Chat affected by firewall

Chat affected by firewall

by Robin Newman -
Number of replies: 6

Hi

Recently set up moodle, and notice that chat doesn't seem to work through our firewall. Items typed in do not appear on the local machine, although they are sent to the server, and appear on a chat screen running there, and on another machine on the same subnet as the server also running the chat module. It looks like a similar problem the the referrer header being stopped by the firewall, which prevents logon unless you set secureforms to no in the variables settings. Is there a similar adjustment that would enable chat to work?

Robin

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In reply to Robin Newman

Re: Chat affected by firewall

by Martin Dougiamas -
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Actually, HTTP_REFERER is not used in the chat module at all ..   There is some Javascript however - is your firewall blocking javascripts? 

Needless to say everything in chat is working fine for most people.  Out of interest, how does chat work for you on this server?   Open Chat Lounge
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Chat affected by firewall

by John Close -
I am having the same problem in Maryland.  We are using the chat to provide science supervisors statewide with forum to share feelings about our new state curriculum.  The chat shows up on my screen and the other members message show up but nothing shows up on ther other computers.  Not even the outside machine sending the message.
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In reply to John Close

Re: Chat affected by firewall

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
If someone can find the reason for the chat/firewall clash I'll fix the code, but until then I can't do much.  It's all working well here.
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Chat affected by firewall

by Robin Newman -
I've done some experiments with our firewall settings ( a watchguard firebox) and discovered the cause of our problem here. The proxied http filter on port 80 has a setting remove unknown headers, which says that it removes unknown headers including any current or future unofficial headers. Disabling this options allowed the chat system to work between the server on our dmz zone and machines on our trusted zone. With this filter switched on, then machines on the trusted zone could send info to the server (and it would display on the chat screen running on the server), but the info was not echoed back to the originating machine. This may help others with this problem.
Robin
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Chat affected by firewall - is it?

by Mark Berthelemy -
Hi,

We've just tried using chat properly for the first time, with users from a variety of locations and behind a range of possible firewalls & other network infrastructure.

We're using chat in normal mode, but people are having to keep on leaving & returning in order to be able to post messages. Much of the time the chat is just not responding for them (but not me - I'm logged in as an admin)

Any thoughts?

Mark
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In reply to Mark Berthelemy

Re: Chat affected by firewall - is it?

by Chris Potter -
I've seen issues with this when using the 'stream' method. It seems to lock the chat reply box after the first message. The option for this is available under Administration-->Modules-->Chat. Is may be related to your firewall also, depending on how your network is set up.
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