MSN Messenger and Office Communicator connection issue

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MSN Messenger and Office Communicator connection issue

Hello all,

I will preface this with I have been using a MacBook for the total of about two days after using a Windows based machine for past 20+ years.

I am having an issue where MSN and Office Communicator have no issues when I am not on the corporate network, but when I am on the corporate network I can not sign in. The firewall on the MacBook is not turned on. I do not have this issue on the Dell I am replacing so I trying to figure out what might be causing it.

I can get out to the internet. I can remote onto other servers on the corporate network.

I am using a MacBook Pro 17", OS 10.6.7

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Greg

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Mar 31, 2011 6:37 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 31, 2011 6:45 AM in response to Hartbypass

Since both are made by Microsoft, please post your question on their own forums for their Mac software. Apple Discussions only provide support for Apple products:

http://www.officeformac.com/productforums

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Answer 2

Hartbypass Author

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Mar 31, 2011 11:36 AM in response to Templeton Peck

Looks like I get the same useless responses as a Mac user as I did as a Windows user. I get that they are both Microsoft products, but I don't suppose I am the first person to ever convert over so maybe someone has experienced the same issues as me.

Both the products work on my Windows based machine so I thought some Mac experts may have some thoughts of things to try.

Thanks anyway.

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Answer 3

MacRS4

Level 2

330 points

Mar 31, 2011 12:33 PM in response to Hartbypass

Are you using both Communicator and Messenger to connect to Office Communications Server?

If you're external the connection port is TCP 443, if you're internal it's typically 5061.

Now, communicator uses something called DNS auto-discovery to work out how to connect. From Communicator, go to preferences, and look under 'Account'.

Down the bottom you'll see 'My Network Settings'. That will tell you how it's trying to connect.

If it's on Automatic then it will use DNS lookups, if it's on manual you specify the server host to connect to - including the port if it's not TCP 5061. For example - host to connect externally would be something like:

sip.company.com:443 (This would NOT work internally)

If it were configured for internal connections it would be something like:

sip.company.com

If it's on automatic...well, then it could be your DNS auto-discovery isn't working properly.

Could you find out how the windows clients have been configured? On Communicator on the PC you see you can specify BOTH the internal AND the external access points. Using the above example you'd specify it as follows:

Internal: sip.company.com
External: externalsip.company.com:443

Also, for the internal system chances are you're using an internally published certificate - you'll need to download and install that root certificate too.

Getting Communicator to connect isn't that hard - but the problem is there's a lot of flexibility in the infrastructure..... which of course means there's lots of ways to configure the client.

If you want to get a feel for how the access point is discovered have a read of this: http://www.markc.me.uk/MarkC/Blog/Entries/2010/1/21OCS_and_External_DNS_for_your_SIPDomain.html

If you can find out how the Windows clients are configured, I should be able to tell you how to configure the Mac Communicator client.

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Answer 4

Hartbypass Author

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Mar 31, 2011 2:26 PM in response to MacRS4

First off, thank you very much for your response and thoughts.

To give some more information on what I am running and the setup. I am using Communicator Mac 2011 to connect to our Lync Server (Office Communications Server). I am using Messenger to connect to my MSN Messenger account.

On Communicator I am using Automatic Configuration.

I thought it might be a DNS issue, but because MSN Messenger didn't work that didn't make any sense and thought it might be something else. I hadn't thought about the cert. I will try and see if I can grab that and get it on the MAC.

I have domain admin access so I can remote onto the OCS server if there are any additional settings I can provide. I also have access to my Dell machine. I looked through the options for Lync there and do not see the Internal and External settings so maybe that changed between Office Communicator and Lync.

I will keep looking and will check out the link you provided.

Thanks again.

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Answer 5

Hartbypass Author

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Mar 31, 2011 3:17 PM in response to Hartbypass

Ok. Half way there. Office Communicator is working.

I went into Keychain and removed our corporate certs that were there. Then went to http://<lync server/certserv/ and downloaded the cert. Then went to the cert, right clicked and did Open With Keychain access and installed and trusted the cert to be placed in login and System.

Started Office Communicator and it worked!

Now off to figure out MSN Messenger which should be easier in my mind since that is obviously all external to us. Turned on logging and got:

2011/03/31 18:10:31.187 Listening thread caught unknown error
2011/03/31 18:10:33.094 >-->> POST http://gateway.messenger.hotmail.com/gateway/gateway.dll?Action=open&Server=NS&I P=messenger.hotmail.com HTTP/1.1
Accept: /
Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
User-Agent: MSMSGS
Host: gateway.messenger.hotmail.com
Proxy-Connection: Keep-Alive
Connection: Keep-Alive
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Type: application/x-msn-messenger
Content-Length: 41

VER 39 MSNP16 MSNP15 MSNP14 MSNP13 CVR0

2011/03/31 18:10:33.197 Listening thread caught unknown error
2011/03/31 18:10:35.111 Login (0) failed with error: (7.0)

So I am researching that now.

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