Leopard to Leopard Screen Sharing Aborts After 5 Seconds

[Moof1904]

I'm running Leopard (10.5.1) and so is my father's Mini.

I successfully used screen sharing when both computers were in my office and also when I took my father's computer across town to a friend's house and shared screens across town. When I shipped my father's computer back to him in another state and we just tried screen sharing, the sharing worked for 5 seconds or so each time and then aborted. This is very consistent. Screen sharing always connects and then aborts after five seconds or so.

Any thoughts on what could be going on? (FYI: to ensure that the firewall isn't causing any screen sharing issues, the firewall on both computers is set to allow all connections.)

 

[ScoobyMcDoo]

Are either sides of the connection using a router of any type? These will have some firewalls built in. You will have to set up some port forwarding or just DMZ your box.

 

[Moof1904]

I'm very confused.

I thought the whole benefit of using screen sharing via Leopard's iChat, as opposed to doing it manually using Remote Access or some sort of VNC app, was that the screen sharing took place through the iChat connection and there was no need to mess with port forwarding and such.

If the problem is router firewalls (I'm on AT&T Uverse and he's on Verizon FiOS), then how can we iChat to begin with and why does the screen sharing work for a few seconds each time before aborting? Are the routers letting data through each time and then cutting the data flow off?

Geeze. I though I was finished with the router port forwarding issue once and for wall with Leopard.

 

[Moof1904]

According to portforward.com, the router that I'm using for the AT&T Uverse is capable of having ports forwarded for iChat, but the D-LINK that Verizon forces upon its FiOS customers is incapable of forwarding enough ports to support iChat.

I still don't understand why I can iChat with him, text only, no problem, and I can even screen share for 5 or 10 seconds at a time before it halts. Are the firewalls really allowing communication for 5 to 10 seconds each time before they close the ports that iChat is using?

 

[Moof1904]

I hate it when a thread of mine dies without any resolution...

This remote access thing has been nagging me for a while. I really hoped that Leopard would make it painless. Can anyone out there clear this up for me? Is this really a port forwarding issue, considering that I can connect for 10 seconds at a time whenever I try?!?!

 

[rtcruz1]

don't have resolution, but i'd like to keep your thread going

I don't have a resolution for you, but I have a similar problem, and I'm trying to resolve. My father just switched to Verizon FIOS yesterday (he used to be on Time Warner cable for his Internet).

With roadrunner Internet (cable), we were able to initiate screen sharing sometimes (depending on his internet bandwidth and the time of day).

With the FIOS set-up, we have no problems doing text or video chat in iChat (quality of the video chat is a lot better now), but when we try to initiate screen sharing, it will seem to initiate, and then will time out (we don't even have 5 seconds.. our lasts for maybe 1 second).

My searches on the Internet seem to indicate it is something on the Verizon FIOS end.. they're blocking the screen sharing feature for security purposes. The resolution I have seen in my searches are the same as a previous post on here.. port forwarding or take the computer that you want to connect to, and DMZ it.

I called Verizon FIOS, and they weren't helpful at all. It was there technical support, and the person I s/w said she didn't see anything that would prevent us from using screen-sharing (though she didn't sound too technical or reliable). She did mention that the only port they block is Port 80.. but from my research, the features of iChat don't use Port 80.

So at this point, I also don't have resolution on this problem. I'm going to try port forwarding or doing the DMZ of my dad's computer, but I wish we didn't have to do it.

If you find any other solutions, please let me know. I will do the same.

 

[quotemeas]

I'm running Leopard (10.5.1) and so is my father's Mini.

I successfully used screen sharing when both computers were in my office and also when I took my father's computer across town to a friend's house and shared screens across town. When I shipped my father's computer back to him in another state and we just tried screen sharing, the sharing worked for 5 seconds or so each time and then aborted. This is very consistent. Screen sharing always connects and then aborts after five seconds or so.

Any thoughts on what could be going on? (FYI: to ensure that the firewall isn't causing any screen sharing issues, the firewall on both computers is set to allow all connections.)

Are any of you two on a wireless network. Currently there is a bug in Leopard that cause a session of video, audio, and/or screen sharing to fail after a quick but drastic decrease in audio and video quality. You can view this by watching the stats with the Connection Doctor within iChat.

BTW, I cannot link to the KB article as I am at work and thier filter blocks anything to do with IM clients. Sorry...

 

[Moof1904]

Thanks for the resurrection

I found this technote from OrchardRemote.com (I googled FIOS iChat screen share or something like that and hit on this). They say that FIOS box won't allow iChat screen sharing at all, even with port forwarding and the only thing to do is move the FIOS machine outside the DMZ of the FIOS router.

I tried that and the screen sharing still didn't work.

My father is very non-technical and getting him to try different stuff over the phone to get this to work frustrates him quickly. I have to wait until I visit him to try new ways to get it to work.

And no, neither of us are on wireless.