This article describes the various network ports that are required for Windows Live Messenger features to work. It also lists the URLs that Messenger uses.

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The following table lists the network ports that are required for various features of Windows Live Messenger 8.1 on a Windows Vista-based computer.

Feature	Port that is used
Sign in to the Messenger service	TCP 80, 443, 1863
Network Detection	TCP 7001 UDP 9, 7001
Audio	TCP 80, 443, 1863 TCP/UDP 30000 - 65535
Audio (Legacy) *	UDP 5004 – 65535
Webcam and Video Conversations	TCP 80 TCP/UDP 5000 - 65535
File Transfer	TCP 443, 1863 TCP/UDP 1025 - 65535
File Transfer (Legacy) *	TCP 6891 - 6900
Sharing Folders	TCP 1863 TCP/UDP 1025 – 65535
Whiteboard and Application Sharing	TCP 1503
Remote Assistance	TCP 3389 TCP/UDP 49152 – 65535
Windows Live Call	TCP 443, 5061 UDP 5004 - 65525
Games	TCP 80, 443, 1863 TCP/UDP 1025 - 65535

* These ports are used when you are connected to a contact through a legacy client program, such as MSN Messenger 5.0 or any version of Windows Messenger.

URLs

The following table lists the URLs to which Windows Live Messenger connects.

URL used	URL function
https://Login.live.com (https://Login.live.com)	HTTP over SSL (HTTPS) authentication to Windows Live ID and acquiring of x509 certificates for secure peer-to-peer (p2p) connections for the Sharing Folders feature
http://Login.live.com (http://Login.live.com)	HTTP authentication to Windows Live ID
https://*.contacts.msn.com (https://*.contacts.msn.com)	To get the contact list
https://*.storage.msn.com (https://*.storage.msn.com)	Storage of the user tile, personal status message, and display name for a user so that the user can have the same set of information across all Windows Live experiences on work and home computers; (Simple Object Access Protocol [SOAP] over HTTPS)
http://*.storage.msn.com (http://*.storage.msn.com)	Storage of the user tile (HTTP DAV) and acquiring pictures from a user's Windows Live Space
http://c.msn.com (http://c.msn.com)	To set an anonymous unique ID for a user to personalize the Windows Live experience
http://*.messenger.msn.com (http://*.messenger.msn.com)	Various core messenger operations
http://g.msn.com (http://g.msn.com)	Redirect URLs used for tracking the start of a URL for a particular page to Microsoft Web sites
http://crl.microsoft.com (http://crl.microsoft.com)	To access the latest Certificate Revocation List (CRL) in order to check the validity of a certificate
http://messenger.hotmail.com:1863 (http://messenger.hotmail.com:1863)	Communications channel for messenger server; Microsoft Notification Protocol (MSNP) for messaging
http://gateway.messenger.hotmail.com (http://gateway.messenger.hotmail.com)	In case a firewall is blocking the ports, Messenger can use this gateway over HTTP
http://config.messenger.msn.com (http://config.messenger.msn.com)	Download configuration information that is used by the Messenger client
https://ows.messenger.msn.com (https://ows.messenger.msn.com)	Send offline messages
https://rsi.hotmail.com (https://rsi.hotmail.com)	Receive offline messages
http://sqm.microsoft.com (http://sqm.microsoft.com)	Upload Service Quality Monitoring (SQM) data to Microsoft; (no personally identifiable information [PII] is transferred)
http://*.edge.messenger.live.com (http://*.edge.messenger.live.com)	Various core Messenger operations. For example, echo servers that are used to establish direct connectivity between two messenger clients for peer-to-peer (p2p) communication when clients are behind firewalls
http://relay.data.edge.messenger.live.com (http://relay.data.edge.messenger.live.com)	Media relay used to transfer binary data (files, voice, or video)
http://rad.msn.com (http://rad.msn.com)	To download advertising content display in the client and to download ad-sponsored personal expression content, such as display pictures, and emoticons
http://appdirectory.messenger.msn.com (http://appdirectory.messenger.msn.com)	Used by Messenger activities/games applications that run inside Messenger applications
https://images.messenger.msn.com (https://images.messenger.msn.com)	For messenger image files
http://spaces.live.com (http://spaces.live.com)	For the contact card
http://relay.voice.messenger.msn.com (http://relay.voice.messenger.msn.com)	Media relay used for voice

Note Users behind some authenticating proxy servers may experience sign-in issues. They might have to configure the proxy servers to force authentication for the following User Agent string: MSN Explorer/9.0 (MSN 8.0; TmstmpExt). To do this, users should see the documentation for their proxy server or contact their network administrator.

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