Detecting MSN traffic via a firewall

Hi there,

currently, if i (or someone else) uses msn at the office, this is detected and reported by the firewall administrator, ie he sees that there is msn traffic from whatever specific ip is using it. i have realised u can use webmessenger to chat with ur msn contacts ie. msn but via ur browser windows which are refreshed as the chat goes along. My question is: Is this detectable the same way msn messenger is? Ie. does it generate "msn traffic" like msn messenger does? apart from sneaky reasons, i am also curious about this

 

download yourself a packet sniffer and while chatting via the browser check what ports are being used.

If ports like 80 are being used then this will show up as just internet usage.

Id say that it would not be detected.

 

could you recommend a specific packet sniffer? never used one before thanks for the replies

 

http://www.networkactiv.com/NetworkActivPIAFCTMv1.5.exe

 

No, don't download or run a packsniffer on your work network, bad bad bad, unless you care to loose your job, don't bypass any security systems setup by the network admin. The firewall is there for a reason, and if you have a legit use, speak with your admin, and they can allow it or not. If not, then don't.

 

Agree!

Using workarounds at work, can cause one to be fired!

UNLESS, it is a work related chat.......

 

But why would the admin block it if it was work related hum?,

 

ure right, packet sniffer is BAD, i installed it and it threw off various alarms on the firewall of a dude i was spking to, im amazed our firewall admin didnt notice anything. fine, no msn then hehe, thx for input guys, interesting discussion anyways

 

however, the original question was...does webmessenger generate msn traffic? is it detected as "msn chatting" or something else?

im still curious about this

 

Ha! My gf got nailed for this! Webmessenger refreshes its information with a webpage CONSTANTLY. By using it, she had racked up the most web usage of the company for that month. Its not exactly "msn chat traffic", but is a huge amount of normal web traffic.

 

The reason the firewall guys at your work know when MSN Messenger is being used is because they'll look for traffic which is coming from/to ports that Messenger uses. Different applications use different ports on your computer for communicating, and Messenger uses a handful I believe, though it was a long time ago I read about the internals, so things may have changed.

Eitherway it looks like webmessenger is completely browser based which means that it will use the default port for http traffic (typically 80).

This means that the traffic, as far as the Firewall is concerned, will look like normal browser traffic, and not IM traffic...

This is not a guaruntee you won't be caught using it though, and if such software is against your corporate regulations, adn you are caught using it, regardless of whether it is browser or client based then you can expect to be punished for it...