Viber desktop through proxy

Question

I am using Viber for Android without any problems. Now I try to install Viber for Windows.

I use Viber on my corporate PC. All internet traffic is available via proxy. Without proxy no program has internet access.

But Viber installation did not asked me for proxy and of course cannot connect viber servers. Logically it gives me:

No connection
An internet connection is required to activate your Viber account. Check your connection and try again

error for activating/connecting my account.

How could I enter a proxy. Maybe I need to use regedit for this?

P.S. I use latest version of Viber for now, 6.2.

Solution

Viber does not use HTTP. As such, it cannot use your company’s HTTP proxy, even with whatever tricks you throw at it.

According to this question on Quora, Viber primarily uses the following ports to communicate:

• TCP: 5242 and 4244
• UDP: 5243 and 9785

The official KB article also lists ports 80 and 443, so it does communicate over HTTP(S), but that’s probably just for update checks or whatever.

tl;dr: It won’t work on your company’s network.

Now you could indeed try to tunnel your way to the outside, but that’s most likely not allowed and can get you a warning letter.

Well, it’s also doubtful you ever had permission to install it in the first place, seeing how it most likely isn’t related to work in any way.

Comments

[Admin]

I tried to submit ticket to Viber to support.viber.com/customer/portal/emails/new but the form is buggy and do not allow posting tickets at all :(

[Admin]

All internet traffic is available via proxy Is this a fact for your corporate environment or an assumption ?

[Admin]

it's a fact. We manually set proxy for each program to allow it to connect to internet

[Admin]

@joro does every other program you use have an option to go through a proxy?

[Admin]

Also, you know you have to manually enter proxy for programs and you probably know where. What do you mean by But Windows installation did not asked me for proxy ?/

[Admin]

@barlop Yes. Each program on my PC, that connects internet, have options for setting proxy. Some programs are clever and get the proxy configuration from Internet Explorer. Some programs have not such configuration and are not allowed to use inet. I miss auto updates for them, but it is not a big trouble for me.

[Admin]

@pun Viber windows installation did not asked me for entering the proxy. :) My mistake

[Admin]

Ask your IT department. Corporate networks are off-topic.

[Admin]

@DavidPostill the question is not for corporate networks, but for "Viber through proxy".

[Admin]

@DavidPostill if you say that proxy questions are only about corporate networks, you have to ban all 1800 questions which are tagged with "proxy"

[Admin]

@joro In your particular case your are using "Viber on my corporate PC. All internet traffic is available via proxy. Without proxy no program has internet access."

[Admin]

@DavidPostill proxies are two types. Transparent and non-transparent. All people that use non-transparent proxy have this issue - no mater they use it in home, in a cafe or on a ship.

[pulsejet]

Even if it is using other ports, it can use proxy if it uses TCP at all, unless ports except 443 and 80 are explicitly blocked. Also, note that you don't need port forwarding for Viber as answered in the Quora question (I've used it behind a router)

[Daniel B]

It goes without saying that a corporate proxy will be as restricted as possible, even if the IT dept. is full of idiots. Even in Squid’s default configuration, only port 443 is allowed for CONNECT.

[joro]

10x. If I use 1) option, could UDP and TCP traffic pass through HTTP proxy?

[pulsejet]

Not UDP, probably, but TCP traffic would.

[joro]

Viber uses UDP ports 5243 and 9785, so this option is not applicable for HTTP proxy :(

[pulsejet]

Sometimes, these services work just over TCP too. No doubt UDP increases performance, but TCP can also work.