Re: [GnomeMeeting-list] Connection to servers

[Malcolm Caldwell <malcolm caldwell ntu edu au>]

On Mon, 2003-12-08 at 19:54, Damien Sandras wrote:
> Le lun 08/12/2003 à 10:58, daniel huhardeaux a écrit :
> > >
> > >It is extremely unprobable that such a feature appears in the next
> > >release except if someone external codes it or if I code faster than
> > >what I think. The ideal would be to have a list of possible ILS servers
> > >in the prefs, not in the addressbook as it would be more intuitive.
> > >  
> > >
> > So my request isn't so stupid :-) I mention addressbook while when I'm 
> > looking for someone, I right clic on loocking for and have what I want 
> > (my ils servers are all created there). So it's easier than to go in 
> > prefs and ask which server GM has to use. And imagine that one of your 
> 
> There are 2 different things here :
> - the servers you want to browse for remote contacts : they are in the
> addressbook
> - the servers you want to register to : they are in the preferences
> 
> > contact is also connected to 2 or more ils server. In this case, if you 
> > want to contact it, you have to check one by one on which he's 
> > connected! But perhaps you mean to create a prefered list in prefs and
> 
> Seriously, do you know many people registering to several ILS servers at
> the same time? 

Polycom viavideo software lets you do this easily.

> I'm not sure how you proposed idea would solve the
> problem you are describing by the way (ie having to double-click on each
> of his callto addresses to see if he is registered or not)
> 
> > then this list is available in servers addressbook list and from there 
> > we can connect. So in this case ok ;-) And for Gatekeeper, could it be 
> 
> If we allow registering to several ILS servers, those ILS servers will
> automatically be added to the addressbook, that sounds logical.
> 
> We could also have something more complicated from a code point of view
> :
> - Right-clicking on a server in teh addressbook brings a "properties
> popup".
> - Enabling registering in that popup would add the server in the list in
> the prefs. Disabling registering in that popup would remove the server
> in the list in the prefs.
> 
> I think that is the ideal solution, but I don't plan to code such a
> thing before 1.00 because time is lacking and I still have much to do
> (and most people only register to one server at a time).
> 
> > also possible to list them there, also with connected endpoints listed?
> > 
> 
> Unfortunately H.323 gatekeepers do not allow to list connected
> endpoints. If it was permitted we would have replaced ILS servers by
> gatekeepers a long time ago, because ILS is not that great.

I think the best solution for the whole ILS mess is to use an open
source gatekeeper and get it to output a list of users registered.

opengk already has a html admin interface - with it you can see who is
registered (and unregister them etc) It could easily modified to:
     1. output a new html page with h323:// links (and no unregister
        links)
     2. outout a xml page that gnomemeeting could use to do its
        addressbook

Another approach which I started to work on hacked the ndk and pretended
to be an ils server but really just returned current people on the
gatekeeper.  It was a bit ugly.

ils is bad - it is time to drop it and go to more standard approaches.

> 
> > >  
> > >
> > >>Also, how is it possible that a client coming from internet is 
> > >>connecting to an ils server with a private IP (eg 192.168.x.x). And
> > >>    
> > >>
> > >
> > >The client sends its IP address to the ILS server. Our ILS server is
> > >fixing it if there is a problem. People behind a NAT gateway will have a
> > >private IP and most software will send that IP to the ILS server because
> > >there is not easy way for the client to determine the real IP address.
> > >Notice that most people registering with a private IP also have a
> > >misconfigured NAT gateway and are polluting the ILS with unreachable
> > >entries.
> > >  
> > >
> > This is what I'm loocking for: how you modify perl script to get correct 
> > address from client if there is a problem. I modify netmeeting perl 
> > script to masquerade IP address of intranet client with valid IP address 
> > on which ils server is running. Thus people can then be reached from 
> > outside. But I didn't find a solution for others :-(
> > 
> 
> You would have to patch openldap to pass the IP in a variable to the
> perl sript. However, if those people do not forward the appropriate
> ports from the gateway to the internal host, it won't work.
> 
> If you have a personal ILS server for people you know, I would suggest
> you to replace it by a gatekeeper able to proxy, that would be of far
> better quality.
> 
> > >  
> > >
> > >> 
> > >>last, where is it possible to find information about xdap used by 
> > >>ils.seconix (if there is one).
> > >>
> > >>    
> > >>
> > >
> > >There is none, but you can ask questions.
> > >  
> > >
> > Related to point 2: how to discover bad client IP address and how to 
> > solve problem. Second, what is better with xdap? Is it still using perl 
> > script? the same?