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Abstract:

This paper presents an architecture for enabling communication between two systems that cannot ordinarily establish communication with each other, because Network Address Translators (NATs) and firewalls interfere. Called the Meet-Me Service, our solution to the NAT/firewall problem is generic, lightweight and secure. While it can be implemented as a standalone service, we propose a few changes to the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to make SIP NAT and firewall friendly. SIP is gaining acceptance in the Internet community and currently requires that firewalls and NATs are aware of and support SIP services. We provide a simple solution to getting around firewalls and NATs that are not SIP-aware. Our Meet-Me Service provides an alternative to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and dial-in access. It supports general communication services including TCP and UDP data services as well as the more typical voice and video services supported by SIP. 2

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