Connection Failed - Failed to connect to the remote computer

Discussion in 'Accessing your Mac' started by ssdbrown, Aug 30, 2013.

  1. ssdbrown

    ssdbrown Junior Member

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    Zendog,
    thanks again.
    Before seeing your comments, I thought I would repair permissions on my hard disk (start Mac with "command R" pressed and select repair disk permissions).
    Breakthrough!!
    There were a number of incorrect legacy permissions. These were repaired and Parallels Access is working. Firewall is still turned on and I have not changed any wireless network settings.
    I will see if it remains stable and report back shortly.
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2013
  2. ssdbrown

    ssdbrown Junior Member

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    All,
    Since verifying/repairing my hard drive and verifying/repairing disk permissions, Parallels Access seems to be working ok.
    It was fine when tested at various times yesterday and again this morning on our office network at work.
     
  3. russ3022

    russ3022 Bit poster

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    I have a wireless connection from my iMac to my Airport Extreme router. I tried several of the tricks in the various threads (turning off my firewall, complete uninstall of Agent using CleanMyMac and re-installing it, cleaning up permissions, opening ports, etc.), all to no avail. I then read Zendog's post above, figured that maybe the WiFi was the culprit and replaced the WiFi connection between my computer and my router with an Ethernet cable.

    Voila! it works like a charm. Everything seems to work fine with Access on my iPad2 so far. Now I'm going to start working back (turning back on the firewall, etc.) and hopefully, everything will still work OK.

    russ3022
    iMac 21' late 2012,
    OS X 10.8.4
    Airport Extreme router
     
  4. nicotoroboto

    nicotoroboto Junior Member

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    This would make sense with my issue as well. As I mentioned I did a bunch of maintenance. The disk repair was one of Onyx's maintenance scripts. I didn't have a ton to repair but enough. The one that stood out to me was /Library/LaunchAgents and/or /Library/LaunchDaemons. Maybe that was enough.
    As for the WiFi being another issue that is very interesting one. It should theoretically be very similar to an ethernet connection as far as VLAN's and access, etc. go. I'll definitely be watching this and keep you posted if I should find the issue appears again.
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2013
  5. crctech

    crctech Junior Member

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    Remote access, connection failed, check ports

    I can access my Mac within the local network, However from other locations with public WiFi, or using my cell phone as a modem, I am getting a message that the connection failed and that I should check that the required ports are open. I have an apple time capsule as my home router, within the Router I reserved the IP address for the desktop "home" computer and added the ports required for parallels access, Still, same problem. Does anyone have any suggestions?
     
  6. russ3022

    russ3022 Bit poster

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    AS i mentioned above, if I use an Ethernet cable between my Airport Extreme (5th gen) router and my iMac, OS X 10.8.4, Access with my iPad2 within my local WiFi network works fine. However, I cannot connect to my Mac from a public WiFi. I get the message regarding opening certain ports. I would like to see step-by-step instructions on how to properly do this , as the various referenced on this process seem disjointed and I have had no success. There is some confusion as to which MAC addresses to use in setting up the ports. It sounds like the solution involves some router/network configuration.

    If I disconnect the Ethernet cable and rely on WiFi, then I cannot get a connection at all past the sign-in spinning gear in Agent. There seems to be some process disconnect between the router and iMac when using Agent in WiFi mode.

    Suggestion to Parallels: Release new apps like this as a Public beta rather than a a full release. Many of us may not realize that a new app like this has likely been beta tested within a limited audience, and that a release into the wild will likely expose the app to unanticipated conditions and configuration environments. A public beta phase might help to avoid such negative initial reactions. Another idea may be to include a disclaimer with the first exposure to the wild.

    Keep up the good work!

    russ3022
     
  7. HartmutF

    HartmutF Bit poster

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    ssdbrown,
    May be you have resolved your issue in the meantime. If not, I thought it might be of interest what happened re the same issue on my site. I've received feedback from Parallels how the connections works. It is interesting if not known and reads as follows,

    "Regarding the connection that Parallels Desktop uses the explanation is outlined below.

    Both Mobile App (Parallels Access) and the computer Agent establish a secure encrypted connection through Parallels Access Server.
    Each connection side has its own copy of security certificate issued by Parallels Access Management Server’s authority. If certificates match Parallels Access Server makes both sides connect.
    When user downloads his copy of Mac or PC Parallels Access installation package and installs it during the next 24 hours it will not require entering his Parallels Account credentials because Parallels Access package has the security token that serves for automatic logging in. The security token expires immediately after the initial agent starts or after 24 hours.
    By default Parallels Access does not require entering Mac user credentials to access Mac. It is called "Trusted channel". Trusted channel is secure and protected enough to establish a connection that cannot be compromised by any 3rd party. However in case customer wants to have some excessive level of connection security he can do it via Advanced tab in Parallels Access Preferences.
    Parallels Access supports direct connections between the mobile application and managed computer.
    Direct connection is established automatically as soon as the Parallels Access mobile application detects at least one reachable IP interface of the managed computer."


    So a connection via the Internet and through Parallels' Access Server needs to be established. Therefore, I think most of the ideas shared in this thread, including mine, were derived from a too complicated thinking. When I returned home after having been away for a few days, booted my Mac mini, logged in to my PA account via the Parallels Access agent's Preferences, verified that the PA agent is accessible (green light indicator is on) and then connected to my PA account from my iPad via the PA app, connection was established successfully. So, for me it's resolved.

    Question remains why a link couldn't be established after the installation. May be there is a bug with the security token Parallels Support mentioned above. But that's just guessing... Assuming that all official prerequisites for PA to work are fulfilled on your side, the only difference to my configuration I see is that the Mac mini is connected with my Internet Gateway via LAN and the iPad via WLAN. But that shouldn't matter if NAT is switched on on the router!
    
     
  8. nicotoroboto

    nicotoroboto Junior Member

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    Problem is back for me. I'll try and retrace my steps. There is definitely a possibility of it still being a certificate issue, perhaps even with the Parallels server. Some log entries support this theory. Hopefully we find out soon as my "6 month" trial runs out in 5 days....

    By the way where is Parallels support on this thread? I hope they didn't forget about us!
     
  9. Dave in Naples

    Dave in Naples Bit poster

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    1
    Hi I am having exact issue. Have performed same steps. No success. Hope someone finds answer - I will keep trying different approaches.

     
  10. crctech

    crctech Junior Member

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    After doing the Router settings below, it worked but intermittently, after one good remote session I cannot do a second, yesterday I rebooted the router and was able to connect once again, but then could not reconnect on second attempt.

    I set up the ports in my Time Capsule Router (same for Airport Extreme Router) using the wifi mac address from my computer. If you use ethernet instead of wifi to connect to the Router, you need to use the ethernet mac address from your computer. The computer mac addresses can be found in Settings, Network, then select Wi-Fi - Advanced - and will see the Wi-Fi Address at bottom of window, or select Ethernet - Advanced - and the Hardware tab, will see the Mac Address at top of the window.

    In the Time Capsule Router settings from Airport Utility: In the Network Tab; DHCP Reservations: I reserved an IP address for my computer's Wi-Fi Mac Address, could add a second reservation for the Ethernet Mac Address; then below DHCP Reservations, there is Port Settings, here you can add the ports for the Wi-Fi mac address and the ethernet mac address. I added the ports both in Public and Private UDP and TCP. And for the Private IP Address I used the IP Address I had reserved for my computer. Ports:
    UDP 19302,19294,19295
    TCP 443,19294,19295

    Yesterday received update for the iPad PA App, have not had time to test it. Also testing with two different ISP's but it takes a lot of time to set up these tests, will work on it this weekend and post if find anything useful.
     
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2013
  11. geneticistx

    geneticistx Bit poster

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    1
    man, i would love for this to work as easily as they say it could/should. I can't connect my damn MBA to my ipad. Gonna try iMac later today.
     
  12. crctech

    crctech Junior Member

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    12
    My setup, MacBooPro (early 2009 model) OS 10.8.4 , Time Capsule version 7.6.4, Parallels 9, iPad 2 version 6.1.3:
    I have not had any problems connecting within my home network using Time Capsule wifi, this worked well from the beginning without having to change any settings in MBP or Time Capsule. It is when trying to connect form an outside network that I loose connection. After changing settings in Time Capsule per previous post I can connect from outside network but eventually start getting the connection error suggesting to check the ports are open.

    I have not tried with the latest Access update, installed in my iPad yesterday, hope that will solve problem!
     
  13. crctech

    crctech Junior Member

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    12
    Install latest update on iPad, version 1.0.1
    Disregard my previous post on port settings, no need to do any settings in Router after iPad app was updated. I deleted the port settings in router and Access worked. Seems to me that Parallels corrected the networking issues with latest update.
    Case closed unless I run into same connection issue in next few days.
     
  14. nicotoroboto

    nicotoroboto Junior Member

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    Issue seems to still persist with iPad App 1.0.2 (released today). Anyone else have any luck?
     
  15. crctech

    crctech Junior Member

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    Downloaded iPad App 1.0.2, it's working well both within local wifi network and remotely using sprint iPhone 5 as modem.
     
  16. DonaldA

    DonaldA Bit poster

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    2
    Anyone find a solution to this? I just downloaded Access today and have encountered the same problem with my MacBook not being connected. I've tried all of the suggestions made by various people earlier in this thread but nothing has worked. I too downloaded as part of the Parallels 9 upgrade. I then tried opening another account and tried the 14-day trial. Still nothing although the original trial I had worked perfectly. The only thing that has changed is that I updated to iOS 7.02 on the iPad. I've got a message to tech support on it but no response so far.
     
  17. DonaldA

    DonaldA Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    Interesting. I just tried my trial account with my iMac and it connected without any problems at all. I wonder if there is a hidden file somewhere related to the trial use that over-rides a legitimate connect?
     
  18. crctech

    crctech Junior Member

    Messages:
    12
    I updated my iPad2 to IOS 7.0.2, Access has been working well. Have only had one problem and I think was caused by the ISP I was using being slow and unreliable, I could not reconnect a second time, when returned home my macbookPro(OS 10.8.5) was stuck in remote connection, turned off access and computer screen reset to normal, but after that I have connected and re-connected remotely on several occasions without any problems.

    I generally use my iPhone 5 hotspot to connect my iPad to the internet. When I have LTE signal (Sprint), Access works all the time. I am thinking the quality of the internet connection may have something to do with connection problems. Also, below are my settings at home in case that helps:

    I have a timeCapsule (Airport Extreme) Router connected to a Cable modem, speeds range from 12-16 Mbps. The cable company said they have all ports open. I use wifi to connect my macbookPro to home network. I set my TimeCapsule (per previous post) to reserve an IP address for my macbookPro, and configured the TCP and UDP Ports shown below to the IP address of the macBookPro , (my macbookPro is now my Home computer, soon to be replaced by iMac):
    UDP 19302,19294,19295
    TCP 443,19294,19295
     
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2013
  19. nicotoroboto

    nicotoroboto Junior Member

    Messages:
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    Ok well I've had Access uninstalled for about a day so I don't know if I might have missed an update that fixed things or if it was the actions I took before installing it again. Prior to it working, as it did today, I was running version 1.0 with some long build number ending in something like 43869. Today when I went to install it it simply said 1.0.3 (mention above several days ago) with a short build number following. Also I finally saw an option to disable automatic start up of the app. This was something I hadn't seen before. No matter what I did I always downloaded the 1.0 with the long build number.

    Now, what did I do just in case it matters in addition to this update that seemed to finally download properly? I went into KeyChain access and saw some old expired keys and certs that I cleaned up, completely independent of this issue by the way. Then without doing anything else I went and decided to try to install again and it worked. So I hate to be that guy that sends you out into the danger with not very much info but I wanted to get this info out there in case it might lead to a more specific fix.

    I need to warn you, you can really do a lot of harm to your data/encrypted stuff if you delete the wrong keys! Please do NOT attempt to delete any keys you don't have a Time Machine back up of or aren't familiar with. Please ask someone or take it to Apple if you are at all weary about this.

    I deleted about 4 of them and they were all expired that were replaced by new valid ones but the old remained. So my current (random, yes) theory is that it tried to use the bad cert first and just errored out eventually. This relates to some of the errors I was seeing in the log with relation to certificates.

    In conclusion, the previously mentioned 1.0.3 update may have fixed this on it's own and it was just coincidence, if so go out and see if you can download the new version. If not, take a look at your KeyChain BUT DO NOT DELETE ANYTHING UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO DEAL WITH THE CONSEQUENCES. This literally just happened so I don't know if it will help anyone but I was very frustrated with the product so I wanted to give an update just incase it helps some one else. Thanks and be safe out there.
     
  20. Jay Buchanan

    Jay Buchanan Bit poster

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