I work in a company that has about 30 computers connected to 5 hubs/switches which are in turn all connected to a Cayman 3220-H router for DSL. The DSL company that services us is PacBell. I also had that problem with a 4 port cable/DSL Linksys router I had bought for home use with 3 computers and I had the same problem. The problem is that I can't receive or send files via ICQ or Microsoft Messenger. I mean, I can send and receive e-mails easily with a program like Outlook express so why wouldn't I be able to send receive stuff with programs like ICQ? I know the problem is with the router because without it it works fine.

It's me again.. I just tested to send something via ICQ and it works.. it doesn't work though when someone tries to send me something. About Messenger, it does not work to send or receive anything. Can anyone give me an explanation? and any solution on how to be able to send and receive files via ICQ and Messenger?

Hit the ICQ home page, and they should tell yo what TCP ports it rides on and moves files over. Those will have to be allowed back into the network in order to pass files. I can't imagine a business network even allowing ICQ, let alone passing files over it. I thought they had all figured out how dangerous it was by now. Chase

Hi. I have had this same problem for a while now on my home network. I finally figured out a solution to all of this. In ICQ click on the ICQ button then go to preferences. Then click on the connections tab from the left side. Then click the User tab. Under the user tab select Not using proxy. And then select Use dynamically allocated port numbers (default), or if you know your port numbers enter them in. Then press apply and disconnect and reconnect ICQ. Do this for the other machines as well if they have problems. Sako Bell

This simply has to do with the settings of the router/proxy you are using. IF your INTRA-Network appears to the internet as only ONE device (Masquerading) - wich is needed for most DSL connections - you simply have a problem RECEIVING files. The problem simply is: If you send a file from inside you are calling his Address from inside. YOUR Computer opens a dedicated port to the internet - and this your router remembers. All incoming transfers at this port will be routed to your machine. It's the same with the chat for example. You are opening the channel to the ICQ server from inside - and so it works. BUT! If someone wants to SEND you a file HIS computer is trying to CONNECT yours from the INTERnet by IP-Address - wich in fact is the Address of your Router - not your machine. So there comes an IP packet to the router - and the router just doesn't knoe for wich machine in your net the data might be - and dumps it. The only chance is to tell the router that he shall send all data coming on the ICQ "file send port" to a specific machine. Withe the answer given in "response 2" you might be able to do this for more than one computer (but most routers do not have very long lists for this process - and I haven't tested this for more than one machine by the way...) This procedure is named INVERSE Masquerading. Hope your router supports it ;)