Microsoft KB Archive/897567

= Known issues that occur with public instant messaging after you install Live Communications Server Service Pack 1 =

Article ID: 897567

Article Last Modified on 11/6/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office Communicator 2007
 * Microsoft Office Communicator 2005
 * Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Windows Messenger 5.1

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SUMMARY
This article describes the known issues that occur when public instant messaging (IM) connectivity is configured with one of the three available public IM service providers after you install Microsoft Office Live Communications Server Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. This article also lists the known IP addresses that are used by each public IM service provider.



INTRODUCTION
This article outlines the known issues that can occur when public instant messaging (IM) connectivity is configured with one of the following three available public IM service providers after you install Live Communications Server SP1 or Communicator 2007:
 * MSN, The Microsoft Network
 * AOL
 * Yahoo!

Note that the issues that are described in this article discuss supported functionality and how the client and data centers function. As client and data center issues are fixed, you are not required to install the Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 software update or Communicator 2007. When fixes are introduced on the client and data centers, the functionality will automatically work without the need to update server software.

General issues and functionality overview
You should know about the following issues that apply to all clients:
 * Public IM connectivity supports only the exchange of IM and presence information. File transfers, audio, video, or other sessions are not supported. This applies to all public IM service providers and all clients.
 * When a Microsoft Communicator client or a Microsoft Windows Messenger 5.1 user adds an MSN, a Yahoo!, or an AOL contact, no verification is performed against the contact name. Therefore, if a user enters an invalid contact, it is added to the contact list and appears with an &quot;Offline&quot; status.
 * When a Communicator user is in a meeting, their status appears as &quot;Online&quot; to MSN, to AOL, and to Yahoo! contacts. Communicator users must manually set their status to the &quot;Busy&quot; status if they do not want their status to appear as &quot;Online.&quot;
 * Multiparty IM (MIM) is not supported. Users within a Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 or Communicator 2007 environment can only have one-to-one communication with users of the public IM service providers.
 * The traffic between the Live Communications Server organizations and the public IM service provider is encrypted. IT administrators can set up Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt the data from the enterprise user’s client to Live Communications Server. However, the data from the public IM service providers’ server to the public IM client (on the MSN, the Yahoo!, or the AOL network) is not encrypted.
 * If you are using the multiple points of presence (MPOP) feature in Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 or Communicator 2007, presence updates may not appear in the MSN, AOL, or Yahoo! client, depending on the priority of the presence states on the various endpoints.
 * As with federated users, you can only see presence information of public IM users who are in your contact list. Additionally, these users can see presence information in Microsoft Office programs.
 * Friendly names of MSN, of AOL, or of Yahoo! users will not appear in the Windows Messenger 5.1 SIP client, in Communicator 2005, or in Communicator 2007.

Supported clients
Public IM connectivity works with the following clients:
 * AOL client versions: AOL version 5.9.3702
 * MSN clients and versions: MSN Messenger 6.2 and MSN Messenger 7.0
 * Yahoo! client version: Yahoo! Messenger 6.0.0.1750
 * Live Communications Server clients: Windows Messenger 5.1, Communicator 2005, and Communicator 2007.

Supported public IM domains
The following is a list of currently supported public IM domains:
 * AOL
 * aol.com
 * love.com
 * mac.com
 * MSN
 * hotmail.co.jp
 * hotmail.co.th
 * hotmail.co.uk
 * hotmail.com
 * hotmail.com.ar
 * hotmail.com.tr
 * hotmail.de
 * hotmail.it
 * hotmail.fr
 * messengeruser.com
 * msn.com
 * simpatico.ca
 * passport.com
 * passporthotmail.com
 * webtv.com
 * Yahoo
 * yahoo.com

Issues with public IM connectivity to MSN
The following is a list of the issues that a user may experience when a public IM is connected to MSN:
 * In the case that the public IM connectivity becomes unavailable, presence information may be invalid for as long as four hours. To resolve this issue, log off and then log back on.
 * The “Be Right Back” status maps to the “Away” status when Communicators users and MSN Messenger users view each other’s presence.
 * When an MSN user’s status is set to “Out to Lunch,” it displays as “Away” on the Communicator client because Communicator does not support the “Out to Lunch” status.
 * When a Communicator user’s status is set to “Do Not Disturb,” it displays as “Away” on the MSN client because the MSN client does not support the “Do Not Disturb” status.
 * MSN users who have EASI accounts will not be able to use connect with Live Communications Server users. Support for EASI passports is scheduled for September 2005. The following accounts are enabled for public IM connectivity:
 * msn.com
 * passporthotmail.com
 * hotmail.co.uk
 * hotmail.de
 * hotmail.co.jp
 * hotmail.it
 * hotmail.fr
 * hotmail.com.ar
 * hotmail.co.th
 * hotmail.com.tr
 * webtv.com
 * sympatico.ca
 * passport.com
 * messengeruser.com
 * personal domains
 * MSN friendly names with angle bracket characters (< >) will not be sent to Communicator 2005 or to Communicator 2007.
 * Live Communications Server contacts are blocked when MSN users remove themselves from a contact list.
 * If you already had contact e-mail addresses in your contact list before you switched your contact list from the .NET Messenger Service to Communications Server 2005 or to Communicator 2007 with public IM connectivity, these contacts may continuously appear with an &quot;Offline&quot; status.

These contacts are currently still associated with the .NET Messenger Service. You must delete and re-add the e-mail address to your contact list to associate the contact with the Live Communications Server service.
 * Friendly names of offline MSN contacts will not appear.

Issues with public IM connectivity to Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 or to Communicator 2007
 If a MSN Messenger user opens a conversation window with a Communicator user for any reason, a toast or a conversation window will open for the Communicator user. This issue occurs regardless of whether the MSN Messenger user types or uses the conversation window or session. As of October 11, 2005, all EASI Windows Live ID domains are fully supported for the Public IM Connectivity (PIC) service. This means that Communicator users can communicate with MSN users by using EASI Windows Live IDs through PIC.

EASI ID enables MSN users to use the domain name of their choice to create an IM address through Windows Live ID. For example, a user’s EASI Windows Live ID could have been username@contoso.com .

This was a great service for MSN users. However, the service caused problems when PIC-enabled users tried to communicate with MSN users by using Communicator.

With the change of October 11, 2005, you can use the EASI Windows Live ID with PIC by making a simple change when you add a user to your Communicator contact list. A Communicator user who wants to add the EASI Windows Live ID of username@contoso.com would add the following address to the search field:

username(contoso.com)@msn.com

This increases the effectiveness of the PIC service because contacts that have unsupported EASI Windows Live ID domains no longer need to change their domains in order to use the PIC Service.

Issues with public IM connectivity to MSN Messenger
 If a MSN client initiates a file transfer, other sessions, such as Audio and Webcam, will not be cancelled as expected by the public IM connectivity service. The MSN user must manually cancel the request. In MSN Messenger 6.x and MSN Messenger 7.0 Beta clients, the Communicator client will receive the following message from the MSN Messenger client if there any unsupported features are started:

 invited you to view his or her webcam, which requires the latest version of MSN Messenger. You can download the latest version at http://g.msn.com/5meen_us/122.

Examples of unsupported features are a file transfer, an audio and video sessions transfer, or an A/V. Ignore this message when you receive it.

Issues with public IM connectivity to AOL
 When an AOL user sends a URL to a Communicator user, the URL that is received by Communicator is modified. For example, if an AOL user sends the URL http://www.contoso.com, the Communicator user receives the following URL:

_http://www.contoso.com_ (http:// www.contoso.com)

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Issues with public IM connectivity to Yahoo!

 * If a Communicator user tries to establish a video session with a Yahoo! user and then cancels the session, the Communicator user is disconnected from the IM session.
 * When a Yahoo! user specifies that his or her presence should always appear offline or unavailable to a Communicator client, the Communicator client continues to see the Yahoo! user’s true presence.
 * When a Communicator user adds a Yahoo! user to his or her contact list, the Yahoo user clicks Allow to add the Communicator user to the Yahoo user’s contact list. When the Communicator user is added, the user’s status appears as offline until the Communicator user changes his or her status.
 * During an IM session between a Communicator user and a Yahoo! user, the Communicator user is not notified. The Communicator user can continue to send messages after the Yahoo! user closes the session window.
 * The Yahoo! client does not support MPOP. If you connect to more than one device, all other devices show a status of &quot;Unavailable&quot; or of &quot;Offline&quot; to the Yahoo! client.
 * Yahoo! clients only support instant message invitations. However, if a Communicator client sends a file transfer, an A/V invitation, or another invitation that is not supported for public IM connectivity, the Yahoo! client returns a 200 OK response that indicates acceptance. This response appears to the Communicator user who is waiting for acceptance from the Yahoo! user. The Yahoo! user is not notified of this request.
 * A Yahoo! client does not accurately maintain presence.

Recommended firewall configuration
As documented in the documentation for Live Communications Server 2005 SP1, the recommended firewall configuration when federating with public IM providers is to allow any IP address to connect to port 5061 on the Access Proxy.

However, certain enterprises prefer to enforce stricter firewall rules and restrict incoming connections to specific IP addresses. In this case, the IP addresses that are used by the public IM networks need to be specifically allowed on the enterprise firewall.

This article lists the IP addresses that are used by each public IM service provider. Note that this list may change. If there is a change to this list, a reconfiguration of the enterprise firewall will be required. The following lists contain the IP addresses that are currently used by each service provider.

IP addresses that are used by MSN

 * 65.54.227.12
 * 65.54.227.14
 * 65.54.227.16
 * 65.54.227.18
 * 65.54.227.20
 * 65.54.227.22
 * 65.54.227.24
 * 65.54.227.26
 * 65.54.227.28
 * 65.54.227.30

IP addresses that are used by AOL

 * 205.188.153.55
 * 64.12.162.248

IP address that is used by Yahoo!

 * 216.155.207.[196-249]

Additional query words: kblangZH-CN kblangZH-TW kblangFR kblangDE kblangIT kblangJA kblangKO kblangES

Keywords: kbinfo KB897567

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