Scott,

Kind of. You can block the Chat web category and that will block HTTP access to Chat related sites. This will 'help' prevent the downloading of such software, though if the installers are on a site like download.com, the clients will still be able to download it.

Once the software is already on the computer (installed previously, from an alternate download site, installed from a thumb drive, so forth), the chat software will most likely NOT use HTTP for communication with its servers. Which means the chat traffic will bypass the WSA and not be blockable.

The WSA will support these native chat protocols in the future.

Hi Scott,

I tried blocking with webcat "Chat", but it doesn't work.

Hi Josh,

Is this in the roadmap?

Thanks,
ezekiel

Ezekial,

It is definitely on the road map, but I'm not sure a what the ETA is.

Managed to eventually block connection to Windows Live Messenger with a combination of two things:-
1) Block Chat Category on WSA
2) Block the Hosts 207.46.27.253 and 207.46.27.254 on your firewall.
These are the MSN hosts for Live Messenger, though you may find that other hosts may eventually need to be blocked.

Good Luck!

Guys,

Managed to just block Windows Live Messenger with blocking "login.live.com".

Regards,
ezekiel

Guys,

Managed to just block Windows Live Messenger with blocking "login.live.com".

Regards,
ezekiel

As you have found, login.live.com is used for many different Microsoft apps / services.

[quote="Josh"]Scott,

The WSA will support these native chat protocols in the future.

Hello Josh,

is there already a time frame know wenn this will be supported?

best regards

bart

Bart,

I know that native IM functionality is on the roadmap, but I do not have any definitive information on time frame. This would best be addressed by your sales representive so that they may content PM.

Hello,

The best way to block msn would be to do a regular expression with "/gateway/gateway.dll" on a custom URL category and block it