Applications not working while using a hotspot

[slimpaul]

Hey,

I just arrived at the hotel and found that the part of my apps (iChat, msn) don't work under the hotel's wi-fi. The browser and iTS work flawlessly. What might be the issue? Is there a way to enable those apps?

Thanks, Paul

[slimpaul]

no idea? :(

[instaxgirl]

I have the same problem. Mail, msn, transmission etc never work over wifi unless it's someone's home wifi.

[spinnerlys]

Chat and file sharing software needs to use ports, and those ports seem to be disabled by those providers of wi-fi.

Mail also does need some ports, but I think those depend on the mail provider (yahoo, ...).

[instaxgirl]

Would the ports being disabled have the same affect on PC users? Because I'm often surrounded by people who can msn etc quite happily.

[spinnerlys]

Ports are OS independent (I think).

But if you say, Windows users can quite happily use Chat software, I don't know.
Maybe ask the wi-fi provider, if they have open ports for using MSN and the like.

[slimpaul]

Is there a way to enable those ports? At least the msn port (most important to me)?

[spinnerlys]

It has to be done on the wireless router.

Maybe MSN uses more than one port which can be listened too.

From http://www.plevna.f9.co.uk/blockmsnmessenger.htm

The MSN Messenger port numbers below are taken from (amongst others) PortForward.com and Experts Exchange discussions Q20968914 and Q20660861.

Unfortunately, trying to block MSN Messenger ports doesn't work because of the wide range of ports including port 80 that MSN Messenger uses:

TCP port 80 (the 'http' standard web port - see also Web Messenger blocking)
TCP port 1863
TCP port 6901 (possibly)
TCP ports 6891 to 6900.
UDP on ports 1503, 3389, 5004-65535


You could check MSN preferences, if you are able to select other ports that can be listened to and change to that.