Topic: Video Calls Through Firewall

[Howard Jacobson]

I have searched the forums and found discussion of H.323 through the firewall component of the e-smith server.  I understand that certain applications (e.g., NetMeeting) require potentially many ports to be open, creating a big security risk.  I would like to know whether these same issues exist with other video calling software (e.g., Intel Video Phone).  Do they all pose the same security risks by requiring so many ports to be open?

Thanks.

[schotty]

Basically any application that requires open ports "can" be a security hazard.
The less ports open the better.

[Nathan Fowler]

It isn't as simple as opening the ports, you have to also forward these ports to the appropriate client.  It's rather difficult, cumbersome, and "iffy".  These forwarded ports create a security concerns because they are being forwarded to the client machine, which can be W32/etc.

Check out http://www.tsmservices.com/masq they have some good information.

[ian]

I used Netmeeting through my SME 5.5 server and as long as I had the IP address of the person I was calling everything worked 100% including file transfer and whiteboard. Since I have upgraded to 5.6 I have no voice chat inward bound. Sending is fine. There must have been some changes to the new version that have caused this. It would be good to get it back to how it was. Maybe I am going to have to revert back to 5.5

Al the best
Ian