[JDEV] RE: [JADMIN] How to connect to Jabber server using only port 80(HTTP)

[Tim Klem]

Please don't post to multiple lists (juser, jdev, jadmin), or post to the
same list multiple times. I think this falls under the jadmin bucket -- so
hopefully anyone else who replies can post to that list only.



Unfortunately, this isn't an easy topic, based on what I've experienced.  :(

1.) If your firewall allows persistent TCP connections to server port 80,
then it's as simple as finding a jabber server that listens on port 80.

1a.) If you run your own server, then you can set this up in jabber.xml. (If
you run jabberd as a non-root user, which is a good idea, you can't bind to
ports below 1024. I get around this by using local iptables rules to forward
port 80 to 5222; there's probably other ways as well.)

1b.) If you are using someone else's server, you'll need to confirm / ask
them if they have port 80 open for jabber client connections. I would guess
that most do not.

2.) If your firewall only allows HTTP connections to server port 80, it's
trickier. There's a couple options I know of:

2a.) There are some open-source HTTP polling implementations I've seen
circulating, which I haven't tried myself since, as I understand them,
require that both the client and the server use this implementation.

2b.) Along with port 80, many corporate LANs use HTTP proxies, such as
squid, to act as the firewall. Squid, by default, allows server port 443
traffic for HTTPS (ssl), and calls it the "CONNECT" method. Psi is one
Windows client which has implemented support for this, allowing you to
connect via your firewall to a jabber server which listens to port 443 for
SSL connections.

3.) If you are willing to "settle" for a broswer-based client (pure HTML or
java, etc.), you lose something in functionality but may make up for it in
the ease of connecting via port 80. But setting this up on the server side
is, again, something I haven't looked into. Perhaps others can share their
experiences.

Regards,

Tim




-----Original Message-----
From: jdev-admin at jabber.org [mailto:jdev-admin at jabber.org]On Behalf Of Emil
G
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 1:56 PM
To: jdev at jabber.org; jadmin at jabber.org; juser at jabber.org
Subject: [JDEV] How to connect to Jabber server using only port 80(HTTP)


I have one big problem. In organization where I work, we are behind
firewall. Only open port is 80. How can I make Jabber client to run and
connect to Jabber server using only this port. I heard somewhere that it is
possible, but I'm not a jabber specialist, so please if some one explains
this in easy way.

Best regards
and many thanks in advance
Emil