Help getting team viewer to connect

My father has just purchased a new desktop PC from Dell.  I took it to my home, connected it to my home network and setup Windows 10 for him, ensuring all updates where run and I transferred his data from his old PC.

To enable me to access this PC using my own monitor, keyboard and mouse, I installed TeamViewer on it and connected from my own desktop PC to this new PC.  This all worked well and was flawless and very useful.

I then took the newly setup PC to my father house and set it up.  Everything was fine EXCEPT TeamViewer.  Each time this starts the bottom of the window shows the message "Not ready. Please check your connection".  Also, I was unable to get to the teamviewer.com website, but had no problem reaching other websites.  Wasted a couple of hours trying to troubleshoot this issue without success!  During this process I realised his broadband connection was only running at 4 to 5 Mbs, so pretty slow, especially when his provider can support over 60Mps!  However, that's another issue, but it did result in ad-hoc errors when trying to load web pages, especially when Windows update was running and hogging all the bandwith.

My father has his broadband account with TalkTalk.  I determined that many TalkTalk users have issues with TeamViewer as TalkTalk seem to block this by default!  Contacted TalkTalk and they told me they would unblock it.  Tried again, no difference.  This went on for a couple of days.  Despite TalkTalk support saying they have now unblocked the access, TeamViewer is still unable to connect to the internet.

I'm not at a loss as to what to try next.

Is there any way to determine what is causing the issue?  Is it some config on the PC, or is the PC okay and it is something to do with TalkTalk?

Any pointers would be much appreciated.

Comments

  • milleniumaire
    milleniumaire Posts: 7 ✭✭

    Anyone?  Not even TeamViewer Support?


  • @milleniumaire wrote:

    My father has just purchased a new desktop PC from Dell.  I took it to my home, connected it to my home network and setup Windows 10 for him, ensuring all updates where run and I transferred his data from his old PC.

    To enable me to access this PC using my own monitor, keyboard and mouse, I installed TeamViewer on it and connected from my own desktop PC to this new PC.  This all worked well and was flawless and very useful.

    I then took the newly setup PC to my father house and set it up.  Everything was fine EXCEPT TeamViewer.  Each time this starts the bottom of the window shows the message "Not ready. Please check your connection".  Also, I was unable to get to the teamviewer.com website, but had no problem reaching other websites.  Wasted a couple of hours trying to troubleshoot this issue without success!  During this process I realised his broadband connection was only running at 4 to 5 Mbs, so pretty slow, especially when his provider can support over 60Mps!  However, that's another issue, but it did result in ad-hoc errors when trying to load web pages, especially when Windows update was running and hogging all the bandwith.

    My father has his broadband account with TalkTalk.  I determined that many TalkTalk users have issues with TeamViewer as TalkTalk seem to block this by default!  Contacted TalkTalk and they told me they would unblock it.  Tried again, no difference.  This went on for a couple of days.  Despite TalkTalk support saying they have now unblocked the access, TeamViewer is still unable to connect to the internet.

    I'm not at a loss as to what to try next.

    Is there any way to determine what is causing the issue?  Is it some config on the PC, or is the PC okay and it is something to do with TalkTalk?

    Any pointers would be much appreciated.


    Hello 

    I have had the exact same issue which i managed to resolve.

    Basically you need to login to your Talktalk account and then go to My Services and then View Homesafe settings and change Scam Protection to off.

    If your unable to do this you will need to speak with the broadband team who claim to have done this for you but really mean they have given you permission to change that exact setting.

    Once done your connection should be restored.

  • milleniumaire
    milleniumaire Posts: 7 ✭✭

    Thanks for posting Dave.

    Unfortunately, I have already changed/checked the HomeSafe settings and these appear to be set correctly, in fact I have both Kids Safe and Spam Protection turned off.  I've also contacted TalkTalk a couple of times and they tell me they have "removed the block".

    I'm not sure if the issue is being caused by my PC blocking the connection (I've turned off the firewall) or if TalkTalk is still the issue, which is why I was really hoping someone from TeamViewer support might help debug this issue because at the moment the TeamViewer software is useless to me.

  • Esther
    Esther Posts: 4,052 Former Community Manager

    Hi @milleniumaire 

    Thanks for your post.

    For me, it indeed sounds like the initial problem when starting your father's PC in his house was the TalkTalk block. That you were not able to reach teamviewer.com is a strong indicator of it.

    But as they lifted the block already for your father, we need to make a few tests to finally get your TeamViewer working again ?

    1. Did you already test to close TeamViewer completely or even restart the TeamViewer service? With this, the software will try to make a re-connect to our servers after you restart the service. Chances are that you are getting a TeamViewer ID afterward.
    2. You said you disabled the firewall completely: Did this have any effect? Otherwise: Open port 5938 would in the normal case be a good starting point as TeamViewer prefers to make outbound TCP and UDP connections over port 5938. This is the primary port it uses, and TeamViewer performs best using this port. Your firewall should allow this at a minimum.

    I hope this will already resolve the case and please let us know what happens.

    Thanks and best,

    Esther

     

     

    Former Community Manager

  • milleniumaire
    milleniumaire Posts: 7 ✭✭

    Hi Esther,

    Thanks for posting your troubleshooting suggests, I agree that TalkTalk has definitely been part of the problem, and it may be they are still blocking the connection, despite speaking to them twice and changing the HomeSafe settings.

    Regarding your suggestions,:

    1. The PC has been rebooted many times.  I assume this would be enought to restart the TeamViewer service?

    2. The default firewall in Windows 10 is Windows Defender Firewall and I turned this off for both Private and Public connections, so I'm pretty sure it was completely off.  While off, it shouldn't be necessary to worry about any ports being blocked, however, is there a way I can test for this.  Is it possible to somehow "ping" the ports to test them and would I know how far the ping had got i.e. not through the firewall or through the firewall as far as the providers server, but no further.

    As my father lives 25 miles away, it is a 50 mile round trip, hence the need for a product like TeamViewer to help him out when he has PC issues.

    I'm happy to visit my father at the weekend and perform some troubleshooting, but I need to be confident that the troubleshooting will enable me to either fix the issue or at least identify what is causing the problem so I can then persue a solution.

  • milleniumaire
    milleniumaire Posts: 7 ✭✭

    I've just had a thought of how to perform some additional troubleshooting.

    I will install TeamViewer on my laptop and ensure I can connect to TeamViewer from my home desktop.

    However, as this will be via my local home network, I will then take the laptop to a neighbour and attempt to connect to it from my home desktop, while it is connected to their router.  Hopefully, they will NOT be using TalkTalk as their provider.  If they are and it works I may be able to check their HomeSafe account settings (if they let me).  If they are using TalkTalk and I'm unable to connect, I will try a different neighbour until I find one that doesn't use TalkTalk. It is more likely that my immedate neighbour won't be using TalkTalk and that the connection from my desktop will work.

    So, once I have a proven TeamViewer connection to my laptop, I will take the laptop to my Father and try connecting from my desktop at home to the laptop, which will be connected to his network.  If TeamViewer doesn't get a connection I know for sure it is TalkTalk that is the issue (or possibly the TalkTalk router).

    I will then need to somehow determine if it is the TalkTalk router that is the issue or if TalkTalk are still blocking TeamViewer, despite being told by them that they are not.

  • Esther
    Esther Posts: 4,052 Former Community Manager

    Hi @milleniumaire 

    That sounds like a good plan! I hope it works.

    One more thing which came into my mind was to check the settings on your father's TeamViewer. Maybe somehow one setting went wild and blocks itself from connecting to the internet.

    You could check, whether these settings are set:

    1. Extras --> Options --> Advanced --> Advanced settings for connections to this computer --> Access controll --> Full access

    2. Extras --> Options --> Advanced --> Advanced settings for connections to other computers --> Access controll --> Full access

    3. Extras --> Options --> General --> Incoming LAN connection --> deactivated

    For 1 and 2: If the setting is on "Deny incoming/outgoing remote control session" TeamViewer won´t connect to our servers.

    For 3: If the setting is on "except exclusively", TeamViewer won´t connect to our servers either.

    Hope this helps,

    Esther

     

    Former Community Manager

  • milleniumaire
    milleniumaire Posts: 7 ✭✭

    Fortunately, I didn't need to do any of the steps shown in my plan.  The next time I visited my father to attempt to resolve this issue is was working.

    I can only assume unblocking takes time.