Another solution for MSG:Contacting server...

[Phate]

I've been using ventrilo for years and never had a problem until recently. My WoW guild has a vent server that has always worked for me, but we recently started doing co-guild runs with another guild, so I needed their vent as well, but alas! For weeks I could not connect to their server because I got the "Contacting Server" problem. I tried so many things, but I FINALLY found the thing that fixed it for me, so I came here to post it because this is the first place I went when troubleshooting my problem.

I was looking through my various router settings in the wee hours of the morning and I came across something called "ALG" under the "NAT" section of my routers advanced settings. Normally I wouldn't mess with things I know nothing about, but in the ALG section was a checkbox beside the very port that the unreachable vent server used.

I googled ALG for some info about it, then decided it wouldn't hurt anything to uncheck the box labeled "SIP Enabled" because I found some pages saying that SIP ALG can interfere with voice chat programs.

It worked! So, in summary

-Check your router settings for the ALG/SIP settings
-See if the port in question isn't under SIP Enabled
-You can enable it back if you're not sure/it doesn't fix the problem

I hope this helps some people, and thank you for those here who have been helping others and making the stickies for this problem.