A Firewall is used to aid in surfacing a layer of security for your computer. Firewalls
can be configured to block certain information. Sometimes only certain types of data are allowed to pass from the
Internet to your Internet Browser or Media Player. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider), Information
Systems or Network Group are normally responsible for Firewall configurations. Below are some configurations
that should be open, or set, so that Streaming Media can make it from the Internet to your machine.
NOTE: Most of the information, shown below, will require assistance from your ISP,
Information Systems or Network Group.
Network Ports
Openning up TCP Ports for Streaming Media
Ports 1755 and 554 should be open for TCP incoming/outgoing connections. You must have an
established command in your firewall configuration to allow the return packets to come back into your
network. Therefore; setup your rules to enable traffic through Ports 1755 and 554 to be initiated from the
inside network exclusively. Incoming traffic, on the other hand, should only be allowed if it is part of
an ongoing connection. This will allow your internal user's to start a Streaming Media connection, that can
communicate back to your users. The key is that your user has started this connection by initiallizing
a piece of Streaming Media. So you will maintain a level of security with this type of configuration.
Openning up UDP Ports for Streaming Media
Open up only one Port to accept UDP events. Then configure your users Media Players to use UDP
with the port you chose. This can be configured through the Preferences/Setup of the Media Player. This will restrict
Streaming Media to just this one port, over UDP.
Openning up HTTP Ports for Streaming Media
TCP or UDP streaming is recommended. If you are unable to access Streaming Media through TCP or UDP
, because of security rules at your location, you may setup Streaming through the HTTP Protocol. To enable HTTP
Protocol streaming, open TCP on Port 80 for incoming/outgoing connections. Streaming through the HTTP Protocol
is not as efficient as if you used TCP, or even UDP. This is because the stream is just wrapped in HTTP and allowed
to pass because it conforms to the HTTP Protocol. It wil be "unwrapped" and dealt with as if it were an HTTP event.
Because HTTP events were initially written to pass "text" and "small-bitmap" items back and forth, using it to transfer
Multi-Media information, like Streaming Media, will not be as effificient. Quality of the Streaming Media could
be affected. Such as; your user's Streaming Media may stop, skip or even spend lots of time bufferring. the entire
Streaming Media experience runs the risk of degrading quite a bit. TCP, or even UDP, Protocols are recommended
for a more enjoyable Streaming Media experience.
Openning up Multicast Ports for Streaming Media
To turn on Multicast Streaming, enable packets sent through IP Address Range 224.0.0.1 to
239.255.255.255 to successfully pass through your Firewall. For IP Multicasting to work, the IP Address
Range, shown above, must be enabled on both client and server sides, as well as every router in between.
Yahoo! has enabled this IP Address Range. More and more of the Internet is enabling this IP Address
Range within Proxies and Firewalls.
Microsoft Windows XP Client Known "Firewall" Issues
(Microsoft Windows XP installs with Windows Media Player version 9.)
If you encounter problems Streaming Media while using Windows Media Player, and you are
using Windows XP, you may have the built-in Internet Firewall Protection or Internet Connection Sharing tools
enabled. The Firewall may inhibit the UDP protocol from performing it's functions with Streaming Media. You
can workaround this issue by following these directions:
Steps for Windows Media version 9:
1. On the Tools menu, select Options.
2. On the Network tab, locate Streaming protocols.
3. Click on the Multicast, TCP, UDP and HTTP boxes, to enable each of them.
4. Click on the Apply button.
5. Click on the OK button.
Read more about Firewall Configurations, for Windows Media Player, here.
Read more about Firewall Configurations, for RealMedia Player, here.