When I try to play games (such as checkers or chess) with somebody on MSN, it always says that the games are unavailable.  Is there something that I can do to fix this?

Thank-you

This is probably your firewall that's blocking, what anti-virus app do u have?

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Originally posted by Nitrolinken
This is probably your firewall that's blocking, what anti-virus app do u have?

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Originally posted by RaceProUK

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Originally posted by Nitrolinken
This is probably your firewall that's blocking, what anti-virus app do u have?

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What? WTF have firewalls and anti-virus got to do with this?

It'll be server issues most likely. The game itself should use the pre-existing conversation connection to exchange data.

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I have the same prob, when it first happend I restarted my computer, turned off my firewall and tried restarting messenger, I can't figuer it out

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Originally posted by Cam66
I have the same prob, when it first happend I restarted my computer, turned off my firewall and tried restarting messenger, I can't figuer it out

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if you are running Norton Personal firewall or NIS, then remove port 80 from the protected ports list on the Firewall options window

had the same problem,

can't remember where i found the fix.

odd though that Msn 6.0 games worked fine, with port 80 protected, but in 7.0+ they didn't

I have the same problem with different people, but it seems to happen at random. There doesn't seem to be anything that can be done about it, because it's not obvious what is causing it. A firewall problem would be consistent, for example.

thanks, i'll try opening those ports

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Originally posted by yourmama_20
then remove port 80 from the protected ports list

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Originally posted by yourmama_20
odd though that Msn 6.0 games worked fine, with port 80 protected, but in 7.0+ they didn't

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Originally posted by markee
I did a google search and messenger uses the ports 3891 to 6901.

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Originally posted by sufcste
There doesn't seem to be anything that can be done about it, because it's not obvious what is causing it

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Originally posted by Cam66
thanks, i'll try opening those ports

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Originally posted by RaceProUK
And I'm not joking: an unprotected Windows machine exposed to the Internet will be compromised in, on average, 4 minutes.

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So? Opening port 80 is idiocy unless you're running a webserver. Remember, an attack doesn't have to find a website in order to infiltrate a computer. The best defence is to be invisible to the Internet.

Yes, but as long as there's nothing actually listening on that port you're not vulnerable to attack. (Unless there's a major bug in the underlying OS handling of ports, but there doesn't appear to be one in Windows).

If you already have a trojan, then yeah, that's going to open a port somewhere, but under normal circumstances you'll be safe.

Take a look here (with and without a firewall):
http://scan.sygate.com/quickscan.html

Even with just the Windows Firewall, the only open port I have is ICMP.

Even a closed, but present, port can expose a machine to attack. I myself use ShieldsUP! from grc.com, and given it's tested some 44 billion firewalls, I figure the info's pretty reliable. After all, whack a door hard enough for long enough, and it will eventually break.

I was going to quote the site, but I can't find the bit where that's mentioned. But anyway, only a truly stealthed system can be considered remotely close to immune from attack.

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Originally posted by RaceProUK

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Originally posted by yourmama_20
then remove port 80 from the protected ports list

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Yeah, that's it, expose a well-known port to attack

MSN games do not use port 80: that's reserved for HTTP, the thing that lets you browse websites. My PC has port 80 nicely locked down, as does our router, and guess what? Games still work.
Maybe Messenger says the 'service is unavailable' because the service actually is unavailable!

A few more things:

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Originally posted by yourmama_20
odd though that Msn 6.0 games worked fine, with port 80 protected, but in 7.0+ they didn't

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Coincidence.

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Originally posted by markee
I did a google search and messenger uses the ports 3891 to 6901.

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That is an incomplete range of ports. In fact, there's a post on the forum that lists all the ports Messenger uses, and what for.

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Originally posted by sufcste
There doesn't seem to be anything that can be done about it, because it's not obvious what is causing it

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Precisely

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Originally posted by Cam66
thanks, i'll try opening those ports

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And wait for the attacks to happen.
And I'm not joking: an unprotected Windows machine exposed to the Internet will be compromised in, on average, 4 minutes.

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Originally posted by yourmama_20
but yes Msn does require port 80

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well can you explain why doing this allows games to run, and pls.. before you respond.. do your research.

Port 80 is a commonly used port for the internet, and isn't just used on webservers.

Port 80 is for HTTP and HTTP alone. This is enforced at all levels of the Internet. Quite simply, if it isn't HTTP, it isn't port 80.

And I don't know why doing that in Norton works: maybe Norton's just buggy.

And if you doubt 80 is always HTTP:
Official IANA Port Number Assignment List
IANA = Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.

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finger           79/tcp    Finger
finger           79/udp    Finger
#                          David Zimmerman <dpz@RUTGERS.EDU>
http             80/tcp    World Wide Web HTTP
http             80/udp    World Wide Web HTTP
www              80/tcp    World Wide Web HTTP
www              80/udp    World Wide Web HTTP
www-http         80/tcp    World Wide Web HTTP
www-http         80/udp    World Wide Web HTTP
#                          Tim Berners-Lee <timbl@W3.org>
hosts2-ns        81/tcp    HOSTS2 Name Server
hosts2-ns        81/udp    HOSTS2 Name Server

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well its possible that Msn uses port 80 to retrieve the data via http.

the data is cached in temp net files afterwall.

...im to lazy to contact ms, to find the exact problem.

other problems too, like they appear too big in screen, or they don't load, they better fix the bugs in their games too

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Originally posted by yourmama_20
well its possible that Msn uses port 80 to retrieve the data via http

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still.. doesn't explain why this works for NPF users...

allright, I don't really understand anything u guys are talking about. I use norton personal firewall and right now 80 is closed and games do not work, should I open it or should I just leave it closed and not use games. I need help with this one pls