Belkin 7630 router and Messenger

Hi,

Having solved my other router problem, I'm finding compatibility problems
with Messenger.

The video and chat work, but audio conversations are one way only with me
unable to hear the other person. Has anybody got Messenger to work with a
belkin 7630 router yet?

thanks in advance.

"Monkfish PI" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42498f22$0$290$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> Having solved my other router problem, I'm finding compatibility problems
> with Messenger.
>
> The video and chat work, but audio conversations are one way only with me
> unable to hear the other person. Has anybody got Messenger to work with a
> belkin 7630 router yet?
>
> thanks in advance.
>
>
I was looking at this last night as it happens, wrt a Netgear router. The
audio is carried using RTP which "selects" an IP port to use. I haven't
found any way of forcing Messenger to use a specific port (bad design - real
SIP phones allow this for just this purpose!) so odds are your router, or
your friend's, is blocking the incoming audio.

Does your router permit UPnP? In theory, this allows your Messenger to
cause the router to open a pin-hole through which the audio flows. I've not
tried this yet (waiting for my brother-in-law to get his broadband sorted
out) but that should, in theory, help.

Of course it could be your friend's router which is blocking the audio so he
also needs a UPnP capable router.

FWIW, If you can figure out how to force use of a specific RTP port, please
let us all know. Real SIP phone do this for exactly this purpose and do not
need to use UPnP.

Paul DS.

"Paul D.Smith" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:424a623e$0$289$(E-Mail Removed) t...
> "Monkfish PI" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:42498f22$0$290$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi,
>>
>> Having solved my other router problem, I'm finding compatibility problems
>> with Messenger.
>>
>> The video and chat work, but audio conversations are one way only with me
>> unable to hear the other person. Has anybody got Messenger to work with a
>> belkin 7630 router yet?
>>
>> thanks in advance.
>>
>>
> I was looking at this last night as it happens, wrt a Netgear router. The
> audio is carried using RTP which "selects" an IP port to use. I haven't
> found any way of forcing Messenger to use a specific port (bad design -
> real
> SIP phones allow this for just this purpose!) so odds are your router, or
> your friend's, is blocking the incoming audio.
>
> Does your router permit UPnP? In theory, this allows your Messenger to
> cause the router to open a pin-hole through which the audio flows. I've
> not
> tried this yet (waiting for my brother-in-law to get his broadband sorted
> out) but that should, in theory, help.
>
> Of course it could be your friend's router which is blocking the audio so
> he
> also needs a UPnP capable router.
>
> FWIW, If you can figure out how to force use of a specific RTP port,
> please
> let us all know. Real SIP phone do this for exactly this purpose and do
> not
> need to use UPnP.
>
> Paul DS.
>
>

The router supports UPnP , it's turned on but it makes no difference. Not
sure if there are newer UPnP standards that my router doesn't support.

The other ends of the audio conversation were both using modems, I'm the
only posh git (idiot) with a router :-(

I've found a list of ports that need to be setup for port triggering, but
I'm not sure of the correct format to enter them into the router.

MSN Messenger

Trigger TCP 1863,5190,6891,6901
Trigger UDP 1863,5190,6891,6901
Incoming ports TCP 1863,5190,6891,6901
Incoming ports UDP 1863,5190,6891,6901

On the router setup you can enter a trigger port, then a trigger type
(udp/tcp), a list of public ports, public type (tcp/udp)

I've tried entering them on 8 different lines , each port twice with udp
selected on one line and tcp on the next line. in the list of public ports
I've just typed them all in. But this blocked all access to messenger not
just audio.

Will port triggering make a difference anyways?

cheers

[snip]

> MSN Messenger
>
> Trigger TCP 1863,5190,6891,6901
> Trigger UDP 1863,5190,6891,6901
> Incoming ports TCP 1863,5190,6891,6901
> Incoming ports UDP 1863,5190,6891,6901
>
> On the router setup you can enter a trigger port, then a trigger type
> (udp/tcp), a list of public ports, public type (tcp/udp)
>
> I've tried entering them on 8 different lines , each port twice with udp
> selected on one line and tcp on the next line. in the list of public ports
> I've just typed them all in. But this blocked all access to messenger not
> just audio.
>
> Will port triggering make a difference anyways?
>
> cheers
>
>

Aside: Where di you get the list of ports from?

I'm not sure what "port triggering" is but the problem as I understood it
was that Messenger "selects" a random port to use for audio. The problem is
that your router will not be configured to allow this random port so UPnP is
supposed to take care of this.

If you're feeling brave, you could allow all ports (disable your filrewall)
and see what happens. If you hear nothing then perhaps you need to look
elsewhere for the problem. One possibility might be a software firewall on
your PC - will it allow either UPnP and/or the audio through?

Assuming you _do_ hear the audio, try using "netstat -a" from a command
prompt and this will tell you what ports are in use. Then try a new audio
session and see if the same ports are reused or a new one selected - I would
expect a new port to be used for the audio.

BTW, you might want to try Yahoo Messenger. I've not yet, but it looks like
it uses a simpler set of ports.

Good luck,
Paul DS

"Paul D.Smith" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:424baf19$0$287$(E-Mail Removed) t...
> [snip]
>
>> MSN Messenger
>>
>> Trigger TCP 1863,5190,6891,6901
>> Trigger UDP 1863,5190,6891,6901
>> Incoming ports TCP 1863,5190,6891,6901
>> Incoming ports UDP 1863,5190,6891,6901
>>
>> On the router setup you can enter a trigger port, then a trigger type
>> (udp/tcp), a list of public ports, public type (tcp/udp)
>>
>> I've tried entering them on 8 different lines , each port twice with udp
>> selected on one line and tcp on the next line. in the list of public
>> ports
>> I've just typed them all in. But this blocked all access to messenger not
>> just audio.
>>
>> Will port triggering make a difference anyways?
>>
>> cheers
>>
>>
>
> Aside: Where di you get the list of ports from?
>
> I'm not sure what "port triggering" is but the problem as I understood it
> was that Messenger "selects" a random port to use for audio. The problem
> is
> that your router will not be configured to allow this random port so UPnP
> is
> supposed to take care of this.
>
> If you're feeling brave, you could allow all ports (disable your
> filrewall)
> and see what happens. If you hear nothing then perhaps you need to look
> elsewhere for the problem. One possibility might be a software firewall
> on
> your PC - will it allow either UPnP and/or the audio through?
>
> Assuming you _do_ hear the audio, try using "netstat -a" from a command
> prompt and this will tell you what ports are in use. Then try a new audio
> session and see if the same ports are reused or a new one selected - I
> would
> expect a new port to be used for the audio.
>
> BTW, you might want to try Yahoo Messenger. I've not yet, but it looks
> like
> it uses a simpler set of ports.
>
> Good luck,
> Paul DS
>
>

A website called port forwarding lists all common ports for many
applications.

When you switch the router's firewall off messenger works fine, so it looks
like the NAT side of the firewall is causing problems. I'd hate to have to
disable it just to use one application. I might see if Belkin support has
any ideas, although the first thing they always get you to do is set MTU to
1400 as if that will cure all faults ;-)