Why won't ichat work but screen sharing will?

[mwi555]

I have been able to remotely log into my parents computer and after I type in their password I can see their screen and take control of their computer, so I know I can get a connection through to their machine. However, we cannot iChat, it will not allow us to connect at all. What could the problem be. It worked at one time and then just quit. My parents are on dsl, I'm on cable. This is so frustrating because I got my parents on a mac so we could ichat. Any suggestions of where the problem might be?

 

[JediMeister]

Are you not able to video chat? Or you can't even do a text chat? To test video chatting, add one of the following to your buddy list and the account set up on your parents computers: appleu3test02, appleu3test03, or appleu3test05. Whomever can't initiate a video chat with a test account has a problem with the firewall blocking the particular port that the video chat uses. Apple has an article regarding what ports need to be opened up to allow for video chatting.

 

[mwi555]

Yes it will not video chat. I can text chat with them though. The strange thing is it worked fine and then just quit. My parents didn't do anything on their machine different, and the dsl provider claims they didn't either. Since I can screen share I now know I can make contact to the machine and work. I will read the article and see if it helps. Would the ports be blocked for some reason randomly? It worked a while back and suddenly quit.