sonicwall to block msn messenger file transfer

Well see, I wanted to see if file transfering would HAVE to be a "direct" connection with the two users that are either sending or recieving the file, so I ran a sniffer on my network to see the results (with aim as well) aim showed a TCP connection between both persons, but MSN showed nothing of the sort.. just the same ol' third party server.. did I overlook it, or do they transfer files differently now?

Cybersorcerer, you are right!

not only that, but it appears that no new tcp connection is established at all upon file transfer

that is before any file transfer is initiated:

(extracted with netstat -s)
[code:1]
Tcp:
780 active connections openings
2 passive connection openings
7 failed connection attempts
30 connection resets received
14 connections established
461072 segments received
390388 segments send out
2021 segments retransmited
0 bad segments received.
139 resets sent
[/code:1]

and during 5 file transfers:

[code:1]Tcp:
780 active connections openings
2 passive connection openings
7 failed connection attempts
30 connection resets received
14 connections established
465334 segments received
392843 segments send out
2021 segments retransmited
0 bad segments received.
139 resets sent
[/code:1]

as it appears only thing changed is the number of the exchanged packets. I find quite strange if indeed microsoft decided to proxy messenger's file transfers. When I'm in the mood I will make 2 msn accounts to experiment more comfortably and see for sure, but right now I can't think of an other explanation.


ps. rootcipher it seems blocking file transfers will not be that easy after all

how about using websense, facetime etc.? how can these appz filter msn file transfer traffic?