Greetings robartes,

It could be that the AIM and MSN Messenger clients attempt a CONNECT first, then on failure try a GET/POST instead. I've heard that AIM actually tries a few different ports, eventually dropping to HTTP GET on 80. Perhaps Trillian attempts CONNECT, fails, complains, and stops.

If this is the case, would looking at Net::HTTPTunnel be worth my time? Or perhaps another solution?

The other idea I had (again, from the brain of a networking newbie) was to create a custom client/server proxy pair. The client would sit on my system and act just like a proxy except that it would convert all requests to it into HTTP GET on port 80 and ship them to the "server". That server is, say, my box at home. It would pick up the requests, translate them back, gather data, ship back to me in my isolation chamber here at the office.

Is this a dumb idea?

gryphon
code('Perl') || die;

Funnily enough, I considered Net::HTTPTunnel, but that needs another HTTP proxy that does the CONNECT. From your description, I thought that this was not an option for you. However, if you have such a proxy on your corporate network, and such use of it is allowed, you can use Net::HTTPTunnel to create a local socket on your workstation you can connect Trillian to (although you could just as easily use that hypothetical corporate proxy directly).

Translating IM messages into HTTP requests - as you are proposing - is possible, but it's a bit like getting a camel to sleep on a trampoline - it will work, but it's extremely awkward, both for you and the camel (not to mention the trampoline). The problem with IM traffic is that it is not just you requesting stuff, as in HTTP, but also the server sending you things on its own initiative. That will not work in HTTP, unfortunately, unless the IM server supports some kind of store and forward scheme for messages, which you can then poll regularly. But I have no knowledge of servers like that, so I cannot help you there.

CU
Robartes-

if your company's firewall does not allow outgoing connections to port 1863, putting an HTTP CONNECT proxy on your workstation will not help you, unfortunately.

Correct, but judging by his description of the situation, that will not be the case. The FW blocks outgoing connections to said port - just putting a proxy on his workstation that does nothing but pass on the connection using HTTP CONNECTs will not make the least difference to the FW. To the FW, it's still an outgoing connection originating on the inside network.

Or perhaps the company proxy he installed has a way to negotiate outgoing connections with the firewall, in which case your statement is of course correct.

CU
Robartes- who just occasionally tends towards the pedantic ;)

The OP explicitly mentioned that Trillian update { other messengers } works over his company proxy. Which is no surprise, as company proxies are usually used to to allow web traffic through the firewall: the firewall blocks all traffic other than eg traffic coming from a certain port range on the IP of the proxy. That way, talking to the proxy is the only way to reach the outside world.

Makeshifts last the longest.