Internet Locator Server

An ILS (Internet Locator Server) is a server that acts as a directory for NetMeeting clients. An ILS is not necessary within a LAN because the user can type in the IP address of the meeting’s host and call them directly. This can also be true for a WAN, but it depends on your setup. An ILS becomes necessary when you are trying to contact a host who has an internal IP (e.g. 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x), and you are outside of their routing scheme. There are ILS’s that are free for use on the Internet, but there are a few problems with taking that route. Firstly, you are putting your meeting at a greater risk of being hacked into. Secondly, these servers can have thousands of people in their directory at any one time, which can make it difficult to find the people you’re looking for. There’s also the risk that people in the directory have logged on with profane user info, which can be disturbing to see during a business meeting that's supposed to have a professional atmosphere.

The solution to these problems is establishing your own ILS. If you have a firewall, it will be necessary to place the server in your DMZ. If you do not have a firewall, get one. Configuring the server is very simple. First you need to set up the server with a publicly recognizable IP address. Then you need to go to Add/Remove Programs and click Add/Remove Windows Components. Then highlight Networking Services and click Details. Then check the box next to Site Server ILS Services, and click OK twice. After that’s done there’s one last step. Windows 2000 uses port 1002 for the ILS directory by default, even though the latest version of NetMeeting use port 389. This is because Windows 2000 Domain Controllers use LDAP and Active Directory on port 389, and Microsoft didn’t want them to share a port. Exchange 2000 uses port 389 as well, so you won’t want to have that installed on your ILS. The way around this is to set up the server with the bare minimum (no Active Directory, no Exchange) and to change the port that the directory service uses. This can be done by going to a DOS prompt and typing ILSCFG [servername] /port 389.

I’ve found two drawbacks to using this procedure for NetMeeting. One is that even though you can join the directory from an external IP, you can’t join a meeting unless the internal host manually adds you to the meeting from the directory. I don’t know if Microsoft intended it to be that way, but there is an advantage to it: unwanted people who discover they can join your directory, can’t join your meetings. And even though outside users can host their own meetings, only inside users can join such meetings.

The other drawback is that this only works for data conferencing. If you want to use audio or video, you have to punch a huge hole in your firewall. This is because Netmeeting uses random ports to transfer audio and video data once connected to the host. If you need A/V data, you might want to look into using a gateway. Be sure and check out Microsoft’s TechNet articles if you have any questions.