Re: Re: xAP Floorplan beta 4 released

[Kevin Hawkins <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

garygfx wrote:

>Ah, I was just about to post a new question about xAP and firewalls.
>I noticed with xAP Desktop that there were no xAP msgs unless I
>disabled Sygate Personal Firewall.
>
>I've now loaded Floorplan again and it's seen 4 devices. I guess I
>should wait longer to see if it's informed of the other devices.
>
>Are you or anyone else running Sygate Personal? If so please can you
>tell me how to enable xAP communications without having to disable
>the firewall? Usually when an app tries to use a port for the first
>time Sysgate alerts me and provides the option to grant access, but
>it's never given me the option for xAP. I think it just sees it as a
>naughty bit of traffic and automatically blocks it.
>
>I tried creating a rule to allow port 3639 but it didn't work.
>
>Thanks,
>Gary.
>
>
>
Sorry no - I use Norton here - that just prompts me and then it works.
With XP's firewall you just add the application to the list of
'exceptions' and again it works. The firewall works on an application
basis not a port basis.

Here's the nitty gritty...

a xAP application always sends data to a broadcast address directed at
port 3639
eg to 192.168.1.255 (port 3639)
It sends it from whatever free port it has managed to acquire on the PC
( you can actually see the port it is using as it lists it in its
heartbeat message ). This could be around 3640+ in older xAP
applications but now we tend to use the 'ephemeral' range of ports which
start at 32768 upwards. This avoids us grabbing ports that are allocated
officially to other services ;-)

eg
xap-hbeat
{
v=12
hop=1
uid=FF576400
class=xap-hbeat.alive
source=mi4.IntranetLaunch.THUNDER
interval=60
port=49152              <<<  This is an applicaton working via a
hub
and using port 49152
}


Now a xAp application  receives on 3639 if it is the only xAP
application or again on whichever free port it then acquired if that
port was occupied , presumably by a hub. The hub will thus be the only
application that can hear xAP traffic on your network and when it
receives each message from the network it relays it to each of the other
applications on the machine (using the loopback interface) on which  it
is running , on the ports they announced they were listening on in their
heartbeats.

I am not sure how easy this type of firewall filtering is to set up
based on port numbers ?  Someone else might know ? ANYONE ??  P ?
. Local apps (within one PC) may not be subjected to the firewall  rules
and particularly so on the loopback interface -  hence maybe all you
need is to allow the hub to receive on 3639 and any app to send to 3639
(from any port) . As HomeSeer can see Floorplan (based on prev post info
- then the transmit side looks like its working already )

Kevin