Re: Wassa Gatekeeper?

"Jeff Gaines" <jgaines_newsid@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:xn0e5yhc1rjdjp00d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> On 13/08/2005 BoyPete wrote:
>> Jeff Gaines wrote:
>>>
>>> In my attempts to get NetMeeting working I have been told I need
>>> to use a 'GateKeeper', it seems to be something that helps
>>> NetMeeting find its way around the ether.
>>>
>>> I have found a free one and installed it and am trying, without
>>> a lot of success, to find out what it does.
>>>
>>> Anybody heard of / used something like this?

I've *heard* about the idea of a "Gatekeeper" in M$ NetMeeting
(& other things which use the H.323 VoIP Protocol) - In NetMeeting,
there's an Button (on the General Tab) called [Advanced Calling...]
& in there, there's stuff about "Gatekeepers" & "Gateways" - but I've
never tried to (or needed to) use any of those Settings, so I dunno
what they do or how they work.

I gathered they were normally used for handling *Multiple* NetMeeting
Clients (on an Internal Network) & then Routing the Call(s) out
through/to the Internet.

>> You only need a Gatekeeper if you want to run Netmeeting/Skype etc,
>> from a networked machine NOT directly connected to the
>> internet..............or so it seems to say here.............
>> http://www.dialupaudio.com/dualgatekeeper.html
>
> I found that earlier, I couldn't make up my mind quite what it meant
> :-(

& you would *still* (surel?) have the prob with your Draytek Vigor
Router, of getting the stuff from the *Gatekeeper* out onto the Internet
correctly?...

> The response I got on the Draytek forum was:
>
> **********************************
> The problem is not the Vigor, but the H.323 protocol. This protocol
> embeds your PC's IP address in the *data* part of the TCP or UDP
> packet.

Well - that's what certainly seems to be happening when you Call out
(Initiate a Call), isn't it?

The *Recipients* Netmeeting tries to Send the Voice Packets to the IP
Address that it *thinks* is yours (cos that's what your NetMeeting is
Sending out) & that IP Address is your *Internal* (Private) Network
Address - in the range 192.168.x.x - so the Packets can't get through
to you, cos those IP Addresses can't be Routed over the Internet.

>... Therefore the NAT device (be it a Vigor, a Windows box using
> ICS, or a Cisco) doesn't modify as it only modifies the *header*.

Well, *some* (most?) Routers definitely *do* handle all that perfectly
OK - I know quite a few people who Call me using NetMeeting from behind
a Router & it all works fine - usually, if there's any probs, it's
Calling *them* behind a Router & that is easily got around, just by
putting in a couple of "Port Forwarding" Rules in the Router.

> If you are intent on running H.323 NATted, you will have to get some
> software called a Gatekeeper running on a PC used as your NAT.
> **********************************

Hmmm...

> The first bit seems to reflect the problem I had in testing with pmj,

Yep, definitely.

> mind you I have found so much conflicting information on the Internet
> now I'm thinking of going back to just using the 'phone :-)

LOL!!!
Or make do with just getting *Incoming* NetMeeting Calls?
have you pointed out (to the people on the Draytek Forums) that when
you are the *Recipient* of the NetMeeting Call, it all works fine -
Sound & Desktop Sharing etc, is fine *both* ways - it's only when you
*Initiate the Call, that it doesn't work properly - the Desktop Sharing
is OK, but you can't hear the *Incoming* Sound, from the other person,
although your Outgoing Sound gets to them OK.

I really think that it must be down to a limitation in the Draytek Vigor
Routers?

--
pmj


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