The network ports and URLs that are required for Windows Live Messenger 2010 to work

Article ID: 2027572 - View products that this article applies to.
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SUMMARY

This article describes the network ports that Windows Live Messenger 2010 must be able to access in order to work on a computer that is running Windows. This article also lists the URLs that Windows Live Messenger uses.
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Network ports

The following table lists the network ports that Windows Live Messenger must use for specific features to work.
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FeaturePort
Sign in to the Messenger service TCP 80, 443, 1863
Network detectionTCP 7001
UDP 9, 7001
Voice and video (V/V)Messenger VOIP servers for call establishment of voice and video services listen on ports 1863 and 443.
Media flows directly between both endpoints (either directly or through a relay server) over UDP or TCP by using any available port.
File transferTCP 443, 1863
TCP/UDP 1025 - 65535
Whiteboard and application sharingTCP 1503
Remote AssistanceTCP 3389
TCP/UDP 49152 - 65535
GamesTCP 80, 443, 1863
TCP/UDP 1025 - 65535

URLs

The following table lists the URLs to which Windows Live Messenger connects.
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URLFunction
https://login.live.comProvides HTTP over SSL (HTTPS) authentication to Windows Live ID and obtains x509 certificates for secure peer-to-peer (p2p) connections for the Sharing Folders feature
http://login.live.comProvides HTTP authentication to Windows Live ID
https://*.contacts.msn.comObtains the contact list
https://*.storage.msn.comStores the user tile, the personal status message, and the display name of a user so that the user can have the same set of information across all Windows Live experiences, and on work and home computers (Simple Object Access Protocol [SOAP] over HTTPS)
http://*.storage.msn.comStores the user tile (HTTP DAV) and obtains pictures from a user's Windows Live Space
http://c.msn.comSets an anonymous unique ID for a user to customize the Windows Live experience
http://*.messenger.msn.comPerforms various core operations in Windows Live Messenger
http://g.msn.comRedirects URLs that are used for tracking the start of a URL for a particular page to Microsoft websites
http://crl.microsoft.comAccesses the latest Certificate Revocation List (CRL) to check the validity of a certificate
http://messenger.hotmail.com:1863Provides the communications channel for Windows Live Messenger server and the Microsoft Notification Protocol (MSNP) for messaging
http://gateway.messenger.hotmail.comProvides a gateway over HTTP for Messenger if a firewall is blocking the ports
http://config.messenger.msn.comDownloads configuration information that is used by the Messenger client
http://sqm.microsoft.comUploads Service Quality Monitoring (SQM) data to Microsoft (No personally identifiable information [PII] is transferred.)
http://*.edge.messenger.live.comPerforms various core operations in Messenger. For example, the URL provides echo servers that are used to establish direct connectivity between two messenger clients for peer-to-peer (p2p) communication when the clients are behind firewalls
http://*.gateway.messenger.live.comPerforms various core operations in Windows Live Messenger
http://relay.data.edge.messenger.live.comProvides a media relay that is used to transfer binary data (files, voice, or video)
http://rad.msn.comDownloads advertising content to display in the client and downloads ad-sponsored personal expression content, such as display pictures and emoticons
http://appdirectory.messenger.msn.comDownloads Messenger activities/games applications that run inside Messenger applications
https://images.messenger.msn.comStores Messenger image files
http://relay.voice.edge.messenger.live.comProvides a media relay used for voice calls
http://sup.live.comObtains the "What’s New" list
https://directory.services.live.com Stores profile information of the user
http://*.api.live.netProvides photo and document storage
http://api.live.netProvides comments and social news updates
https://secure.wlxrs.comProvides information about social network and web activities
http://home.live.comPerforms spam reporting
http://*.livefilestore.comStores images

Note Users who have computers that are behind some authenticating proxy servers may experience sign-in problems. These users might have to configure the proxy server to force authentication for the following User Agent string:
MSN Explorer/9.0 (MSN 8.0; TmstmpExt)
To do this, see the documentation for the proxy server or contact the network administrator.
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Article ID: 2027572 - Last Review: July 19, 2011 - Revision: 3.1
APPLIES TO
  • Windows Live Messenger
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