Inside Out
Notes on seeking wisdom and crafting software

Yahoo and HTTP Tunneling..

ℹ️ The user faced issues connecting Gaim to Yahoo, tried various settings and troubleshooting methods but couldn't resolve the issue. They discovered that port 5050 was closed on their system and found a solution using Torr app.

This started around 9 AM in the morning. As usual when i started up Gaim to connect to Yahoo from my SuSE 10.1 Box, It won’t connect after 10 to 15mins. Then i started the debug mode using : gaim -d
And here is the error :

dns[somenumber]: nobody needs me... =(

proxy: Connected.
proxy: getsockopt SOERROR check: Connection timed out

I thought something is wrong with my settings. So I did all sort of permutation combination with the proxy settings etc. After having messed up everything finally I deleted the preferences : /home/arun/.gaim

Start everything afresh..Still the same error :(

It appeared something is wrong with linux (my firewall settings) etc. So i tried Gaim in my friend’s Windows Box. Hmm still the same error. But Yahoo Messenger working fine.

That meant something is wrong with Gaim.

Next thing was to see the default ports Gaim connects through : 5050. And I checked the ports open by Yahoo in that Windows Box using :

netstat -b

Here i get the output that Yahoo is using HTTPS protocol (surprise !! I am not yet sure if Yahoo has this tunneling feature enabled..do enlighten me if you've any idea) But that meant that something was wrong with the default ports. And a quick `nmap` on the "Gateway" of my internet connection revealed that port 5050 is closed. Infact only port 80 and someothers are open !!

Now time for Google, search for tunneling begins !! Most of the apps available for Http Tunneling needed access to another Unix system which is freely visible to Outside World so that they would tunnel my port 5050 access through that machine. Here are some good papers (articles) i came across, these would make a nice 15 to 20mins reading :

http://stormwolf.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/proxyjail_background.html↗

http://www.geocities.com/smart031279/ip_tunneling.htm↗

http://sebsauvage.net/punching/↗

http://proxytunnel.sourceforge.net/paper.php↗
↗

The last link did the trick..I got this app [Torr](http://tor.eff.org/) Download the source..build it and put the settings file. Now start the app and change the proxy settings for Gaim. And i could get in :)

**Kudos to the Torr developers out there :)** *Don't ask me at what time i finished this whole experiment :P*