Topic: Direct Connections

[Reinhardt Smit]

I have a home network where everyone uses MSN messenger and ICQ.  I can send messages and receive them properly, but whenever a direct connection has to be made, it does not work.  For example, I cannot receive files through ICQ, I cannot use the "Phone" Function, or the video function.  Also talking and using video phone functions in MSN does not work.  I realize that this is due to a Linux limitation but I wanted to know whether there was any way to allow these connections.

[Luckydog]

Direct connections are where an external IP addr tries to connect with
your PC without your PC initiating the connection....

A good firewall always rejects this as an unwanted advance by an unknown and
possibly dangerous attacker.

The way to get around this is to identify the port that the direct connection is attempting to connect to on your PC, and then use port forwarding to direct all
these connections to you without firewalling them away.

This is obviously an exposure, but one many people chose to live with.

You thus have two pieces of homework:

1)  Identify which ports are being connected to.

2)  Install ipportfw on your E-Smith server from the contributed RPMS section,
and then configure it according to the port numbers gathered in step 1.

Good luck!