When a customer downloads and runs the Assist On-Site utility, the program goes through a series of steps to attempt to figure out the proxy settings (if applicable) for the customer's environment and then to establish a successful connection to the Assist On-Site servers to start the support session. This document explains the different steps the Assist On-Site utility follows when connecting to the relay servers, illustrates potential problems, and how to troubleshoot them.
Supported Browsers and Operating Systems
Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, and Firefox Web browsers are supported.
The "native" supported client for AOS is Windows.
The Native supported AOS consoles are Linux and Windows.
Software Firewalls
Software firewalls like Microsoft's Firewall, Checkpoint's Zone Alarm, & ISS' BlackICE can deny the Assist On-site connection. If the firewall logs indicate that traffic has been blocked, configure the firewall according to the vendor's instructions and pursuant to the server and port information in this document. Ports, Relay Hosts, and IP Information If additional configuration is required with a customers’ firewall or proxy, the following table describes required IP and port configuration-> | Hostname / GEO | IP | Ports | | aos.us.ihost.com | 72.15.208.234 | 8200 or 80 | | Americas Relay | 72.15.208.234 | 8200 or 80 | | EMEA Relay | 81.144.208.229 | 8200,443 or 80 | | Asia Pacific Relay | 203.141.90.53 | 8200,443 or 80 | In order for Assist On-Site to work, the customer must allow SSL outbound traffic to download the AOS plugin traffic from the following server-> 72.15.208.234 on port 8200 or 80 In order to leverage geographically specific relay servers and realize improved throughput, the customer should also allow encrypted non-SSL (MARs encryption) outbound traffic to one of the geographically specific relay servers->
72.15.208.234 on port 8200 or 80
81.144.208.229 on port 8200,443 or 80
203.141.90.53 on port 8200,443 or 80
If the connection cannot be established, an error is displayed on the screen, a diagnostic log is written to disk and automatically open in notepad.exe so the customer can review the diagnostic information being gathered and sent it to support for analysis.
This file is stored in the Temp directory for the user, which in NT-based systems such as Windows 2000 and XP is \Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Local Settings\Temp, where USERNAME is the name of the user logged into the client machine. The name of the file is connrpt.html.
Here is an example of a log file where the connection fails because the customer's network setup doesn't allow the connection to go through port 80 because the data is not HTTP.
[2006.02.20-14:48:55]-->Session ID : a20939810f6f2b7c750a665cc15ef6dc
[2006.02.20-14:48:55]-->Servers Count : 2
[2006.02.20-14:48:55]-->IP Address[0] : 213.123.197.240
[2006.02.20-14:48:55]-->Port List [0] : 8200,563,80
[2006.02.20-14:48:55]-->IP Address[1] : 62.200.74.11
[2006.02.20-14:48:55]-->Port List [1] : 443
[2006.02.20-14:48:55]-->Starting connection to 213.123.197.240:8200
[2006.02.20-14:48:55]-->Connecting to 213.123.197.240:8200
[2006.02.20-14:49:13]-->Direct Connection Failed!
[2006.02.20-14:49:13]-->Failed error code = -11
[2006.02.20-14:49:13]-->Starting connection to 213.123.197.240:563
[2006.02.20-14:49:13]-->Connecting to 213.123.197.240:563
[2006.02.20-14:49:32]-->Direct Connection Failed!
[2006.02.20-14:49:32]-->Failed error code = -11
[2006.02.20-14:49:32]-->Starting connection to 213.123.197.240:80
[2006.02.20-14:49:32]-->Connecting to 213.123.197.240:80
[2006.02.20-14:49:32]-->Direct Connection Succeed!
[2006.02.20-14:49:32]-->connect_to_relay() Key Parameters to SEND
[2006.02.20-14:49:32]--> Y (256 bytes)
BE 46 80 E9 EC 03 B7 8D 1F 16 79 92 1D 8D 41 02 .F........y...A.
34 B6 21 15 73 BD F7 FD 86 8A E4 68 D4 AE 33 8E 4.!.s......h..3.
71 04 2A E0 2D F5 2F BA C7 D2 0A F3 85 28 CC 33 q.*.-./......(.3
80 82 16 08 88 49 81 74 26 C7 41 E0 BD CB D6 74 .....I.t&.A....t
D4 46 86 40 6D D0 70 39 02 D5 B8 70 15 DA CF 9E .F.@m.p9...p....
E1 A6 AE 3D 8A 0C FD A0 EB E5 04 54 C6 23 DF 35 ...=.......T.#.5
0F 79 FB EE EB AB 63 37 2C 4F E4 7A 00 E7 82 A7 .y....c7,O.z....
14 3D AC 0A E7 68 1E 96 F9 76 94 AA 00 00 00 00 .=...h...v......
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
[2006.02.20-14:49:32]--> P (256 bytes)
85 AE E6 0F 0A DC 5B A2 4E D1 72 38 F7 C2 72 CD ......[.N.r8..r.
D0 63 C2 39 9E DB 14 07 79 B5 DC 4C 22 B6 1E 34 .c.9....y..L"..4
37 E6 1B 4B 21 13 06 77 46 61 20 94 FB B8 A8 14 7..K!..wFa .....
44 EC 50 F0 EC 53 2B ED A1 89 EB 5B 0C 4A E7 33 D.P..S+....[.J.3
76 8A E2 E7 5A 11 DC 1E 59 29 F0 A6 10 9B 7D 29 v...Z...Y)....})
41 C0 B5 13 F6 BB 43 C9 84 49 5E 6A B0 3D 83 7A A.....C..I^j.=.z
F7 D7 EC 5C 34 CC 77 AA 39 2F B0 73 43 86 49 EE ...\4.w.9/.sC.I.
D0 82 86 27 85 C1 BC 1E 54 98 72 EF AE DB 71 20 ...'....T.r...q
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
[2006.02.20-14:49:32]--> R1 (256 bytes)
7B 3B 62 B9 DB A3 DF 98 F7 9B E7 49 AA 24 5D FC {;b........I.$].
84 3B 08 4A 98 7B A8 24 3A 13 91 A0 D6 F3 1A DF .;.J.{.$:.......
24 D8 E9 F4 88 5B A1 0F CE 97 55 00 57 E9 69 EB $....[....U.W.i.
61 87 07 14 B7 32 25 08 FE 06 32 2F B9 5A 30 4C a....2%...2/.Z0L
B1 97 23 63 01 C1 10 81 7A 40 C1 75 3A EF DB 41 ..#c....z@.u:..A
07 70 F6 07 A3 63 56 49 5B F5 91 8C 37 18 39 6C .p...cVI[...7.9l
A8 0C 8B F6 62 FD CC 98 D6 9D 63 71 56 E1 6B D8 ....b.....cqV.k.
6E 54 D6 12 ED BB D4 A9 DF 02 4A AB 87 C0 CA 66 nT........J....f
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
[2006.02.20-14:49:32]-->receiving Key Parameters
[2006.02.20-14:49:32]-->connect_to_relay() Key Parameters RECEIVED
[2006.02.20-14:49:32]--> R2 (256 bytes)
54 54 50 2F 31 2E 30 20 34 30 30 20 42 61 64 20 TTP/1.0 400 Bad
52 65 71 75 65 73 74 0D 0A 43 61 63 68 65 2D 43 Request..Cache-C
6F 6E 74 72 6F 6C 3A 20 6E 6F 2D 63 61 63 68 65 ontrol: no-cache
0D 0A 50 72 61 67 6D 61 3A 20 6E 6F 2D 63 61 63 ..Pragma: no-cac
68 65 0D 0A 43 6F 6E 74 65 6E 74 2D 54 79 70 65 he..Content-Type
3A 20 74 65 78 74 2F 68 74 6D 6C 0D 0A 43 6F 6E : text/html..Con
6E 65 63 74 69 6F 6E 3A 20 63 6C 6F 73 65 0D 0A nection: close..
43 6F 6E 74 65 6E 74 2D 4C 65 6E 67 74 68 3A 20 Content-Length:
37 31 33 0D 0A 0D 0A 3C 48 54 4D 4C 3E 3C 48 45 713....<HTML><HE
41 44 3E 0A 3C 54 49 54 4C 45 3E 52 65 71 75 65 AD>.<TITLE>Reque
73 74 20 45 72 72 6F 72 3C 2F 54 49 54 4C 45 3E st Error</TITLE>
0A 3C 2F 48 45 41 44 3E 0A 3C 42 4F 44 59 3E 0A .</HEAD>.<BODY>.
3C 46 4F 4E 54 20 66 61 63 65 3D 22 48 65 6C 76 <FONT face="Helv
65 74 69 63 61 22 3E 0A 3C 62 69 67 3E 3C 73 74 etica">.<big><st
72 6F 6E 67 3E 4B 6F 63 68 20 42 75 73 69 6E 65 rong>Koch Busine
73 73 20 53 6F 6C 75 74 69 6F 6E 73 2C 20 4C 50 ss Solutions, LP
[2006.02.20-14:49:32]-->Connected. Starting negotiation.
Proxy support
As the Assist On-Site utility is not installed on the remote system and attempts to leave no trace on the customer's system, there is not a configuration step for the proxy settings where the customer has to input the proxy settings the program should use. Instead the utility attempts to discover by itself which proxy settings it should use in order to connect successfully to the Assist On-Site server.
The utility can gather the proxy details defined in Internet Explorer and/or Mozilla Firefox. In some cases the proxy details are not defined directly there but an address of a Proxy Autoconfiguration file (PAC file) is provided. In this case the utility attempts to download this PAC file and see which of the proxy servers defined in the file should be used to establish the connection.
One can view their proxy settings in Microsoft's Explorer via "Tools-> Internet Options-> Connections-> LAN Settings"
Having gathered these details, the utility supports establishing connections either through HTTP(S) proxy servers, or SOCKSv4 servers.
Here is an example of a connection log where a proxy is detected and used:
[2006.02.02-15:31:28]-->
*** We continue to improve Assist On-site.
*** Please send this report to aos@us.ibm.com
*** and tell us if you would like to be contacted.
[2006.02.02-15:31:28]-->Session ID : $123456789012345678901234567890$
[2006.02.02-15:31:28]-->Servers Count : 2
[2006.02.02-15:31:28]-->IP Address[0] : 213.123.197.240
[2006.02.02-15:31:28]-->Port List [0] : 80,8200
[2006.02.02-15:31:28]-->IP Address[1] : 62.200.74.11
[2006.02.02-15:31:28]-->Port List [1] : 443
[2006.02.02-15:31:28]-->Detected IE Proxy @ 10.69.228.245:8080
[2006.02.02-15:31:28]-->Starting connection to 213.123.197.240:80
[2006.02.02-15:31:28]-->Trying with proxy HTTP server
[2006.02.02-15:31:29]-->Connecting to aos.uk.ihost.com:80
[2006.02.02-15:31:29]-->Using proxy server 10.69.228.245:8080 (HTTP)
[2006.02.02-15:31:29]-->Error 302 contacting server via proxy (HTTP)
[2006.02.02-15:31:29]-->Connecting DIRECT to 213.123.197.240:80
[2006.02.02-15:31:29]-->Connecting to 213.123.197.240:80
[2006.02.02-15:31:30]-->Direct Connection Failed!
[2006.02.02-15:31:30]-->Failed error code = -11
[2006.02.02-15:31:30]-->Starting connection to 213.123.197.240:8200
[2006.02.02-15:31:30]-->Trying with proxy HTTP server
[2006.02.02-15:31:30]-->Connecting to aos.uk.ihost.com:8200
[2006.02.02-15:31:30]-->Using proxy server 10.69.228.245:8080 (HTTP)
[2006.02.02-15:31:30]-->Error 302 contacting server via proxy (HTTP)
[2006.02.02-15:31:30]-->Connecting DIRECT to 213.123.197.240:8200
[2006.02.02-15:31:31]-->Connecting to 213.123.197.240:8200
[2006.02.02-15:31:32]-->Direct Connection Failed!
[2006.02.02-15:31:32]-->Failed error code = -11
[2006.02.02-15:31:32]-->Starting connection to 62.200.74.11:443
[2006.02.02-15:31:32]-->Trying with proxy HTTP server
[2006.02.02-15:31:32]-->Connecting to ayudame.uk.ihost.com:443
[2006.02.02-15:31:32]-->Using proxy server 10.69.228.245:8080 (HTTP)
[2006.02.02-15:31:33]-->(407) Need Proxy Authorization
[2006.02.02-15:31:33]-->Proxy ask for authentication, asking user.
[2006.02.02-15:31:37]-->Trying again proxy with userid: aa052520:**********
[2006.02.02-15:31:37]-->Connecting to ayudame.uk.ihost.com:443
[2006.02.02-15:31:37]-->Using proxy server 10.69.228.245:8080 (HTTP)
[2006.02.02-15:31:38]-->(200) Connected!
[2006.02.02-15:31:38]-->connect_to_relay() Key Parameters to SEND
If the utility cannot configure the proxy information automatically, it will attempt to connect directly with a relay server. If a proxy is required, but not detected automatically, it is possible to create a file containing the proxy server address and port as in the example line below:
Proxy=mywebproxy.mydomain.com:8080
This has to be saved in the file C:\proxy_ibm.txt in order for the utility to pick up the settings appropriately.
The customer should contact their security / LAN administrator(s) to determine the appropriate hostname and port to put into the file.
Additional support can be obtained by contacting AOS Support at aos@us.ibm.com. |
