Ubuntu
pidgin package

Buddy icon not showing behind proxy + firewall

Asked by antok.tm

I'm running pidgin behind a proxy server (squid) that has a firewall (shorewall). The basic functions run great. But the buddy icon (Yahoo! protocol) can't show up. This problem has been haunting my network since gaim has buddy icon feature (I'm not sure which version).

If the firewall turned off , the buddy icons appear.
If I use the Yahoo Messenger app (v8) , the buddy icons appear , even when the firewall is running.

Is pidgin using specific port that Yahoo Messenger doesn't to retreive buddy icons pictures ?
If the answer is yes, which port is it ?

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antok.tm
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Luky Winarto (luckyborneo) said : 		#1

I think, it's port 80.

Try this.. click Accounts > your_yahoo+id > Edit Account > Modify Account
then change File Transfer Protocol into 80
That's it. Hopefully this is will help you.

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antok.tm (antok-elect-eng) said : 		#2

Yep.
Port 80 is the default file transfer port. But it's not accepting any. I also tried to send a file to my buddy and it only says something like "Offering (blablabla)" then "Complete (blablabla)" but actually no file has been received by my buddy.

Is the buddy icon also use this port ?

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Luky Winarto (luckyborneo) said : 		#3

On my account I used:
Pager Server: scs.msg.yahoo.com
Japan Pager Server: cs.yahoo.co.jp
Pager Port: 5050
File transfer server: filetransfer.msg.yahoo.com
Japan file transfer server: filetransfer.msg.yahoo.co.jp
File transfer port: 80
Proxy Type: Use GNOME Proxy Setting

On my transparent proxy, buddy icon use port 80, because buddy icon is an image.

Revision history for this message
antok.tm (antok-elect-eng) said : 		#4

Still no luck here.
Here is my pidgin's debug window output when trying to get buddy icon :

(14:58:33) util: Request: 'GET /msgr/buddy_name/.friend_icon.png?msIlQRHB7KbknkWi HTTP/1.0

Connection: close

User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0)

Accept: */*

Host: f3.yahoofs.com

'
(14:58:33) util: Response headers: 'HTTP/1.0 400 Bad Request

Server: squid/2.6.STABLE16

Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 07:58:02 GMT

Content-Type: text/html

Content-Length: 1361

Expires: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 07:58:02 GMT

X-Squid-Error: ERR_INVALID_REQ 0

X-Cache: MISS from
my.proxyserver.com
X-Cache-Lookup: NONE from my.proxyserver.com:8080

Via: 1.0 my.proxyserver.com:8080 (squid/2.6.STABLE16)

Proxy-Connection: close

Revision history for this message
antok.tm (antok-elect-eng) said : 		#5

Maybe I should fly a bug here. Looks like the host not resolved by my proxyserver correctly. Exact response also recived when accessing address.yahoo.com at the beginning of connection. This debugging windows is really handy....
And also if I try to view an user info, it gets 'Access Denied', seems like the proxy server is not authenticated properly.

Revision history for this message
Luky Winarto (luckyborneo) said : 		#6

hmm... that's your proxy problems. Try to look at section acl on /etc/squid/squid.conf. Seems your network cannot using the proxy server. Perhaps your network was block by the administrator. Contact your administrator or if you're the administrator, perhaps you should make your network (e.g. ip address) to use your proxy. Hope this is can answer your problems.

Revision history for this message
antok.tm (antok-elect-eng) said : 		#7

Ok.
I've finally managed to do some workaround for this issue. Actually my network client must use proxy server to access the internet. So then to use Instant Messenger , the user must use http proxy in the account preference.

But strangely, to be able to receive any buddy icon you must use no proxy. And this buddy icon receiving system is depends on the pidgin's global proxy setting ( tools->preference->network) and set it to 'no proxy'.

Maybe pidgin isn't compatible with squid proxy server, or any other proxy servers.
Oh well, the problem is solved anyway.... Little bit disappointed because this problem is solved in an un-elegant way......

Revision history for this message
Luky Winarto (luckyborneo) said : 		#8

bravo bravo... I suggest you should learn about proxy server. Try to make some changes with the squid configuration.

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fix1234 (fix1234) said : 		#9

I also have this problem with the buddy icons in Yahoo.
My conf is: Pidgin 2.2.2, WXP. Connecting to net via proxy only (I'm at work).

I've tried that workaround from antok.tm, but it doesn't work.

In the .purple/icons dir, the icon files are there, but the content is the following:

ERROR

The requested URL could not be retrieved
------------------------------------
While trying to retrieve the URL: /msgr/yahoo_id/.friend_icon.png?msqwmSHBxEVgQ6Bk

The following error was encountered:
  * Invalid URL
Some aspect of the requested URL is incorrect. Possible problems:
  * Missing or incorrect access protocol (should be `http://'' or similar)
  * Missing hostname
  * Illegal double-escape in the URL-Path
  * Illegal character in hostname; underscores are not allowed
Your cache administrator is root.

------------------------------------
Generated Thu, 22 Nov 2007 14:53:42 GMT by server (squid/2.5.STABLE14)

What shall I do ?