The most likely cause is that you have a personal firewall or IP Filter running on your computer. If you running Windows, check under Network Properties and look for "IP Filter" under the advanced options. If you are running Linux, try "iptables -L -n" (or "ipchains -L -n" for older version of Linux) to see a list of ports that are being blocked. For Redhat Linux, you can use "service iptables stop" or "service ipchains stop" to temporarily disable the firewall to see if that is the cause of the connection problem. Please make sure that your computer is not connected directly to the Internet while you are trying this.

Akeni LAN Messenger runs without a server, so there is no centralized place where authentification can take place. Although in theory the program can store a local password, this kind of local authentification can be bypassed easily. For example, a malicious user can simply wipe out the password from the registry where the local password is stored, or simply use another computer and try to impersonate somebody else.

This problem is solved by the use of signed digital certificates. The digital certificates can also be used for the purpose of exchanging the session encryption key. These capabilities are available from Akeni LAN+

The short answer: is probably not. The long answer is that Akeni LAN Messenger uses IP Multicast to broadcast its presence to other clients on the same physical LAN, so it may work on VPN across a router that supports IP Multicast. Please refer to the next question on the ports used by Akeni LAN Messenger. That information may help you setup the program on your VPN. On the other hand, users have reported success with running Akeni Pro Messenger on VPNs.

Akeni LAN Messenger Client uses one inbound TCP port and two inbound UDP port, and these needs to be opened in your firewall or IP Filter. The TCP ports can be changed via the login screen by pressing the "More Options" button. This port is used to listen for incoming connections from other clients. The same port value is also used to open up an UDP port that is used internally by the application for inter-thread communication, and that port needs to be open to allow for a connectiong from localhost. The program also uses an UDP port that is used for IP multicasting to find other clients running on the LAN. This UDP port can be changed by setting the environment variable "AKENI_LAN_MESSENGER_MULTICAST_PORT". The enviroment variable can be set either via a batch file, or by changing it via the property dialog in "My Computer". Look for "Environment Variables" under the "Advanced" tab. Note that unlike the TCP port, the UDP port used for IP multicasting can be shared by more than one instance of Akeni LAN Messenger. You can find the current value of the UDP port by selecting (Action | Contact List | Refresh Contatcs) from the main contact list window. There are of course more outbound ports used by the application, but since they are outbound most firewalls will simply let them through.

Yes, users have reported success running it on their VPN. You may want to look at the question on ports used by Akeni Pro Messenger to help you setup your VPN.

The server uses one inbound TCP port and several inbound UDP port. The TCP port is always required, and it can be changed by specifying it as the first command line parameter when launching the server. You can see it's current value by looking for the line "server port(xxxxx)" in the server's output. One optional UDP port is used for IP multicasting so that clients running on the same LAN can find the server automatically. If you don't mind manually configuration of the clients then it can be turned off by clicking on "options" on the login screen and uncheck the "Find server on LAN" option. For instruction on how to configure the client without using multicasting, please refer to the answer earlier in this FAQ. Several other UDP ports are used internally by the server for inter-thread communication, and you should not have to worry about them as long as your firewall is configured to allow all local UDP packets to go through.

If the client has problem finding the server on your LAN then there may be a firewall problem. Under Redhat Linux you can use "service iptables stop" or "service ipchains stop" to temporarily disable the firewall to see if that is the cause of the connection problem. Please make sure that your computer is not connected directly to the Internet while you are trying this.

Akeni Pro Messenger uses one optional inbound UDP port that is used for IP multicasting to find the server running on the LAN. This UDP port can be changed by setting the environment variable "SERVICE_REGISTRY_REQUESTOR_PORT". The enviroment variable can be set either via a batch file, or by changing it via the property dialog in "My Computer". Look for "Environment Variables" under the "Advanced" tab. Note that unlike the TCP port, the UDP port used for IP multicasting can be shared by more than one instance of Akeni Pro Messenger, and the port is only used during login and it is closed aftewards. The use of IP multicasting is in fact optional. If you do not wish to change your firewall configuration you can turn this feature off. Please refer to the question above on how to do that.

Under Windows 2000 and XP, You can use "netstat -an" to find out ALL the ports that are currently used in your current setup. After that, you simply pick a free port not shown by netstat and use it with our application. Of course you need to make sure that the port if not blocked by your firewall or IP Filter. To change the port used by an Akeni product, simply click on the "options" button in the login screen. If you want to know precisely what application is currently running on port 3001, you can download the tcpview program from sysinternals.com. Please note that you need to run tcpview with administrator privilege or you'll get the error "Unable to query property for System: -1"

Under Linux, you can also use "netstat -an", or use "lsof -i tcp:3001".