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Q. Why cannot I shut down a Windows XP computer by using Remote Shutdown?
A. Windows XP computer failed to be shut down remotely due to the default system configuration. There are two methods to solve this problem via configuring Windows system of the target computer using the Local Security interface.

1. Click "Start>Settings>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Local Security Policy>Local Policy". Highlight the Security Options item in the left pane. In the right pane, locate the item titled "Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts." The default option for this is the "Guest only - local users authenticate as Guest." Switch this option to the "Classic - local users authenticate as themselves." Thus you can log on remotely as a member of administrators group to shut down this computer by using Remote Shutdown. If the account you are using to logon remotely has a blank password, it's recommended to disable this security option "Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only".
2. Click "Start>Settings>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Local Security Policy>Local Policy". Highlight the User Rights Assignment item in the left pane. In the right pane, double-click the item titled "Force shutdown from a remote system". Click "Add User or Group" button, in "Enter the object names to select (examples)", type "guest" and click OK. And then click OK again. Following this, click "Start>Settings>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Local Users and Groups>User", in the right pane, double-click the Guest account. In the general tab of Guest Properties window, click the check box "Account Disabled" to make it unchecked, and then click OK. Thus anyone can shut down this computer by using Remote Shutdown without logging on. A restart may be required for the changes to take effect.

Q. The feature that detects writable shared folders is quite dangerous. The files and folders in writable shared folders detected by LanHelper may be destroyed by anyone. What should I do to prevent it happening?

A. At the beginning, I developed this feature to help myself clean the NIMDA virus on my network. But it might bring danger to the network users if someone misuses this feature. Anyone can use it to find the writable shared folders on the network and then modify or erase important data in those folders. To prevent this happening, use LanHelper to scan your network in time. Before this, make sure the scan options "shared folders" and "Detect the access to shared folders" have been turned on. After finishing scanning, select "View>Filter>Writable Share" from the menu bar, and then only the writable shared folders would be displayed in the Share column of the list. To the writable shared folders on Windows 95/98/ME system, you should configure them to be read-only ones or set password to protect them. To the writable ones on Windows NT/2000/XP, you should use Access Control List and Permissions Properties to protect them. For detailed information please refer to Windows help document.

Q. Why the Windows 98 computers cannot receive messages sent from my machine?
A. Under Windows 95/98/ME system, the program Winpopup.exe should be running to receive messages sent from other machines. To run Winpopup.exe, select Run from the Start menu to open the Run dialog box. Type "winpopup.exe" in the Open field and click OK button.

Q. I used Scan IP under Windows XP but found that all the scan results were badly wrong. Why?
A. This is caused by a bug in Windows XP system. You should install Windows XP Service Pack 1 or higher version to fix it. If your Windows XP system doesn't have Service Pack 1 or higher version installed, please set the value of the scan option "Maximum threads for IP scanning" to 1.

Q. What should I note if I want to wakeup a machine located on another subnet?
A. Steps:

1. Make sure Wake-On-LAN commands can reach the targets. Boot the target computer and run a packet sniffer on it and start capturing packet. Then from your computer send Wake-On-LAN commands to the destination by using Wake-On-LAN function. Check the sniffer whether it has captured the Wake-On-LAN data. If it has you would be able to send Wake-On-LAN command to this machine across subnet.
2. If the target computers cannot be reached, send Wake-On-LAN commands to router that the target subnet is directly attached to. You need configure the router yourself. Please read router's user manual for how to broadcast the Wake-On-LAN data into target subnet so all computers are able to receive Wake-On-LAN data.
3. The source port LanHelper uses in Wake-On-LAN command is port 9810 and the destination one is port 2304. So if you are using a firewall you need to open the ports for UDP traffic.
4. You should use unicast address or directed broadcast address. Directed broadcast address is an Internet Protocol address that specifies all nodes on a specified network. For example, send Wake-On-LAN commands to 192.168.10.255 so they can reach all nodes in the 192.168.10.x subnet. For all nodes on the specified network to receive the directed broadcast, each router attached to the network must have enabled directed broadcast.
5. If the target computers are very difficult to receive Wake-On-LAN data, another choice is use HUB in your network. For example, computer A and B all connect to one same HUB. A is powered down while B is running. When using unicast to send Wake-On-LAN commands to B, computer A and B will all receive the data at the same time. An old, second-hand HUB will help.
6. How to calculate the subnet-directed broadcast address.
   1. Convert machine address to binary, e.g. 10.208.20.1 = 00001010.11010000.00010100.00000001.
   2. Convert the Subnet Mask to Binary, e.g. 255.255.240.0 = 11111111.11111111.11110000.00000000.
   3. Invert the Binary Subnet Mask, e.g. 11111111.11111111.11110000.00000000 becomes 00000000.00000000.00001111.11111111.
   4. OR the machine address and the inverted subnet mask, e.g. 00001010.11010000.00010100.00000001 OR 00000000.00000000.00001111.11111111 = 00001010.11010000.00011111.11111111 = 10.208.31.255.

From version 1.46 on, the program calculates the address for you. In Wake-On-LAN dialog, click IP Broadcast Address label, then select Internet option, enter IP and subnet mask, click Ok button to calculate.

Q. I used Wake-On-LAN function to power on my PCs. Sometimes it worked fine but sometimes it failed. Why?
A. A computer may not be powered on by using Wake-On-LAN, if it was shut down improperly, or the Windows 2000/XP/2003 system hibernated. For some network cards require a flag to be set, which only happens when the operating system power down the machine normally.

A machine probably failed to be waked up after a power loss when AC power was restored. If you wish the machine to power on automatically on AC power back, you should configure the BIOS setup. Just enter BIOS Setup, then enter Power Management Setup, set the value of "AC Back Function" to "Full-On", then save and exit BIOS Setup.

Q. After shutting down a Windows 2000 computer by using Remote Shutdown, I used Wake-On-LAN and expected to boot it but failed. Why?
A. While a Windows NT/2000 computer is shut down by using Remote Shutdown, it simply shuts down the system and doesn't power down the machine, so you cannot power it on again by using Wake-On-LAN.

Q. I already have a list of computer names and their MAC addresses. How can I use this list in Wake-On-LAN?
A. Steps:

1. In version 1.40 or higher, use Import function to import your data into the program.
2. In early version, run the Notepad.exe application or any other plain text editor, input the existing MAC address, IP broadcast address and machine name just as the following format:
   FF-07-E9-0F-20-12; 255.255.255.255; PC1
   FF-05-5D-FB-90-DB; 192.168.1.255; PC2
   FF-50-BA-10-7C-8C; 255.255.255.255
   FF-02-B3-50-E6-6B

Use semicolon as the delimiter in each line. IP broadcast address and machine name are optional. If IP broadcast address is omitted, 255.255.255.255 would be specified by default.

After input completed, save them to a text file (.txt). Click Load button in Wake-On-LAN dialog, and then open the file that you saved just now. All the targets would then be loaded into Wake-On-LAN dialog.

Q. How to use the machine data in Microsoft Office?
A. Steps:

1. Excel2002: Open your XML file created by LanHelper in the "File>Open" dialog box in Excel. In Import XML dialog box, select "Open the file with the following stylesheet applied" (The only stylesheet it has is pre-selected for you), and click OK button.
2. Excel2000: Import your data to a CSV file in LanHelper, and then open it in Excel2000.
3. Word2000/2002: Open your XML file saved by LanHelper in IE or other web browser, click "Edit>Select All" from the menu bar, and then click "Edit>Copy". Run the Word 2000/2002 program and click "Edit>Paste" from the menu bar.

Q. Which ports are used by LanHelper?
A. From version 1.30 on, LanHelper opens TCP port 9812 and listen on it. This port is used by LanHelper Integrated Command. In Wake-On-LAN command, the source UDP port is port 9810 and the destination UDP port is port 2304. The other ports may be used by the program are standard Windows system ports, 137, 139, 445. For example, UDP port 137 is used by Refresh Status. Destination TCP port 139 is used by Remote Shutdown and Abort Remote Shutdown. Destination TCP port 445 is used by Remote Execute. UDP port 137 is used by Send Message.

Q. How to manually unlock the mouse and/or keyboard if they were locked by LanHelper?
A. Just press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + U keys If the keyboard was locked. If only mouse was locked, press Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys to make the Windows Task Manager visible, then use your keyboard (Tab, up arrow, down arrow, Alt + E) to terminate the msspr.exe process. You may fail to terminate this process if you haven't enough permissions. Then another simple way is restarting the computer.

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