Why doesn't my copy of LAN Messenger see the other clients on the network?
The most likely cause is that you have a personal firewall or IP Filter
running on your computer.
If you are running Windows XP SP2, then by default the firewall is on.
You need to put LAN messenger (which should be installed at
\Program Files\Akeni\Akeni LAN Messenger\run.exe
)
into the list of Exception. Login using the administrator account,
open the Control Panel
, then open
Network Connection
. Right click on Local Area
Connection
then select Properties. Click on Advanced tab and then
click on the Settings button to open the Windows Firewall dialog. In the
Firewall dialog uncheck the Don't Allow Exceptions
, and click
on the Add Program
button. Use the browse button to add
\Program Files\Akeni\Akeni LAN Messenger\run.exe
If you are running Windows Terminal Service, then you may have to add the environment variable AKENI_LAN_DISABLE_MULTICAST_LOOPBACK and set its value to 0.
If you running other version of Windows, check under Network
Properties and look for "IP Filter" under the advanced Options. If you are
running Linux, try "iptables -L -n" (or "ipchains -L -n" for older version
of Linux) to see a list of ports that are being blocked. For Redhat Linux,
you can use "service iptables stop" or "service ipchains stop" to
temporarily disable the firewall to see if that is the cause of the
connection problem. Please make sure that your computer is not
connected directly to the Internet while you are trying this.
We have also provided some
diagnostic tools to help you solve this problem.
Why doesn't LAN Messenger support authentication with password?
Akeni LAN Messenger runs without a server, so there is no centralized
place where authentication can take place. Although in theory the
program can store a local password, this kind of local authentication can
be bypassed easily. For example, a malicious user can simply wipe out the
password from the registry where the local password is stored, or simply
use another computer and try to impersonate somebody else.
This problem is solved by the use of signed digital certificates. The
digital certificates can also be used for the purpose of exchanging the
session encryption key. These capabilities are available from
Akeni LAN+
Does LAN Messenger work with VPN?
The short answer: is probably not. The long answer is that Akeni LAN
Messenger uses IP Multicast to broadcast its presence to other clients on
the same physical LAN, so it may work on VPN across a router that supports
IP Multicast. Please refer to the next question on the ports used by
Akeni LAN Messenger. That information may help you setup the program on
your VPN. On the other hand, users have reported success with running
Akeni Enterprise Messenger and
Akeni Pro Messenger on VPNs.
Which ports needs to be opened in my firewall or IP Filter for
LAN Messenger to work properly?
Akeni LAN Messenger Client uses one inbound TCP port and two inbound UDP
port, and these needs to be opened in your firewall or IP Filter. The TCP
port (default value is 6000) can be changed via the login screen by
pressing the "Options" button. This port is used to listen for incoming
connections from other clients. The same port value is also used to open
up an UDP port that is used internally by the application for inter-thread
communication, and that port needs to be open to allow for a connectiong
from localhost. The program also uses an UDP port (default value 1234)
that is used for IP multicasting to find other clients running on the LAN.
You can find the current value of the UDP port by selecting (Action |
Contact List | Refresh Contatcs) from the main contact list window. This
UDP port can be changed by setting the environment variable
"AKENI_LAN_MESSENGER_MULTICAST_PORT". The enviroment variable can be set
either via a batch file, or by changing it via the property
dialog in "My Computer". Look for "Environment Variables" under the "Advanced" tab. Note that unlike the TCP port, the UDP port used for IP multicasting can be shared by more than one instance of Akeni LAN Messenger. There are of course more outbound ports used by the application, but since they are outbound most firewalls will simply let them through.
If you have a stringent firewall policy or have personal firewall on every computer then we recommend that you use the more firewall friendly
Akeni Enterprise Messenger and
Akeni Pro Messenger.
How do I find out which application is running on the assigned port and
is conflicting with an Akeni product?
Under Windows 2000 and XP, You can use "netstat -an" to find out ALL the
ports that are currently used in your current setup. After that, you
simply pick a free port not shown by netstat and use it with our
application. Of course you need to make sure that the port if not blocked
by your firewall or IP Filter. To change the port used by an Akeni product,
simply click on the "Options" button in the login screen. If
you want to know precisely what application is currently running on port
3001, you can download the tcpview program from
sysinternals.com. Please note
that you need to run tcpview with administrator privilege or you'll get the
error "Unable to query property for System: -1"
Under Linux, you can also use "netstat -an", or use "lsof -i tcp:3001".