EarthLink Conference Manager

Contents

• Overview
• User interface quick guide
• Get an account (It's Free!)
• Sign-in
• Conferencing
  • Join an existing conference
  • The video window
  • Create a conference
  • Inviting others to join a conference
  • Sharing files
  • Calling a party
• Private Chat
• Advanced Topics
  • Dealing with consumer-grade firewalls
  • Customize sounds
  • Using RAT, the audio media handler
  • Audio configuration
• Getting help
• Suggested uses

Dealing with consumer-grade firewalls

Here are the home firewalls with which we have some experience:

• ZoneAlarm Pro v. 3.5.166

  ZoneAlarm Pro is a popular software package used to perform basic packet filtering and other security-related tasks. Here is how we got ZoneAlarm to work with Conference Manager:

  Doubleclick on the ZoneAlarm icon in the system tray, navigate to the "Firewall" section, and then to the "Internet Zone Security" section.

  You can proceed in one of two ways:

  1. Set "Internet Zone Security" to "Med.".

     or

  2. Leave "Internet Zone Security" set to "High", but adjust which UDP ports are allowed past the ZoneAlarm firewall/packet filter. Click "Custom" in the "Internet Zone Security" area, scroll down to and check "Allow Incoming UDP ports", then enter "15900-15999" (omit the quotation marks, but include the hyphen) in the associated text input field. Click "Apply".

  Both (1) and (2) produce the desired result from a Conference Manager perspective.

• LinkSys BEFWS11S4 (and similar) - Port Forwarding method
  1. Login to the router
  2. Go to "Advanced" tab, then to "Port Range Forwarding"
  3. Enter the application's name ("Confmgr") in the Customized Application field.
  4. Enter the range 15900 to 15999 in the "Ext. Port" column
  5. Select UDP as the protocol
  6. Enter the IP address of the host running Conference Manager in the "IP Address" column
  7. Check the "Enable"
  8. Click "Apply" and "Continue"

• LinkSys BEFWS11S4 (and similar) - Port Triggering method

  If your LinkSys router has firmware that is sufficiently recent, it may support "Port Triggering", whereby you can avoid altogether the static IP address entry as required above in the "Port Forwarding method".

  The advantage of Port Triggering is that the traffic bearing the inbound Conference Manager session data is automatically directed to the host that solicited it. That is, the host running Conference Manager. Note, however, that while the traffic is routed to the host running Conference Manager automatically, only one host may be running Conference Manager at any one time.

  If your router supports Port Triggering, do not configure the router as in "Port Forwarding method" above, but rather try this:

  1. Login to the router
  2. Go to "Advanced" tab, then to "Port Range Forwarding", then to the "Port Triggering" button on the bottom of the page
  3. Enter "Confmgr" in the Application Name column
  4. Enter 15900-15999 in the "Trigger Port Range" column
  5. Enter 15900-15999 in the "Incoming Port Range" column
  6. Click "Apply"

• NetGear R0318
  1. Login to the router
  2. Go to "Advanced", then to "Ports"
  3. Make a new entry whereby Start Port equals 15900, End Port equals 15999, and Server IP Address equals the IP address of the host running Conference Manager
  4. Click "Apply"

• 2Wire HomePortal

  Add support for video on ports 15920 and 15921. First, add support for video on port 15920...

  1. Browse to Home Portal Home Page
  2. Click on "Home Network" Tab
  3. Click on "Edit Firewall Settings" for "Your Computer" Name. (Requires that you Log-in with your own personal password)
  4. Under "Edit Firewall Pass-Through Settings", ... Step 1: Select a Host Computer (Your Computer Name), then Step 2: click on "Add a new user-defined application"
  5. Enter Application Name: (i.e., "Conference Manager");
     • Select UDP;
     • Enter Port (or Range): From: 15920, To: 15923;
     • Protocol Timeout (seconds): 600;
     • Map to Host Port: 15920;
     • Click "Done"
  6. The "Edit Application Profile" Screen appears. Click "Done".
  7. In the "Edit Firewall Pass-Through Settings" Screen, "Applications" Column,
     • Click on the Application Name you just created (i.e., "Conference Manager")
     • Click on the "ADD>" Button;
     • Click "Done"