Hotel connections

  • Thread starter Thread starter pink
  • Start date Start date
P

pink

I keep in touch with the family back home from my hotel rooms around the
world using MSN Messenger - great program.

Thing I can't work out is from some hotels I can connect using audio and
video where as in others I can only connect video, the audio won't connect.
Any idea why this would be? I presume it is some setting of the hotel
internet connection...

TIA
 
Greetings Pink,

It's because most hotel's simply give you an internal address (although I have been in hotels
were you actually got an option for an external or internal IP). This internal address is
allowed access to the global Internet by using a NAT, which in this scenario, rarely supports
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) which is required for Messenger audio/video to work properly
(note that MSN Messenger 6 Webcam support can use a relay server so this doesn't apply).

There really isn't much you can do about this on your own, however, you might want to try one
of the following third-party utilities to assist when you find yourself in this type of
scenario:
http://www.realtunnel.com
or
http://www.easyfp.com/msn-messenger-directtalk
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2004 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
 
Jonathan,

Thanks for that - so how come the webcam uses a relay server and voice
doesn't? Cannot it not be done (I am no expert in these matters!)?

Have downloaded realtunnel - first try at connecting didn't work though it
suggested using windows messenger - which then worked albeit very s
l o w l y ....
 
Hi Pink,

Primarily because the Webcam can be refreshed every few seconds and still appear to "work"
whereas Audio requires a constant stream. We might see something like a "Push to Talk"
feature in the future however that would address this.

Yes, at no time are any of these solutions besides a direct connection going to be as good as
a direct connection.
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2004 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
 
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