Known issues that occur with public instant messaging and Communications Server

This article outlines the known issues that can occur when PIC IM connectivity is configured by using one of the following three public IM service providers:

• AOL
• MSN (Windows Live), The Microsoft Network
• Yahoo!

Note The issues that are described in this article discuss the supported functionality of the public IM service providers' clients and data centers. Issues that are centric to the public IM service providers' clients and data centers are not related to the required updates for the Microsoft Communications Server products that are described in Applies To section of this document.

General issues and functionality overview

You should know about the following issues that apply to all clients:

• Public IM connectivity supports only the exchange of IM and presence information. File transfers, audio, video, or other sessions are not supported. This applies to all public IM service providers and all clients.
• When a Communicator user or a Windows Messenger 5.1 user adds an MSN (Windows Live) contact, a Yahoo! contact, or an AOL contact, no verification is performed against the contact name. Therefore, if a user enters an invalid contact, it is added to the contact list and appears with an "Offline" status
• When a Communicator user is in a meeting, their status is displayed as "Online" to MSN (Windows Live) contacts, to AOL contacts, and to Yahoo! contacts. Communicator users must manually set their status to the "Busy" status if they do not want their status to appear as "Online."
• Multiparty IM (MIM) is not supported. Users in a Communications server environment can only have one-to-one communication with users of the public IM service providers.
• The traffic between the Communications Server organizations and the public IM service provider is encrypted. IT administrators can set up Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt the data that goes from the enterprise user’s client to the Communications Server. However, the data that goes from the public IM service providers’ server to the public IM client (on the MSN (Windows Live) network, the Yahoo! network, or the AOL network) is not encrypted. Note An exception to this rule is the fact that data from AOL Instant Messenger 6.0, later versions of AOL Instant Messenger, and AOL Instant Messenger Professional Edition is sent through an encrypted channel by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
• If you are using the multiple points of presence (MPOP) feature in Communicator 2005 or Communicator 2007, presence updates may not appear in the MSN (Windows Live), AOL, or Yahoo! client, depending on the priority of the presence states on the various endpoints.
• As with federated users, you can only see presence information about public IM users who are in your contact list. Additionally, these users can see presence information in Microsoft Office programs.
• Friendly names of MSN (Windows Live), of AOL, or of Yahoo! users will not appear in the Windows Messenger 5.1 SIP client, in Communicator 2005, Communicator 2007 or Communicator 2007 R2.

Supported clients

Public IM connectivity works with the following clients:

• AOL client versions: AOL version 5.9.3702 and later versions
• MSN (Windows Live) clients and versions: MSN Messenger 6.2 and later versions and Windows Live Messenger 8.0 and later versions
• Yahoo! client version: Yahoo! Messenger 6.0.0.1750 and later versions
• Live Communications Server clients: Windows Messenger 5.1, Communicator 2005, Communicator 2007, and Communicator 2007 R2.

Supported public IM domains

The following is a list of currently supported public IM domains:

• AOL
  • aol.com
  • icq.com - As of June 10, 2011 ICQ was disconnected pursuant to AOLs sale of ICQ to Digital Sky Technologies (DST).
  • love.com
  • mac.com
• MSN (Windows Live)
  • br.live.com
  • hotmail.co.il
  • hotmail.co.jp
  • hotmail.co.th
  • hotmail.co.uk
  • hotmail.com
  • hotmail.com.ar
  • hotmail.com.tr
  • hotmail.es
  • hotmail.de
  • hotmail.fr
  • hotmail.it
  • hotmail.ch
  • live.at
  • live.be
  • live.ca
  • live.cl
  • live.cn
  • live.co.in
  • live.co.kr
  • live.co.uk
  • live.co.za
  • live.com
  • live.com.ar
  • live.com.au
  • live.com.co
  • live.com.mx
  • live.com.my
  • live.com.pe
  • live.com.ph
  • live.com.pk
  • live.com.pt
  • live.com.sg
  • live.com.ve
  • live.de
  • live.dk
  • live.fr
  • live.hk
  • live.ie
  • live.in
  • live.it
  • live.jp
  • live.nl
  • live.no
  • live.ph
  • live.ru
  • live.se
  • livemail.com.br
  • livemail.tw
  • messengeruser.com
  • msn.com
  • passport.com
  • sympatico.ca
  • tw.live.com
  • webtv.net
  • windowslive.com
  • windowslive.es
• Yahoo
  • yahoo.com

Issues with public IM connectivity to MSN (Windows Live)

The following is a list of the issues that a user may experience when a public IM is connected to MSN (Windows Live):

• In the case that the public IM connectivity becomes unavailable, presence information may be invalid for as long as four hours. To resolve this issue, log off and then log back on.
• The “Be Right Back” status maps to the “Away” status when Communicators users and MSN Messenger users view one another’s presence.
• When an MSN (Windows Live) user’s status is set to “Out to Lunch,” it is displayed as “Away” on the Communicator client because Communicator does not support the “Out to Lunch” status.
• When a Communicator user’s status is set to “Do Not Disturb,” it is displayed as “Away” on the MSN (Windows Live) client because the MSN (Windows Live) client does not support the “Do Not Disturb” status.
• Live Communications Server contacts are blocked when MSN (Windows Live) users remove themselves from a contact list.
• If you already had contact e-mail addresses in your contact list before you switched your contact list from the .NET Messenger Service to the Communications Server environment by using public IM connectivity, these contacts may continuously appear with an "Offline" status. These contacts are currently still associated with the .NET Messenger Service. You must delete and re-add the e-mail address to your contact list to associate the contact with the Communications Server front end service.
• Friendly names of offline MSN (Windows Live) contacts will not appear.

Client-specific issues

Issues with public IM connectivity to Office Communicator clients

• In versions of MSN Messenger that are earlier than Windows Live Messenger 8.0, if a MSN Messenger user opens a conversation window together with a Communicator user for any reason, a toast or a conversation window will open for the Communicator user. This issue occurs regardless of whether the MSN Messenger user types or uses the conversation window or session.
• As of October 11, 2005, all EASI Windows Live ID domains are fully supported for the Public IM Connectivity (PIC) service. This means that Communicator users can communicate with MSN (Windows Live) users by using EASI Windows Live IDs through PIC.
  
  EASI ID enables MSN (Windows Live) users to use the domain name of their choice to create an IM address through Windows Live ID. For example, a user’s EASI Windows Live ID could have been username@contoso.com <mailto:username@contoso.com>. This was a great service for MSN (Windows Live) users. However, the service caused problems when PIC-enabled users tried to communicate with MSN (Windows Live) users by using Communicator.
  
  
  With the change of October 11, 2005, you can use the EASI Windows Live ID with PIC by making a simple change when you add a user to your Communicator contact list. A Communicator user who wants to add the EASI Windows Live ID of username@contoso.com would add the following address to the search field:
  username(contoso.com)@msn.com
  This increases the effectiveness of the PIC service because contacts who have unsupported EASI Windows Live ID domains no longer have to change their domains in order to use the PIC Service.

Issues with public IM connectivity to MSN Messenger

• If a MSN (Windows Live) client starts a file transfer, other sessions, such as Audio and Webcam, will not be canceled as expected by the public IM connectivity service. The MSN (Windows Live) user must manually cancel the request.
• In MSN Messenger 6.x and MSN Messenger 7.0 Beta clients, the Communicator client will receive the following message from the MSN Messenger client if there any unsupported features are started: <User> invited you to view his or her webcam. This requires the latest version of MSN Messenger. You can download the latest version at http://g.msn.com/5meen_us/122. Examples of unsupported features are a file transfer, an audio and video sessions, or an A/V. Ignore this message when you receive it.

Issues with public IM connectivity to AOL

• When an AOL user sends a URL to a Communicator user, the URL that is received by Communicator is changed. For example, if an AOL user sends the URL http://www.contoso.com, the Communicator user receives the following URL: _http://www.contoso.com_ (http:// www.contoso.com)

Issues with public IM connectivity to Yahoo!

• If a Communicator user tries to establish a video session with a Yahoo! user and then cancels the session, the Communicator user is disconnected from the IM session.
• When a Yahoo! user specifies that his or her presence should always appear offline or unavailable to a Communicator client, the Communicator client continues to see the Yahoo! user’s true presence
• When a Communicator user adds a Yahoo! user to his or her contact list, the Yahoo user clicks Allow to add the Communicator user to the Yahoo user’s contact list. When the Communicator user is added, the user’s status is displayed as offline until the Communicator user changes his or her status.
• During an IM session between a Communicator user and a Yahoo! user, the Communicator user is not notified. The Communicator user can continue to send messages after the Yahoo! user closes the session window.
• The Yahoo! client does not support MPOP. If you connect to more than one device, all other devices show a status of "Unavailable" or of "Offline" to the Yahoo! client.
• Yahoo! clients only support instant message invitations. However, if a Communicator client sends a file transfer, an A/V invitation, or another invitation that is not supported for public IM connectivity, the Yahoo! client returns a 200 OK response that indicates acceptance. This response is displayed to the Communicator user who is waiting for acceptance from the Yahoo! user. The Yahoo! user is not notified of this request.
• A Yahoo! client does not accurately maintain presence.

Windows root certificate information

For detailed information on Windows root certificates and updates for Windows root certificates review the following Microsoft KB article

931125 Windows root certificate program members

Recommended firewall configuration

As documented in the deployment documentation for all versions of Communications Server , the recommended firewall configuration when federating with public IM providers is to enable any IP address to connect to port 5061 on the Access Proxy or Edge servers Remote Access interface. 
However, certain enterprises prefer to enforce stricter firewall rules and restrict incoming connections to specific IP addresses. In this case, the IP addresses that are used by the public IM networks have to be specifically enabled on the Communications server's perimeter networks external firewall.

This article lists the IP addresses that are used by each public IM service provider. Note that this list may change. If there is a change to this list, a reconfiguration of the enterprise firewall will be required. The following lists contain the IP addresses that are currently used by each service provider.

IP addresses that are used by MSN (Windows Live)

• 134.170.96.0/26
• 157.56.187.192/26
• 111.221.122.192/26

IP addresses that are used by AOL

• 64.12.x.x
• 205.188.x.x

IP addresses that are used by Yahoo!

• 76.13.22.8 (host)
• 76.13.22.9 (host)
• 76.13.22.10 (host)
• 76.13.22.11 (host)
• 76.13.22.12 (vip)
  
  Primary colo:
• 98.136.47.8 (host)
• 98.136.47.9 (host)
• 98.136.47.10 (host)
• 98.136.47.11 (host)
• 98.136.47.17 (vip)

The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, about the performance or reliability of these products.