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ichat av video chat.

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xagoldsteinx

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 24, 2005
56
0
my friend and i are trying to do video chat on ichat. i accept it and it says that i did not accept. when i send him an invite, it says i cancelled. i am getting frusturated. :mad: LOL
-alex
 
I have been trying for weeks to make it work with my dad on another continent. It is terribly frustrating. Let me know if you solved it. The router might be a good suggestion, I'll try that too
 
Read this, it'll definitely help you understand and hopefully solve the problem you are having:

When using iChat AV with NAT routers and firewalls, certain ports must be open to allow video and audio conferencing behind a firewall. Some devices have these ports open by default, while others require configuration.

Network Address Translation (NAT)
Some Internet service providers (ISPs) and home networking routers use a technology called network address translation (NAT) to share an Internet connection. Though this often interferes with video and audio connections in other conferencing applications, iChat AV uses an innovative approach to establish a direct audio and video connection even on networks that feature NAT. In fact, iChat AV works fine with many popular household routers in their out-of-box configurations. You can see a list of these routers in technical document 93333, "iChat AV: Compatible Network Routers".


About firewalls
Frequently used by corporations and educational institutions for increased security, firewalls work by blocking certain Internet traffic from entering or leaving a network. Mac OS X also includes a personal firewall that you can find in the Sharing preference pane.

Internet traffic moves through a firewall based on service identification numbers that are known as ports. Certain ports must be open for iChat AV to work. Network administrators typically open a minimal amount of network ports, allowing the traffic for approved applications to enter and leave the network while blocking other network traffic.

iChat AV uses a range of ports for different purposes. When conferencing, ports 16384 to 16403 are used to send, receive, and optimize AV streams. For a single conference, 4 ports from that range of 20 are utilized to send and receive audio and video. Additionally, port 5060 is used for signaling and initiation of AV chat invitations, and 5678 is used for SNATMAP, for a total of 22 ports open. Ports used for other purposes, such as Bonjour (formerly "Rendezvous") and file transfer, are listed in the next two sections.

Tip: Traffic that goes through ports may be subdivided into different types, including TCP and UDP. iChat uses both of these, but mainly UDP. Advanced users can find more information on this in the Notes section below.

Ports to open for Mac OS X firewall
When using the built-in Mac OS X firewall, you only need to open these ports: 5060, 5190, 5297, 5298, 5678

Tip: If you don't want to bother, a simple workaround is to temporarily turn off the firewall on each computer.

To chat with the Mac OS X Firewall active, follow these steps to add the necessary ports:

1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
2. From the View, choose Sharing.
3. Click the Firewall tab.
4. Click New.
5. From the Port Name pop-up menu, choose Other.
6. In the Port Number, Range or Series field, type in:

5060, 5190, 5297, 5298, 5678

7. In the Description field type in: iChat AV
8. Click OK.

Ports to open for third-party firewalls
A "simple" firewall only allows you to open or close ports, without any additional criteria. If you have one of these, then you should open these ports:

5060, 5190, 5220, 5222, 5298, 5353, 5678, and 16384 through 16403.

If that does not work, try opening all ports from 1024 to 65535.
Click to expand...

If that does not work, try trashing your prefs. My iChat AV used to always give me the same errors. After following the above instructions and tweaking my router's settings, it works fine now. Also, try enabling UPnP in your router's configuration settings. That could also help.
 
ichat av video chat

Alex, I too am having the exact same problem with my mac mini. We should stay in touch so that if one of us finds a solution, we can share share it with each other. Please email me if you do and I will do the same. Thanks.
Richard in Vermont
 
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