File transfers over IM clients

[mike31mets]

This is perhaps the most frustrating thing I have ever experienced. My friend and I always used to transfer files over AIM in Windows. His computer finally crashed and he decided to get a Mac. So he's now using an iMac purchased two months ago running Leopard. He loves it. The only thing he doesn't like is that we can't really transfer files. Just to let you know what we've tried on his Mac: iChat, AIM, Adium, and MSN Messenger. He has Verizon FIOS with 50Mb download and 10Mb upload. I have similarly pretty fast connection at home and at school as well.

-MSN Messenger doesn't work well because the transfer speeds are slower than dial up speed.

-AIM isn't supported anymore on the Mac. Doesn't even run in Leopard.

-Adium won't even allow him to send me files. It sucks because he liked Adium the best of all IM clients.

-iChat works on and off. It's weird but it'll transfer files then stop somewhere along the way. He'll then have to resume the file transfer by resending the file. It becomes very annoying because we may have to do it 10-15 times in one transfer. We don't know why this happens.

We don't know of any other solutions. He's behind a router (Actiontec mi424w router) but that's for his internet connection to FIOS. I don't have anything stopping me at my end because I can transfer files to my other friends perfectly. So we don't know what to do anymore. His computer has all the latest updates for Leopard.

This is pretty frustrating and I don't know what else to try or to configure anymore at this point. I've even done remote desktop to his Mac to check his firewall settings but there's nothing even listed that would block file transfers.

Any help we could get is appreciated.

 

[Halcyon]

What about having your friend run AIM under Boot Camp (free w/Leopard) or Parallels?

I exchange files with my ofice all the time via FTP. Why not look into that also?

HTH

 

[zerocool23]

Personally, I use IChat, and have never had any problems with the file transfer on it. That said, I usually only transfer small files, 6 MB at the most, how big are the files that you usually transfer?

 

[mike31mets]

What about having your friend run AIM under Boot Camp (free w/Leopard) or Parallels?

I exchange files with my ofice all the time via FTP. Why not look into that also?

HTH

Well he doesn't want to go back to Windows ever again so using BootCamp and/or Parallels is out of the question for him.

How could we setup FTP? I mean at one point I considered even doing it through BitTorrent but that requires a tracker and we aren't going to be posting personal files on a tracker like that. But FTP seems like a good idea, could you guide me? Really apprecaite it.

 

[mike31mets]

Personally, I use IChat, and have never had any problems with the file transfer on it. That said, I usually only transfer small files, 6 MB at the most, how big are the files that you usually transfer?

That's the thing, it'll happen with big or small files. We've tried transferring 3MB files to 300MB files no matter what it'll freeze at least once along the way. It's guaranteed to happened. You would think the transfer of such a small file would finish before it even gets to freeze, but it doesn't. It's weird. I can't even send him files. It's bad enough he can barely do it as it is, but I can't send him files at all when I try.

 

[coma]

have you tried transferring files over skype? personally i find that the transfer speed in skype is the best for IM clients.

 

[mike31mets]

have you tried transferring files over skype? personally i find that the transfer speed in skype is the best for IM clients.

i just tried it and it says that the connection is going slow. it says my transferred is being relayed. and it's going at 40kb/s which is BS considering how fast his and my connection are.

 

[mike31mets]

does anyone have any clue what we could do? what could be causing the slow down in these file transfers and/or the random freezing of file transfers.

 

[Markleshark]

IM file transfers are very flaky at the best of times. Look into FTP or something of the sorts.

 

[aross99]

Not that I use AIM, but...it does work under Leopard, and in fact there is a Beta you can download that is Intel native. My kids use it all the time. Don't know how the file transfer functions work though.

Here is a blog post form one of the AIM developers on it:

http://www.gregsmind.com/2008/01/02/new-years-treataimapp-for-the-mac/

That said, I use iChat-to-iChat transfers all the time. Any chance you have some type of Router/firewall issue? I'm not sure that makes sense if the transfers get started, or if your issues are on and off.

Can you video chat between each other with iChat? That stresses your connection pretty well. If you can to that, I don't know why you wouldn't be able to transfer files...

 

[gloss]

Never had any problems with Adium. Dunno what to say, sir.

 

[mike31mets]

IM file transfers between my friend and I have never been flaky up until he got the iMac. He would be able to upload at 500KB/s on average.

we are going to give that beta version of AIM a test. he has never been able to video chat with people on AIM. My sister who has an iMac has never been able to do so either with other people on AIM. The AIM users in both cases have been up to date with the latest version of AIM. he only uses the firewall that comes with OS X Leopard and even then he's set it to allow with no change. I have even disabled my Zone Alarm firewall on XP, and have disabled the Windows Vista firewall on my Vista machine. Still nothing. Not sure if it's a router issue since we were able to transfer at high speeds before the iMac.

Anyways in case the beta version of AIM for Mac doesn't work, can someone explain to me how I would go about doing FTP with my friend?

 

[Whorehay]

For me, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The bad thing is when you lose connection, you cannot restart it from the point of download. I just upload on one of those upload sites and have them download it from there if it is a bigger file.

 

[netnothing]

Adium logged into AIM has always been flaky for me. Usually I switch over to a Yahoo connection (Adium makes it easy to combine contacts) to send a file.

Have you or your friend considered a .Mac account to share an iDisk? I don't use it so not sure how well it would work.

-Kevin