Firewall settings for MSN

Archived from groups: comp.security.firewalls (More info?)

"Chris Berry" <christoforos@Notmail.com> wrote in message
news:cchmok$l5c$02$1@news.t-online.com...
> Hi guys,
> anyone know what ports I need to enable for full msn messenger
functionality
> with my hardware switch/firewall?
> Win2000 - if it makes any difference.

If you're NAT'd the only way to get *full* functionality is for your NAT
device to support UPnP. Without UPnP you can get video as MS have set up a
video relay server (which gives slower video than direct peer to peer will),
but they have not put up an audio relay yet. Even though W2K doesn't itself
support UPnP, MSN Messenger has the UPnP handling built in - for UPnP
support in other applications (if and when they support it) you'd have to
run Win XP.

Dan

Archived from groups: comp.security.firewalls (More info?)

"Chris Berry" <christoforos@Notmail.com> wrote in message
news:ccjpep$hrd$01$1@news.t-online.com...
>
> "Spack" <news@worldofspack.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:40ed0e41$0$21790$afc38c87@news.easynet.co.uk...
>
> > If you're NAT'd the only way to get *full* functionality is for your NAT
> > device to support UPnP. Without UPnP you can get video as MS have set up
a
> > video relay server (which gives slower video than direct peer to peer
> will),
> > but they have not put up an audio relay yet. Even though W2K doesn't
> itself
> > support UPnP, MSN Messenger has the UPnP handling built in - for UPnP
> > support in other applications (if and when they support it) you'd have
to
> > run Win XP.
> Thanks.
> On the connection tab it says I'm connected through a UPnP IP restricted
> NAT. Does this change anything?

It's been a while since I messed with MSN Messenger. My XP setup with a UPnP
router causes MSN Messenger to show my connection as direct. It sounds like
you have a UPnP device, so you probably will be fine, and won't need to open
all of the ports as listed in the other reply as UPnP will allow the ports
that are being used for peer-to-peer (audio, video, file transfers) to be
opened as needed. You could test it if you know someone else with MSN on a
direct (eg. cable or adsl modem connected directly to the PC) or UPnP
enabled device and see if audio is passed (one or both of you will need a
microphone). If it is, MSN is running fully.

Dan