Why can't I have an Audio conversation using MSN Messenger?

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Hi, your writeup on NAT was very informative. But, my problem is that I can get video both ways (MSN 6.2), and audio does not ever work. This has been my experience the right from the time I installed MSN 6.2 a few months back. Since then I have had occassion to re-install Windows XP a number of times (for other reasons), but the problem persists; video ok, no audio.

I connect to the internet using broadband.

Any specific ideas here?

Regards,

Anand Dhuru

I've installed 6.2 as well. I can get video to work behind a firewall now all the time. But I can't get Audio to work.
I am wondering if they've fixed some of the programing NAT issues for video, but have the audio,etc to work out.

I'll try sniffing and see what ports and IP traffic is going on and see.

Hi,

Im not able to use audio across a broadband connection. Video works fine but when i start an audio connection it comes back that it has ended.

Im not sure whether it is just a port issue. Does anybody know what the problem may be?

Thanks

Did you read the article that your comment was posted on? It describes the most common reason.

Dear Leo:
I think that's not the answer to my problem, for two reasons: One, my messenger's audio is not working only now since I changed my computer, but my broadband provider remains the very same. And two, I am amaizingly enough able to have a normal video and audio conversation through the yahoo messenger, but not through the hotmail messenger.
Could ANYONE help me figure out what the problem is???

Unfortunately, for reasons I don't understand, MSN Messenger audio uses different technologies for audio and video, AND those are different than Yahoo (and AIM). So it's sadly VERY common not to be able to use MSN's audio, but still be able to use video or other IM clients. And in general, the broadband provider actually has nothing to do with this. Your hardware - your broadband router - most often does. I'd direct you to the Blig Blue Ball forums for more help: http://ask-leo.com/d-bbb

how come my microphone dosent work on anything and i did the rigt setting

If it doesn't work on *anything* I'd check: the microphone itself, the sound card it's plugged into, and the drivers associated with that sound card. Use the Sound Recorder applet that comes with windows to try and record something and play it back. Make sure that the microphone isn't muted in the audio proprties.

OK so NAT won't allow some types of audio to go through, but what happens if we turn NAT off? I have the ability to shut it off. Can we protect a small home network without it?

Your computer, network or internet provider may not support audio and video conferences, using msn 6.2 and xp sp1, AOL 9.0 se with a broadband connection.i can neither use voice or my cam at this point, any ideas how to fix it at this point?

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