. To enable ports for client only utilities download clientports.txt or download allports.txt to enable support for all RRC programs including RRC deploy.
2. Open up the file in notepad, you will see that the location of Ranger Remote Control is stated a few times e.g. "C:/Program Files\Ranger Remote Control".
   
   This location will need to be changed to the location of your Ranger Remote Control installation folder.
3. If you have Ranger Network you can use a file called the "preshellNT" file located in the Ranger folder on your server.
   
   If you edit this file in notepad and copy the text from the file you downloaded to the bottom of the preshellnt.rrg file under the section "Misc registry values" The next time a user logs onto the computer the registry keys will be merged into the registry.

Option 3 - Using a utility to do it for you - requires Administrative privilege

A tool has been developed to automate this configuration change. This can be performed individually on each workstation or configured to run automatically on all XP SP2 workstations by running it centrally from a login script, using Ranger packages, running it remotely using LAN Ranger (if available) or using a Ranger REACT task (if available).

The following describes how to apply the update both individually and via a logon script.

Download icfconfig.zip, unzip the exe file into either your Ranger folder or an accessible application area on your server.

This utility is a DOS based application designed to be run from the Command prompt. To modify Windows' settings to allow Ranger Remote Control to work, load a Command shell (CMD.exe) on your XP machine and run the application using the following switches. icfconfig.exe -e rrc

If you want this application to be applied to all machines run the application from your logon script, this will ensure that the update is applied to each machine next time any user logs on. Note:  Ensure standard users have permission to run this application.

This application is only designed to run on Windows XP SP2 workstations. Ensure the update is reapplied if a workstation is rebuilt.

For example "\\server\ranger\utils\icfconfig.exe" -e rrc

After all Windows XP SP2 machines have been logged on, remove this application from your logon script to prevent errors and reduce unnecessary network traffic.

Testing

To check the update has worked:

• Try to use Ranger Remote Control Tutor to check it functions correctly.

• Look at the Windows firewall configuration dialog to view the current configuration. Go to start - settings - control panel - windows firewall