DComTalk.com

I have two computers behind a Netgear router. The two computers can use
netmeeting between each other just fine, using their 192.168.x.x adress
as the calling address. Based on this, it seems like netmeeting is
installed and running fine on both computers. I would like one of these
computers to be able to answer netmeeting calls from outside the
router, and am not having any luck.

What I have tried:

1) Allowing netmeeting as an exception in the windows firewall, and
forwarding ports 389, 522, 1503, 1720 and 1731 to this computer on the
router. (This would be my ideal confuration for security reasons). When
I try to call the computer from outside the router (using the router's
IP), I get "The person you have called is not able to accept netmeeting
calls"

2) Turning off windows firewall completely, putting the computer in the
router's DMZ (basically, nothing blocked just as a test). When I try to
call the computer from outside the router (using the router's IP), I
get "The person you have called is not able to accept netmeeting
calls". Since this most basic test fails, I'm not sure what to think.

I'm not sure what else to try. Could my ISP be blocking a required
netmeeting port?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

On 04/09/2005 No Such Luck wrote:

I'm not sure what else to try. Could my ISP be blocking a required
netmeeting port?

Unlikely, but I asked my ISP (Demon) because I had the same issues as
you, they said 'no, we don't block these ports'.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

I have been trying this with both a Linksys and a Draytek router with
the following results (only to one specified PC in my case):

Put PC in router's DMZ and rely on a s/w firewall - works fine in and
out for both routers.

Use the router's port forwarding or open ports function:
Linksys works fine for o/g calls, no sound on i/c.
Draytek works opposite to the Linksys, i/c calls fine, o/g no sound.

I spent several hours in a mixed Skype/NetMeeting call with a colleague
using the MS Net Monitor tool. What we discovered was that for o/g
calls the Draytek was giving the correct external IP address in the
headers but NM was using the internal IP address in its data packets.
This meant my colleague's NM was trying to establish a voice connection
with an internal IP address. We suspect the Linksys was doing something
similar in the opposite direction.

It seems the only way NM will work is in the router's DMZ (which
negates the built in f/w which is not very sensible) or buy a router
which is specifically NM aware, i.e. it understands the H323 protocol.
That is a rare beast nowadays, I had a note somewhere of which makes
do, if I can find it I'll post back.


--
Jeff Gaines - Damerham Hampshire UK
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