Ok, I posted something about this in the networking forum, but my issue has become more clear now, and I think it fits better here.

I cannot get Gaim to connect. Kopete and aMSN works fine, but Gaim only goes to the authentication stage in connecting to MSN, then it fails. Now, I brought my box over to my friends house who uses a different router than I do, and it connected fine. Also, if I disconnect my comp from the router and run it straight through my cable modem, it connects fine.

I also have a Fedora 2 box on my LAN, and the Gaim install on that box connects fine, so something's goofy with SuSE 9.2 (the system it's not working very well on). Oh, the router I have is an NR041 Network Everywhere router.

Does anyone who what the issue could possibly be? Cheers!

-br00tal

I don't use your router, but am on SuSE without issue. Is it possible you've blocked this connection on your router or not pre-approved it?

Did you try uinstalling your current version of Gaim and try installing the newest version?


EDIT: just read the "weird" part about your box connecting to the cable modem and gaim working just fine....


Sounds like a router issue. Did you try 'resetting' your router and reconfiguring it? maybe you'll see something that could be causing the gaim problem.

Hey,

Each messenging client uses it's own specific set of ports. I haven't had too much trouble with this, but your firewall may be blocking some of the ports GAIM (in particular) want's to use.

The commands 'netstat' and 'nmap' may be of some assistance to figure out what ports gaim is trying to use (or if it is having trouble getting access to them).

PS: If you wan't nmap you will probably have to YAST it since it isn't installed by default I think.

Yes, I have tried updating Gaim, and it doesn't make a difference. And no, I don't think it's a firewall issue, as it worked when I connected it directly to my cable modem and through a D-Link router that my friend owns. So, the problem is most likely with my router, but I was wondering if anyone knows exactly what IS going on with it. And the issue's only with Gaim (although my IRC clients tend to connect slowly, but they DO connect and stay connected). Cheers!

-br00tal

Hey,

Some messeging clients have features built in to revert to "compatibility ports" when they detect that they cannot connect to their native ports. ie: gaim, i'm pretty sure, has the ability to run over port 80 to get around firewall's and other problems. Is it possible that your clients are first timing out when trying to connect to their standard ports then reverting to some sort of compatibility mode? again, netstat and nmap will let you know exactly whats going on on the network level.

PS: Many routers have firewalls and all sorts of fancy port blocking/forwarding abilities built into them. So you still may have a firewall/port blocking issue but on the router level rather than the OS level.

Hope that gives you some ideas,

Thanks for the response. I know about forwarding ports and such, as I use a lot of apps that require those sorts of actions, but usually it's not required that you forward ports for apps such as Gaim or other chat programs to connect. I have told Gaim what ports to use, and have forwarded them on my router and on my firewall, just in case, and I still get the issue. And it's a weird issue at that...

-br00tal

Have you tried completely opening your router firewall (for a short period of time) to see if it works then? If so, it should be a downhill battle to figure out what traffic is getting blocked where. If not, your router is doing strage things (ie: blocking traffic when you told it not to).

Good luck

Sorry to bring back an old thread but did you ever find the solution to this. I am having the same problem and would like to get gaim working again so I don't have to boot into windows to chat. Thanks.

Hi MustangCSA,

A quick search on Google will let you know that you need to have ports "1863" "80" and maybe "569" open on your Firewall(S) to allow MSN to work.

Keep in mind that you might have a firewall in your router / switch, possibly in your modem (very unlikely), or also in your OS at the software level (SuSE and others come with a firewall built in).

Do some searching .. it is most certianly a firewall / some other packet blocking issue.

Cheers

Acctually my problem is with gaim not connecting. I have tried searching google but haven't found anything very useful. Maybe I'm not using the right search phrashes. It still doesn't work if I turn my iptables firewall off. I am connected to dsl through qwest with a actiontec gt701-wg. (The modem they supply). I am pretty sure the problem is with that modem, cause it worked fine before. I'm just not sure how to go about opening ports and stuff like that. Thank you.