MSN/Gtalk connection problems? Gaim/Kopete
 

Hello,

I haven't been able to connect to MSN or GoogleTalk for a couple of days now (I usually use Kopete, but I've even tried using GAIM - both worked perfectly until a couple days ago). I haven't changed a thing on my system, as far as I can see. I've got an AIM account that still works.

I can get onto the MSN network using a text-based chat program called tmsnc. It says something about successfully receiving and answering a challenge by MSN.

Has MSN done something recently to mess up 3rd party users? Do you guys have a problem right now with getting onto the MSN or GoogleTalk networks?

Any tips would be appreciated,
Baltika

How are you connecting to the Internet and is this at home or work / school? It may be that there's been some changes made to a firewall / proxy server that you may be running through which is blocking the ports required for these IM apps.

I'm connecting to the internet from home. I've got two computers behind a router.

I made some changes to the router's port forwarding, but all way up in the high 40 or 50 thousand mark.

I'm stuck. :) I've tried everything I can think of.

Baltika

If you go into your account settings within Kopete or Gaim, it will detail what ports it's wanting to connect to the servers with. Go back into your router, and make sure these are fine. Explicitly open them + forward them to your box as a test. Also, have you applied any online system updates to your box lately?

I have applied a couple online system updates with YaST (OpenSuse 10.0)... nothing that I'd think would be related to this, though, but who knows?

Now, I'd hate to sound too stupid, but how would one go about "explicitly opening ports and forwarding them to my box"? I've gone into each program, added the ports to my router's forwarding list, and it still doesn't get me anywhere.

This isn't the first time I've had problems with my router, though. It's an older Network Everywhere NR041. I run BitTorrent, as well, and it still says that I'm "probably firewalled/NATted", even though I've got it's port forwarded, too. Azureus wouldn't even get past the NAT/router test. The thing is, though, that despite all of these problems, Gaim and Kopete always ran perfectly.

This is the case even if my firewall is turned off, so I'm pretty sure it's something with the router. :(

Baltika

Just a quick update on my situation... I had tried reinstalling Gaim and Kopete, but that didn't work - probably because I didn't delete the old directories and any information remaining after the deinstallation. So when I reinstalled, the same thing happened.

I decided to try installing something from scratch. The only other chat program available in YaST was called sim (simple instant messenger). I installed it and it works perfectly. (I guess this means I don't have a problem with the router afterall).

Anyway, it's a nice little program. It looks just like ICQ used to. It supports jabber, MSN, ICQ, and the other typical services. In fact, it's got some cool features (like OSD) that the others don't, so I'm not exactly itching to get back to gaim or kopete anytime soon.

Baltika