Summary: If you're behind a router and/or the person you want to talk to is behind a router you can have problems with audio in MSN Instant Messenger.
Why can't I have an Audio conversation using MSN Messenger?
For what it's worth ... neither can I. But I know why.
One of the very common devices in use these days is the broadband router. These boxes allow you to connect one or more computers to your high speed internet connection. Besides letting more than one computer share a single connection to the internet, broadband routers are one of the safest ways to connect because of a technology called "Network Address Translation" or NAT.
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Using NAT, your computer is effectively "hidden" behind your router. For example, each computer will be assigned a private IP or network address that works only behind the router. When that computer then communicates across the internet that Network Address gets Translated to a real, publicly visible internet address. It's safe because from the internet side of the router there's no way to initiate contact with any computers on the private side (unless the router has been explicitly configured to allow certain types of contact).
Unfortunately that means that some communications protocols which try to send the address of computer A behind a NAT router over to computer B somewhere on the internet are destined to fail. They'll send the private address computer A has been assigned, which computer B not being on the private network cannot use.
And so it is with MSN Messenger's Audio (as well as Video and as I understand it, file transfer) protocols. They apparently transmit the IP addresses of both sides of the conversation in ways that NAT routers don't know how to translate. So if there's a NAT anywhere in-between the conversation can't happen.
Microsoft Support has a knowledgebase article that gives essentially the same overview, though their discussion is limitted to Windows 2000 Internet Connection Sharing as the NAT router. (Step one of their "workaround" is to install a proxy server instead, which is no small amount of work.) Whether you're using Windows internet connection sharing or some other type of NAT router the concepts and the resulting problem are the same.
MSN also has a known issues article for Messenger which mentions the NAT problem near the bottom.
So for now those of us behind NAT routers are safe, but at the cost of not being able to use the audio and video features of Messenger.
It's my understanding though I've not confirmed is that some other instant messaging products such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) may use a different protocol and hence may not be affected by this issue.
You can learn much more about NAT here.
Related Links:
Ask Leo! - How should I set up my home network?
Ask Leo! - What's the difference between a Hub, a Switch and a Router?
Ask Leo! - All articles on Instant Messaging
Article C1845 - September 27, 2003
WE ARE UNABLE TO RUN AUDIO AND VIDEO SETUP ?
Posted by: Blend at October 29, 2008 10:39 AMI cannot hear the voice of my boyfriend on the other line, however he can hear when i speak... please help me on this matter.
Posted by: Murile at November 25, 2008 5:24 AMThanks
Hi i'm a very old msn user i did a recovery to my pc cuz my msn wasn't loading at all and then after that i installed msn again, everything seems to work but the audio and video setup when i click on that option my msn freezes completely this is very frustrating because i have done almost anything to fix it and the problem is still there can anybody provide me with tips for this matter i will appreciate it
Posted by: Lester at December 8, 2008 10:46 PMHow do I know if I am behind a router?
Posted by: jackie at December 11, 2008 4:03 PMhave no prblems talking to my sister residing in morocco through msn, but when my brother log in from internet caffe there's no audio conversation between us, he says he have conversation from same pc with others please help
Posted by: mostafa jermouni at December 23, 2008 3:04 AMunable to run audio vido setup ! and if i try to connect a video call it comes a message saying ! it appears your web cam is in use by another program ! what can i do to ressolve this ?????
Posted by: jose gonzalez at January 5, 2009 7:51 AMwhy can't I use my built in camera on msn messenger?
Posted by: Betsabe at January 19, 2009 1:40 PMOkay, I found out that I couldn't run audio and video setup because of a problem with McAfee Site Advisor. McAfee knows about this problem and are working on a solution.
In the meantime, here is the workaround:
1. Navigate to the following folder:
Windows XP/2000/Vista (32-bit): C:\Program Files\McAfee\SiteAdvisor
Windows Vista (64-bit): C:\Program Files (x86)\McAfee\SiteAdvisor
2. Right-click on the file sasets.ini and choose Open With, then select Notepad.
3. Locate the section titled [msnmsgr.exe].
4. Change Enabled=1 to Enabled=0.
5. Click File and select Save.
6. Close sasets.ini and restart your computer for changes to take effect.
I hope this works for you.
Posted by: geoffrey9 at January 28, 2009 10:31 AMcan i knw why the msn messenger 9.0 keeps on signing out?by itself?iv tried installing it from 5 different sources..does messenger live 9.0 ask for a very high internet connection to run on?
Posted by: sabeen at February 23, 2009 11:15 AMI can use Skype and LogiTech Vid without problems on my laptop(sound & video come thru) With Messenger I see but don't hear my opponent. He can see and hear me. There is something weard with Messenger!
Posted by: Luc at October 13, 2009 11:43 PM