Windows Messenger and Dual NAT

[Chuck]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.messenger (More info?)

Has anybody been able to get all functions of Windows Messenger (audio / video,
file transfer, and / or whiteboard) to work between two LANs with NAT on both
ends?

I have a Linksys BEFSX41, and a bud of mine has a D-Link DI-614. We spent
several hours yesterday, trying to use Windows Messenger and its features.
Results were inconsistent both in direction and time. File transfer would work
in one direction but not the other, except sometimes it wouldn't work at all.
Ditto whiteboard and audio / video.

We had UPnP enabled on both routers. I know that my router has a limited number
of UPnP ports - does using additional functions like audio / video, file
transfer, and whiteboard require too many ports for a home router?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.messenger (More info?)

I have also tried for hours, and have not been able to make this
configuration work. I am still looking for alternate solutions. Perhaps
there is some other software that someone can recommend?

The big problem is that Messenger uses random ports (WHY?!?) for audio
and video. The ports are within a huge potential range. The only way to
make it work is to open practically all ports in your router (in
effect, making a DMZ). This is a security risk, and inconvenient to
reconfigure the router every time you want to use messenger. The
"solution" offered by Microsoft is UPnP. But in practice, it doesn't
actually work, as far as I can tell. Like you, I tried several
different router brands, all with the latest firmware, with no luck.

This article explains how it is _supposed_ to work with UPnP:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/worki01.mspx

In reality, UPnP isn't really a good solution, because in many networks
(hotels, hotspots, public LANs, small businesses, etc) the NAT router
does not support UPnP, and the user has no control over the router.

The ideal solution would be an audio/video conference application that
operates over a single port and protocol. That could traverse two NAT
routers, if at least one router can be configured for port forwarding
to a specific host.

Tim

Chuck wrote:
> Has anybody been able to get all functions of Windows Messenger
(audio / video,
> file transfer, and / or whiteboard) to work between two LANs with NAT
on both
> ends?
>