Lesson Time! Firewalls?

I am currently traveling and for some reason, the hotel i am currently at, i am guessing, is blocking my access to chat with a firewall. But, well... i have little to no knowledge about firewall's, so that is the point of this thread...

Each time i try logging onto chat i get the following error:

Quote:

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Could not connect to www.bdsmlibrary.com:8081.

Possible reasons include:

- The chat server system at www.bdsmlibrary.com is temporarily unavailable.

- Your computer is behind a firewall or proxy server. Please ensure that your firewall permits outgoing TCP connections to www.bdsmlibrary.com on port 8081.

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Now... i know it's not the server because almost everyone on my messenger was in chat... so it has to be the firewall. i went into my firewall settings and added the information as stated above but that didn't fix it. i am guessing it is a setting with the hotel, yes, maybe?

So... for future reference...
How can i fix this? Is it even possible to fix?

Thanks!
annie

It is possible that the hotel is blocking access to that particular chat program, as well as all other programs that use the same software. (I hope I am using the terminology right)



I do know that where I work, we have wireless access, but there are certain programs like chat, that we cannot use. I can access other chat programs, that use different software . I double checked the error message and it is the same as what you are recieving now.
The programs are blocked for a reason, but I never bothered to ask.
Even if you try to disable or change your firewall it will still not work.

All TCP/IP communications (including the internet) uses ports. Ports are different "sub-addresses" (like flats within a building having a single address). Firewalls can be set to open or close any of the ports. Businesses often lock down to a basic set of ports needed for internet, emails and any other special requirements of that site. This is usually done for two reasons, for security (viruses and hacks etc often exploit unusual ports) and to keep control of the amount of data going in and out. This is all done at the gateway between the internal network and the internet, and so changing settings on computers inside this gateway (like yours) will have no effect as the ports will be blocked after they have left/before they reach your computer.

Hope this makes some semblance of sense - typing with a migraine makes life a little difficult...