Facetime Ports

[gusz]

I want to use Facetime on a Mac, which has a static IP on a local LAN behind my Asus RT-3200, which runs AsusWRT-Merlin v 380.61. Firewall is enabled on the router. According to Apple, this requires that the following ports be open:

• 80 (TCP)
• 443 (TCP)
• 3478 through 3497 (UDP)
• 5223 (TCP)
• 16384 through 16387 (UDP)
• 16393 through 16402 (UDP)

I believe this is done through WAN -> Virtual Server/Port Forwarding on the router. I'm not a complete novice, but I'm a bit out of my depth here .... a couple questions:

-Do I open all the ports above, or are some of them (or all of them) open by default?
-Do I make one entry for "Facetime Service" with all ports and port ranges, or multiple entries in the table
-What do I enter for "Local Port"?

Thx, Gus

 

[ColinTaylor]

All outgoing ports are open by default.

 

[Striker317]

I want to use Facetime on a Mac, which has a static IP on a local LAN behind my Asus RT-3200, which runs AsusWRT-Merlin v 380.61. Firewall is enabled on the router. According to Apple, this requires that the following ports be open:

• 80 (TCP)
• 443 (TCP)
• 3478 through 3497 (UDP)
• 5223 (TCP)
• 16384 through 16387 (UDP)
• 16393 through 16402 (UDP)

I believe this is done through WAN -> Virtual Server/Port Forwarding on the router. I'm not a complete novice, but I'm a bit out of my depth here .... a couple questions:

-Do I open all the ports above, or are some of them (or all of them) open by default?
-Do I make one entry for "Facetime Service" with all ports and port ranges, or multiple entries in the table
-What do I enter for "Local Port"?

Thx, Gus

You should not have to open any incoming ports for FaceTime to work.

 

[sfx2000]

Direct from Apple... FaceTime/iMessage...

---------------------------------

If you use FaceTime and iMessage behind a firewall
You can use FaceTime and iMessage with most networks. If you're on a network that's behind a firewall, you might need to enable certain ports.

About firewalls
Some networks use firewalls for security. Firewalls block certain Internet traffic from entering or leaving a network. Internet traffic moves through a firewall using ports. To use FaceTime and iMessage behind certain firewalls, you might need to ask your network administrator to enable these ports:

FaceTime

• 80 (TCP)
• 443 (TCP)
• 3478 through 3497 (UDP)
• 5223 (TCP)
• 16384 through 16387 (UDP)
• 16393 through 16402 (UDP)
  

iMessage

• 80 (TCP)
• 443 (TCP)
• 5223 (TCP)

Depending on the NAT configuration for your router and network, additional ports might be used to send and receive video. Some router features and configurations, such as port mapping, SIP dropping, or dynamic opening of media ports might interfere with FaceTime and iMessage. Contact your network administrator if you need help with port forwarding.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Facetime works just fine with the standard Firewall setting, I have never had an issue. It will find a way to route through the open ports in my experience.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Direct from Apple... FaceTime/iMessage...

Yes I read that as well.

<RANT>
Typical, non-specific answer that these companies always give... "might need", "enable", "certain ports", "additional ports", "contact your administrator", etc. No mention of which direction they're are talking about, incoming or outgoing! HTTP and HTTPS, are they really suggesting that you need to forward these incoming ports? Not very convenient if you're running a web server.

For crying out loud Apple, stop expecting every one of your customers to reverse engineer how your stuff works. You wrote it, tell us explicitly, what ports, in what direction, under which circumstances.
</RANT>

 

[RMerlin]

NAT seems to be black magic to most of these companies who can't properly explain the difference between opening and forwarding.