GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 338267
Symmetric NAT detection ends with unhelpful message
Last modified: 2008-08-10 19:44:17 UTC
When NAT detection ends with "Symmetric NAT", it is suggested to check if the user router can proxy SIP or H323 protocols, or otherwise forward some ports to turn it into cone NAT. Albeit it is written in a technical and complex way, and most importantly it does not give any hint on the port forwarding method. I suggest to have this kind of help instead: "Ekiga detected Symmetric NAT: you are connected to the internet via a gateway (router) which will prevent you from connecting with people sharing the same problem. You can improve this situation in two ways: * First check if your router can natively proxy the SIP and/or H.323 protocols (also called VoIP protocols) * Otherwise configure your router to forward the TCP/1720 and UDP/5000-5016 ports to the internal IP address of your workstation You can run the NAT detection again at any time. " A link to the FAQ or the packaged help coud help (eg: http://www.gnomemeeting.org/index.php?rub=3&pos=0&faqpage=x178.html) Other information:
Confirmed -- this is the second-worst alert I've ever seen in any graphical application. Vincent's text would be a small improvement, but the bullet points really belong in a help page, because they can't be explained sufficiently in the space allowed for an alert.
For listening, it should listen on all interfaces, and detect if new ones are added, unless the user explicitly want to force ekiga to listen on a single interface. For calling it should use by default the one used to register to ekiga.net (or the account provider). Again when registering, unless the user explicitly defines an interface, ekiga should cycle through all the avilable network interfaces. With laptops it is expecially important to cycle through available interfaces as laptop users may switch interfaces wireless <-> wired during usage or after suspend/resume etc.. It is also important for uses were you must set up VPNs to reach other networks, and you may have to use VPNs on remote sites while no problem exist in main campuses. VPNs may use interfaces like tun0, tun1 etc... The same is for dialup (ADSL) connected computers, where you may want to start the line later. If a registration fails, ekiga should try again after a user adjustable amount of time, and cycle through all interfaces (again unless the user wants to force use of only one specific interface).
Sorry for this entry and the noise, I didn't realize bugzilla changes the bug you are viewing by default when you save changes, and I pressed it by mistake while looking at another bug, before entering my comment.
I am not sure if the message has changed since 2006/07, but it is still unhelpful. It tells me to forward ports to my machine without telling me which ports to forward. Could a link to the help pages be embedded? Not that I know anything about the situation, (I'm just a lowly user here,) but it seems annoying that, if I forward the ports to my machine, it won't help my friends gain access on the same network.
Richard: the situation will be improved at a later stage for 3.00. The message will be removed and things will be automatic.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 545295 ***