Observe and Control Services Troubleshooting

If you are having trouble observing or controlling a remote computer, please review the following tips for a solution to your problem.

Make sure that Timbuktu Pro is running on the remote computer and that you have permission to use to the Control service.

Firewalls

There may be a network firewall between the computers. See Firewalls for more information.

Viewing DOS Programs

Timbuktu Pro does not support full-screen DOS sessions. If you are observing or controlling a remote computer whose application or owner switches to a full-screen DOS window, you may notice parts of the screen, such as icons, that are black or have their colors reversed, and you won't be able to control anything in the window. Press ALT+ENTER to switch the MS-DOS session from full-screen to windowed mode.

Animation Applications

Animations viewed in a screen-sharing window are not smooth and may contain gaps. In addition, the computer originating the animation may be slowed to the point of becoming unusable. If network output buffers are completely filled, no animation can be displayed on the originating computer until a part of the buffer's contents is sent.

If you are connecting to a remote computer that is running an animation, try disconnecting until the sequence has finished and then reconnecting.

DirectX Games API

DirectX games API bypasses GDI (Graphical Device Interface). Therefore, applications that use this API, such as Fire Fight, can't be viewed in the screen-sharing window. If you control a computer that is running such an application, you'll see the desktop but none of the windows that are displayed by the application.

Changing Screen Size

If the remote computer you are observing or controlling changes its "virtual desktop size" (using, for example, quickres.exe from Microsoft's PowerTools for Windows 95, or Flexdesk+ from ATI's Desktop control panel), your computer will experience a stack overflow. To prevent this, ask the remote user to wait until the screen-sharing session has ended before resizing.

Name of Macintosh Computer is Not Displayed Correctly in Your Screen-Sharing Window

The Macintosh user may have used extended characters in his or her computer name. Windows does not allow Timbuktu Pro to transfer symbols from the extended character set correctly.