Nefsis Video Conference Traffic Routing

The material below covers customer configurations for Nefsis online services; and dedicated, on-premise video conferencing servers.

All Nefsis web and video conferencing server configurations traverse firewalls and proxies, for multipoint, business-to-business online meetings. In all setups, Nefsis firewall and proxy traversal makes it easy to connect with external offices, customers and vendors, via the public Internet and external corporate networks over which you generally have little or no control.

To confirm Nefsis has the video conferencing, web conferencing, and online meeting features that you require, we recommend taking the free trial. The free trial uses the default Nefsis Online Service configuration, which is easy to activate and the most popular configuration.

We also offer Nefsis Dedicated, on-premise, installable server software. For a free trial of Nefsis Dedicated, you must contact us.

Nefsis Dedicated: Server Routing & Access

The following configurations refer to Nefsis Dedicated, on-premise video conferencing servers. Nefsis Dedicated is available for customers that require more routing, security, or other IT controls not available in standard online services.

When considering where to place the Nefsis server, it is important to note that the Host, Presenter, and all Participants must have IP routing access to the server. This is true whether you are restricting the video conferencing server to internal-only participants, or using it for general purpose web and video conferencing over the public Internet.

Nefsis video conferencing servers require ports 80 and 443 to be open and dedicated to the conferencing application. The conferencing server defaults to a short list of additional ports, and listens to them all. We strongly recommend leaving the default port settings as is, the default port list was developed over several years of production use in a wide variety of IT environments. Please contact Nefsis technical support for additional details regarding this topic.

For customers that place the conferencing server behind a firewall, the ports mentioned above must be open. The firewall settings must allow inbound and outbound traffic, and must allow ActiveX. In addition, the firewall must be configured to allow TCP sockets to stay active long enough for the 'keep alive' packets to reset the timer in the firewall. Extra special care is required when making these settings so that they apply to the specific conferencing server, IP address, and ports only, thereby protecting border security policies.

Please contact us for assistance with ports, routing requirements, proxy, and firewall settings.

The list below covers the most typical setups for Nefsis web video conferencing servers.

Behind Firewall (Open Ports To VideoConference Server)

In this configuration, the videoconference server is behind the firewall, with ports 80, 443, and a short list of additional ports (see admin console) open to/from the conference server. The Nefsis server cloud and access point services (for external hosts and participants) are still used.

This configuration is similar to that shown below. Note, however, that placing videoconference servers in the DMZ is considered a better choice for a variety of reasons. Contact us for details.

RECOMMENDED FOR ON-PREMISE SERVER INSTALLATION:

Video Conferencing Server in the DMZ

Installations that plan to host the Nefsis video conferencing server in their own environment may consider placing the server in a DMZ, so it does not violate the security policy of the corporate network. In this scenario employees are routed to the conferencing server via a private IP address, while external participants use a public address.

The benefits of this approach are more routing options, performance, and security controls. In addition, there are more admin console and feature-level controls available in the on-premise version, that are not exposed in a standardized online service. These additional benefits require software licensing, CAPEX (sever), server installation, and network configuration changes.

Behind Firewall (No Open Ports to Server)

This is a LAN-only configuration. Although it was offered in earlier versions, it is no longer available.

the standard configuration:
Nefsis Online Services

This is the most standard configuration. It is the easiest to implement, lowest cost, and most popular choice. As with most online services, it involves no server installation or maintenance.

This configuration is ideal for customers that wish to implement secure video conferencing without capital expenditures (CAPEX), and for those that seek to implement business-to-business desktop, and desktop-to-boardroom video conferencing without any changes to their existing network infrastructure . Note: Conference rooms must have a computer and Internet access.

This configuration is also used by customers that do not have the IT staff or infrastructure to implement one of the configurations listed below; or intend to have large, recurring conferences that need more bandwidth at the server than is available on in-house networks.

Please contact us with any web and video conferencing server setup questions you may have.

Our Nefsis experts can provide free technical assistance with server placement, routing, bandwidth, security, or the pros and cons of any site-specific configuration alternatives available on your network.