Microsoft Notification Protocol

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Microsoft Notification Protocol (MSNP, which is not an acronym for "Microsoft Network Protocol" or "Mobile Status Notification Protocol", as is often believed[citation needed]) is the protocol developed by Microsoft for use by the .NET Messenger Service. It is used by Windows Live Messenger and its earlier incarnations, MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger, as well as by other clients such as Trillian. MSNP was first used in a publicly available product with the release of MSN Messenger 1 in 1999.

Whenever a major change is made to the protocol, such as a new command or syntax changes, the version number is incremented by one in the format of MSNP#. During October 2003, Microsoft started blocking access to .NET Messenger Service using versions below MSNP8.[1]

Starting on 2007-09-11, Microsoft forces most current users of MSN Messenger to upgrade to Windows Live Messenger 8.1 due to security considerations.[2] Noticing that Microsoft may end support for the older versions of MSNP in the near future, open source implementations of the protocol (mostly based on MSNP8) now have to consider changing to MSNP13-15. This will require lots of work but will also bring many new features of Windows Live Messenger to the open source clients.

Contents

[edit] Version history

[edit] MSNP1

MSNP1 has never been public, it is believed it was used during the early stages of design and development with MSN Messenger 1

[edit] MSNP2

Made available to developers in 1999 in an Internet Draft[3].

[edit] MSNP3 through MSNP7

These versions have never been used in a public program.

[edit] MSNP8

MSNP8 introduced a different authentication method, now sending authorization to Microsoft Passport's secure servers and returning a challenge string. It is the minimum version of the protocol accepted by .NET Messenger Service after Microsoft blocked earlier versions for security reasons. As such, old and obsolete clients are unable to sign in, forcing users to upgrade clients.

Version 5.0 of MSN Messenger is the only one that uses this MSNP version. Windows Messenger uses MSNP8 as its standard version, including 4.7 up to the latest 5.1.

This protocol supports Windows Messenger-to-Windows Messenger webcam and voice capabilities.

[edit] MSNP9

MSNP9 was introduced with MSN Messenger 6, adding support for "D type" (data) messages, which are used for transferring display pictures and custom emoticons between clients, frame-by-frame web cam (rather than a traditional stream like Windows Media Player's WMV format) and an improved voice system, as well as improved NAT traversal for file transfers.

[edit] MSNP10

Employed in MSN Messenger 6.1, after Microsoft started blocking earlier versions in October 2003. However, it was not a big overhaul, the only obvious change was integration with Hotmail address books.

[edit] MSNP11

Employed by MSN Messenger 7.0

[edit] MSNP12

Employed by MSN Messenger 7.5.

[edit] MSNP13

Employed by Windows Live Messenger 8.0, MSNP13 features a lot of changes. Most notably, contact list synchronization has been removed and clients must instead send a SOAP request to a contacts server, also known as "Client goes to ABCH" (where ABCH stands for Address Book Clearing House, the address book service behind all MSN and Windows Live services). The client must then send the contacts data to the server for it to send presence information.

[edit] MSNP14

MSNP14 adds Yahoo! Messenger interoperability.

[edit] MSNP15

MSNP15 is the protocol version introduced with Windows Live Messenger 8.1 on 2006-09-08. It is based on MSNP14 but uses a different authentication mechanism called RPS (Relying Party Suite). Where TWN "Tweener" authentication is used on protocol versions 14 and below, RPS authentication will be used on protocol versions 15 and above.

In addition to a new authentication mechanism, Microsoft is also planning on making more of the properties of the user roaming. That is, the user's display picture, and in the future personal status messages, will be the same wherever the user signs in.[citation needed]

Furthermore, support for user locations has been added to the Personal Status Message, although this feature was later removed from the Windows Live Messenger 8.1 client.

[edit] MSNP16

MSNP16 is the new protocol used in the leaked version of Windows Live Messenger 9.0. There is no further information about what is new in this protocol.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links