UPNP an feature wanted..

[steelhead]

A UPNP plugin that opens the ports required for webcam should be fun...
And support for gif/jpeg images too.

[vivia]

If you get latest CVS version, it will work correctly with webcam, using the reflector server.

Support for gif/jpeg : why doesn't it work??

[linpower]

yes Upnp is the Solution for almost all porting.

webcam & sending files

i hope the amsn developers work on it

[kakaroto]

Yes, there might be some work done for it really soon, but maybe only for linux... I don't know about other platforms...
p.s. : to vivia : remind me to check on the status of the development of that upnp plugin a friend of mine is developping.. and possibly tell amsn-devel ML

[woekele]

I never really got the point of upnp... All it does is making it easy for trojans/virusses to do whatever they want, even with a router between you and the internet. I would advise to disable upnp on your router. Or at least be very careful when you leave it enabled.

[Phil]

The point isn't : Is uPnp is goog ? it's could it be added to aMsn...
For the plugin... I don't see how it can be done because it means hook Tcl procs... Is it possible ?

[linpower]

maybe using the trick as mIRC or MSN to fool the Firewall  :idea:


its just an idea.

i keep the rest for the developers    


see this:   http://www.faqs.org/docs/iptables/mircdcc.html

[daystrom]

I agree with vivia, I am not sure that UPnP is needed here.  But...

There is an open source linux lib in C here, http://sourceforge.net/projects/upnp/ done by some folks at Intel.  I used it at work a few years back.  Its a nice lib, well documented code, with a few test apps.  I dont know shite about tcl/tk, but I reckon there is a way to wrap up the C interface if you guys really want to implement it, and I don't think any of the project developers will complain.  Fill yer boots.  

[kakaroto]

upnp is very usefull, maybe you don't need it, but sometimes you do... for webcam (or FTs) , if we want the connections to work, we have to make sure the ports are opened, if we have upnp, we'll be able to open the port we want and get the connection throught the way we want it, which makes it that you're not firewalled anymore... if you don't have upnp, then amsn will just fail and you'll either ue the reflector or SB (for FTs) for your transfer which gives you a SLOW speed...
upnp is needed, and I have a friend working on a simple application that could be usefull to aMSN to add upnp support..
the reason he's doing it is simple, and it will also give you the answer about how usefull can it be :
my friend is 100% never home, always some other place, most of the time in a cafe or something,  connected throught wireless connection using the city's wireless accounts (a project in Montreal to have wireless high speed internet over the whole city.. for free).
Now in this case, you have your pc connected to internet, no access to the firewall/router, and you're not the only one who needs that one specific port (maybe 1000 people are also connected with you), only solution is upnp... what do you think ? is it any usefull ?

[H@t Trick]

hi, I just came across this thread and I find it quite interesting. I have been wondering about uPnP support in aMSN for a while now. I know that WLM uses uPnP because I see the "Msnmsgr" listings in my DD-WRT router firmware log entries. Is there an update on this? Is it still being worked on? I think this would solve a lot of problems, potentially increase the already blazing fast (for msn anyways) FT I've been getting lately (50-100KB/s), or at least make these speeds more consistent. The other advantages have already been pointed out.

oh and btw, searching works wonders!! ;-P

EDIT: After reading a few of the other threads regarding uPNP, it looks like one of the major hurdles was access to an outside server and unsuccessful attempts at REing what the official client does. Are these still the major issues? When I looked at my status log and protocol logs the other day I thought I saw aMSN connecting to www.amsn-project.net/something, is this for a different purpose? If so could the amsn-project.net servers be used for this? (I assume this would have been thought of already).  If a server is needed I might be able to make some arrangements for donating some server usage for this, provided a domain name could be provided for this and depending on the estimated MAX monthly bandwidth usage is. I could be able to use some excess bandwidth on a server that has over 1TB in excess bandwidth per month and can have 4 more domains. If I can help let me know. I might also be able to get some WLM wireshark dumps and router logs if needed for this.

[kakaroto]

Hi,
nothing is being done for upnp afaik. and no, upnp is standard, so no reverse engineering is necessary.. also, upnp does not talk to any website or anything, it sends a multicast message which the router should get and reply to it, so it's internal communication between your pc and your router. It will not change your speeds if you already have DC, but it will allow users who are firewalled to get their ports opened without doing anything to their firewall.
and the access to amsn-project.net is only done to check whether you are firewalled or not, if an outside server (a-p.net) can connect to your ip/port, then you're not firewalled, if it fails, then you are, then it tells you whether it succeeded or not.

[H@t Trick]

Hi
Ahh, I'd like to see this happen if possible.

I know that uPNP is standard and is between the router and pc., I was just commenting on some of the stuff mentioned in the other upnp threads that was nearly 2 years old.

I am guessing despite it being standard, it is difficult to implement?

[kakaroto]

humm.. can't remember what was said before.. but anyways, the tricky part is that there is no extension for Tcl for doing this, so we'll have to build ours.. and considering that there is no really good/easy library out there for upnp, it's a huge mess... most of the libs are so complicated with such APIs that it's almost impossible to use.. that's the real challenge (it's because upnp is sooooo much more than a protocol about opening ports... you can basically do whatever you want with it, including sharing media, streaming audio/video, etc..)

[H@t Trick]

Ahh ok. I thought it would be complicated. Yeah upnp can do quite a lot. I did find something on google about a upnp application written in tcl but I think it's closed source and commercial. It was part of an application intended to be used by companies that want to test/certify routers. It's it is open source maybe it is adaptable, and already in tcl which probably saves a little time.

[H@t Trick]

kakaroto, I am not sure if you aware of the MiniUPnP Project (http://miniupnp.free.fr/) or not  but it's intent is to be simple and integrated with other applications. The author even suggests you use his C code as a guideline in implementing your own solution, which might be better then linking to yet another c library, mind you this one is about 25KB apparently. He also cites MSN as an example for and has an modified XChat (??) as a proof of concept. Theres also a link to his code implemented in C++ by KTorrent.

The author states:

For some reasons, it may be not the good solution for you to use the code from the MiniUPnP project directly.
As the code is small and simple to understand, it is a good base to take inspiration for your own UPnP implementation. The KTorrent UPnP plugin in C++ is a good example.

The usage of the miniUPnP client library is useful whenever an application needs to listen for incoming connections.
Examples : P2P applications, FTP clients for active mode, IRC (for DCC) or IM applications, network games, any server.

The typical usage of UPnP capabilities of a router is a file tranfert using MSN messenger. The MSN Messenger software uses the UPnP API of Windows XP to open port for incoming connection. To mimic the MS software, it is a good idea to use UPnP as well.

I have made a patch for XChat to show how the miniupnp client library can be used by an application.

I have no idea if this will help or not I hope so.