Vista - port forwarding on messenger

06-05-2008

On Thu, 5 Jun 2008 00:58:23 -0600, J_S wrote:

Quote:

> in my experience most people have improperly configured port settings with
> or with out upnp.

Most users don't know a computer port from Port wine, or the Port of
Oakland, California.

Quote:

> ie the touted features of messenger rarely work as advertised and from what
> I can tell that is mostly due to issues involving Network Address
> Translation.

I had one messenger client which I could never get to work for direct
connection. Sniffing with Ethereal (now called, "Wireshark"), I found out
that the client would send the computer IP address to the remote client,
which then would attempt to connect to the RFC 1918 private IP address,
because that was the IP address being negotiated by the responding client.
That was a flaw in the IM application, which had no way to discover the
proper public IP address to send. There was no way to make that client work
in direct connection mode.

Quote:

> as a power user who is now administering my own home network,
> messenger would work better more often if I could dedicate more than just
> the default ports to one computer.

I think all of the IM client application programmers are just taking the
easy way out. This is most likely a case of, "If you want to do it right, do
it yourself". IOW, write your own IM client.

Quote:

> that said, I hope my rants can be forwarded to some one on the messenger
> dev team.

I seriously doubt that your wish will be considered. None of the IM clients
I have checked now offer custom port configuration; most of them used to
offer it, in older versions.

--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum

06-06-2008

On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 09:35:34 -0600, J_S wrote:

Quote:

> why aren't we given the ability to forward a port range in msn messenger. I
> have recently grown my home network from 1 to 4 pc's and for security
> reasons I think upnp forwarding ports on on demand is a bad idea.
>
> why cant I define a port range for file transfers, voice and vid that way I
> could block out a space for each computer on my network.

None of the current IM clients allow it; not even Trillian. I suspect it is
because support for port forwarding is as tricky to implement by the
programmers as by the users. I once ran a packet sniffer on one client to
fine out why it wasn't making a direct connection. Turns out the remote
client was sending the computer IP address from the NIC, which was, of
course, a reserved, RFC 1918 IP address; totally useless to my client.

I agree that UPnP presents a security risk, and that IM clients should not
be relying on it. I don't know if the IM programmers will ever go back to
user configured ports for direct connections.

--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum

06-05-2008	#11 (permalink)
N. Miller n/a posts	Re: port forwarding on messenger On Thu, 5 Jun 2008 00:58:23 -0600, J_S wrote: Quote: > in my experience most people have improperly configured port settings with > or with out upnp. Most users don't know a computer port from Port wine, or the Port of Oakland, California. Quote: > ie the touted features of messenger rarely work as advertised and from what > I can tell that is mostly due to issues involving Network Address > Translation. I had one messenger client which I could never get to work for direct connection. Sniffing with Ethereal (now called, "Wireshark"), I found out that the client would send the computer IP address to the remote client, which then would attempt to connect to the RFC 1918 private IP address, because that was the IP address being negotiated by the responding client. That was a flaw in the IM application, which had no way to discover the proper public IP address to send. There was no way to make that client work in direct connection mode. Quote: > as a power user who is now administering my own home network, > messenger would work better more often if I could dedicate more than just > the default ports to one computer. I think all of the IM client application programmers are just taking the easy way out. This is most likely a case of, "If you want to do it right, do it yourself". IOW, write your own IM client. Quote: > that said, I hope my rants can be forwarded to some one on the messenger > dev team. I seriously doubt that your wish will be considered. None of the IM clients I have checked now offer custom port configuration; most of them used to offer it, in older versions. -- Norman ~Oh Lord, why have you come ~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum
My System Specs

06-06-2008	#12 (permalink)
N. Miller n/a posts	Re: port forwarding on messenger On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 09:35:34 -0600, J_S wrote: Quote: > why aren't we given the ability to forward a port range in msn messenger. I > have recently grown my home network from 1 to 4 pc's and for security > reasons I think upnp forwarding ports on on demand is a bad idea. > > why cant I define a port range for file transfers, voice and vid that way I > could block out a space for each computer on my network. None of the current IM clients allow it; not even Trillian. I suspect it is because support for port forwarding is as tricky to implement by the programmers as by the users. I once ran a packet sniffer on one client to fine out why it wasn't making a direct connection. Turns out the remote client was sending the computer IP address from the NIC, which was, of course, a reserved, RFC 1918 IP address; totally useless to my client. I agree that UPnP presents a security risk, and that IM clients should not be relying on it. I don't know if the IM programmers will ever go back to user configured ports for direct connections. -- Norman ~Oh Lord, why have you come ~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum
My System Specs

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