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). This article also lists the known IP addresses that are used by each public IM service provider.
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
Microsoft Office Live Communications Server Service Pack 1 (SP1):
•
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 software
update Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1).
When fixes are introduced on the client and data centers, the functionality
will automatically work without the need for updating server software.
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 Office 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
"Offline" status.
•
When a Communicator user is in a meeting, their status
appears as "Online" to MSN, to AOL, and to Yahoo! contacts. Communicator users
must manually set their status to the "Busy" status if they do not want their
status to appear as "Online."
•
Multiparty IM (MIM) is not supported. Users within a
Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 environment can only have
one-to-one communication with users of the public IM service
providers.
•
The traffic between the organizations Microsoft Live
Communication Server 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 the Live Communication 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, presence updates may not appear
in the MSN, the AOL, or the 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 or in Communicator
2005.
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
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hotmail.co.uk
•
hotmail.de
•
hotmail.co.jp
•
hotmail.it
•
hotmail.fr
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hotmail.com.ar
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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.
•
Live Communications Server contacts are blocked when an MSN
user removes themselves from a contact list.
•
If you already had contact e-mail addresses in your contact
list before your switched your contact list from the .NET Messenger Service to
Communications Server 2005 with public IM connectivity, these contacts may
continuously appear with an "Offline" 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
•
If a MSN Messenger user opens a conversation window with a
Communicator user for any reason, a toast or a conversation window will open in
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 Microsoft Office 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
<mailto: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 Office 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:
<User> 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 Communicator user a URL, the URL
that is received by the Communicator is modified. For example, if an AOL user
sends the URL http://www.contoso.com, the Communicator user receives the
following URL:
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 and 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 "Unavailable" or of
"Offline" 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.
As documented in the Live Communications Server 2005
with SP1 documentation, 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.
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