Re: Blocking AOL for Broadband and NOT AIM

From: Don Kelloway (dkelloway_at_commodon.com)
Date: 09/30/04 

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2004 00:13:06 GMT

"Mike Binns" <mike@mikebinns.net> wrote in message
news:2796e7bb.0409290739.dff3b85@posting.google.com...
>I am the Internet Manager for our college, and we have content
> filtering on campus. The problem is that one of the ways to get around
> our content filtering is to use the aol client in the TCP (not dial
> up) mode to access websites we block. I checked and the AOL client
> uses the same port as AIM (5190). We want to allow people to use AIM
> for communications, and AOL Mail from the AOL website, but block
> people from using the AOL Client, but blocking port 5190 would
> obviously kill AIM. Any suggestions?
>
> -Mike Binns

>From what I know:

1. The AOL software is specifically coded to use TCP ports 5190 and 11523
when establishing its connection over TCP.

2. The ability to send/retrieve email from the AOL website requires TCP
ports 80 and 443.

3. The AIM software is capable of using *any* port. IOW while its default is
TCP port 5190 it can be easily configured to use something else.

With the above in mind I think you can accomplish the goal of blocking the
AOL software if you configure your firewall to block (deny) all outbound
connections to TCP port 5190 and inform your internal users to configure
their AIM clients to use a port other than 5190. 

-- 
Best regards, from Don Kelloway of Commodon Communications
Visit http://www.commodon.com to learn about the "Threats to Your Security 
on the Internet".

Relevant Pages

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