In the old days, you could block the ports on the firewall. Now, the clients can use 80. What do you IT people use to block all IM?

 

How large of an organization are we talking about? We are finding IM to be as useful, if not more useful, than email.

 

Small company (15 max) - its a decision that the client wanted....Don't piss me off about it being more useful then e-mail

 

There are about 8 of us with IM and 4 or 5 of us use it a couple of times a day, but I'm not so sure it's particularly useful as an alternative to e-mail.
Most of us use it to ask about places and food for lunch; my boss often uses it to ask fairly inane questions that he doesn't ask in e-mail...

 

Face it, your skills are going the way of the dinosaur

Anyway, if these are the same guys that have the Pix, check this out http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/...808c38a6.shtml

 

+reps....

 

can't you block the ability to install certain programs?

 

Just block the IP addresses/hostnames of the IM services?

For AIM I believe it is login.oscar.aol.com

 

They all have admin rights on their workstation and Im not looking to change that....

 

They have many and they change...Plus, its really the ports that matter....

 

Blocking TCP & UDP 5190-5193 takes care of AOL and AIM.

The entire list, updated two days ago: http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers

 

yes but that's when AIM went through a different port number now it uses 80. Actually it's used 80 for a long time hasn't it?

 

Nope. From the online help in the current version of AIM:

"If you're experiencing problems connecting to the AIM service from your office network, please check with your Network or System Administrator. If your connection is behind a firewall, your System Administrator needs to open port 5190 on the network. This is the AIM service's default port, which is like a secure door in your company's firewall."

 

I thought I gave him the answer yesterday?