quote:
Originally posted by Spunky
IIRC WLM let you set proxy settings? A chinese proxy should do the trick without needing a chinese client. (Server thinks you are in china, could be travelling... therefore need access to the service)
AFAIK, all clients, versions, protocols etc use the same server and port (messenger.hotmail.com:1863). I think they will somehow restrict traffic through the gateway server; meaning the service will still be there, but inaccessible. This would be easiest to do by blocking IP ranges (why a proxy might work). I think MS would expect people to try this though and take other factors into consideration (In this situation I would personally look in to ping times; if ping>x ms then you are not really from China; I'm sure they'd be more refined than this though)
(Thank you for contributing to this thread.)
I described unresolved issues with forcing Messenger to use foreign SOCKS proxies on the first page. There's a blog post that explains you need to edit your hosts file and redirect all the network ports/URLs to your local host (cancelling them out in the process and forcing use of the proxy), since as long as there is a functioning TCP Internet connection present, Messenger will actually ignore custom-set proxies. However, in following these steps, I was still faced with problems, and I could not sign in with any SOCKS proxy. Maybe you'd wish to view that blog post and try your own hand at it?
Also, what is your opinion of those Chinese Messenger clients? Do you suppose they do, in fact, connect to Chinese servers? Are those clients any more likely to work than the regular English ones in any possible regards?