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video conferencing in ichat does not work

J

jolton

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 9, 2006
85
0
When using ichat (aim) and talking to another pc or mac user using either the latest ichat version or the latest aim version, whenever we try to connect to do a video chat, I keep getting an error:

"Video chat could not be established because you did not respond".

This happens even though I click "accept" to the invitation.

I have turned off the os x firewall, placed necessary ports in my port forwarding, and have also place the imac in the dmz zone of the router. I am also updated to the latest os x version.

I have tried 3 different routers (2 netgears, 1 linksys-all updated with latest firmware) and all 3 for some reason will not allow ichat video to work. However if I take the router out of the mix, and use a direct connection to my dsl modem, it works. However, this is not a viable option for me as I need the router in place.

I have been following other threads here about this problem, but none give a definitive answer or fix to the problem. Any one else having this issue still?
 
Have you looked at this Apple Knowledge Base document? It may provide some answers you're looking for.

Also, I've found that it is occasionally difficult to connect between a Panther system and a Tiger system. Haven't figured that one out yet.
 
I have looked at the knowledge base document. The other mac user is using tiger, so I don't know about the issue w/ Panther.

I will try the port triggering when I get home today, however w/ the ports already forwarded it shouldn't really change any thing. But you never know so I will give that a go.
 
I'm assuming everything's been checked out at the other end as well?
 
emw said:
I'm assuming everything's been checked out at the other end as well?
Click to expand...

Yes. As stated I can connect if I remove the router from the mix, and just use a direct to modem connection. This leads me to believe that 1)the problem is on my end, and 2)the problem is that os x is miscommunicating with the router, since upnp, port forwarding, etc. do not work.)
 
emw said:
I'm assuming everything's been checked out at the other end as well?
Click to expand...
Well, if it'll work by just plugging into the modem, I would think it would be jolton's problem.

I have problems like this too. It rarely works for my iMac G5 1.9.
 
I've noticed that I'm not the only one with this problem, however I have yet to see a definitive fix for this....

I'm hoping this thread will end up with a resolve that hopefully others can benefit from...
 
For what it's worth, I did a video conference last night, iChat to iChat, via Tiger, using the following port forwarding rules on my Linksys router:

Start Port: 5190 End Port: 5190 Protocol: Both TCP and UDP
Start Port: 5060 End Port: 5060 Protocol: Both TCP and UDP

I had the firewall shut off on my Mac.
 
emw said:
For what it's worth, I did a video conference last night, iChat to iChat, via Tiger, using the following port forwarding rules on my Linksys router:

Start Port: 5190 End Port: 5190 Protocol: Both TCP and UDP
Start Port: 5060 End Port: 5060 Protocol: Both TCP and UDP

I had the firewall shut off on my Mac.
Click to expand...

I've already tried forwarding the following ports, as per the article:

5060, 5190, 5297, 5298, 5678, 16384-16403
 
I'm sorry to keep asking these questions, as I'm relatively certain you're pretty advanced in terms of your abilities, but I'm just trying to think of things that may be preventing your system from working even if it's set up more or less the same as mine.

Anyway, when you set up port forwarding, are you certain that you've put the correct forwarding address in the port forwarding setup? That is, if these are trying to send to the wrong place, there would be issues. I'd imagine this could be a problem especially if you've implemented DHCP on your router.
 
emw said:
I'm sorry to keep asking these questions, as I'm relatively certain you're pretty advanced in terms of your abilities, but I'm just trying to think of things that may be preventing your system from working even if it's set up more or less the same as mine.

Anyway, when you set up port forwarding, are you certain that you've put the correct forwarding address in the port forwarding setup? That is, if these are trying to send to the wrong place, there would be issues. I'd imagine this could be a problem especially if you've implemented DHCP on your router.
Click to expand...

No, by all means don't be sorry. Every bit helps and others reading this may benefit from it. If I'm curt and to the point, please don't take it as me trying to be rude in any way. I'm thankful for all the help. :)

To answer the two points above, yes I do have a static IP set up, and the ports are being forwarded to the correct IP.

What I really don't understand is that it works fine with no router connected, but even with port forwarding, dmz, etc. it will not work with any of the 3 routers I've tried. I mean, technically port forwarding should just be a 'passthrough' more or less without complication....

really weird.
 
jolton said:
No, by all means don't be sorry. Every bit helps and others reading this may benefit from it. If I'm curt and to the point, please don't take it as me trying to be rude in any way. I'm thankful for all the help. :)

To answer the two points above, yes I do have a static IP set up, and the ports are being forwarded to the correct IP.

What I really don't understand is that it works fine with no router connected, but even with port forwarding, dmz, etc. it will not work with any of the 3 routers I've tried. I mean, technically port forwarding should just be a 'passthrough' more or less without complication....

really weird.
Click to expand...

I share your frustration. I've had the problem too. I can iChat from my computer to one of the tester people no problem. I could iChat from home to work, no problem. I cannot ichat from my mom's computer to me, even though I could get her to the tester.

What's really odd is my mom's settings, system, router settings are all the same as mine. Only difference is she's on an intel, i'm on a G4. Although I'm on an intel at work, so that doesn't seem to be the problem either.
 
jolton said:
No, by all means don't be sorry. Every bit helps and others reading this may benefit from it.
Click to expand...
In that case, let me continue with a couple other questions... ;)

1. What Linksys are/were you using? I ask because that's the brand I have (WRT54G) so it would help me to compare situations. Although I'm running hacked firmware to improve my reception.

2. Is the Linksys setup as a router or a gateway? Gateway is likely what you want.
 
emw said:
In that case, let me continue with a couple other questions... ;)

1. What Linksys are/were you using? I ask because that's the brand I have (WRT54G) so it would help me to compare situations. Although I'm running hacked firmware to improve my reception.

2. Is the Linksys setup as a router or a gateway? Gateway is likely what you want.
Click to expand...

The linksys was a wrt54g as well. The netgear's are a wpn824 v.1, and a wgr614 v.6.

While I have not tried using an alternative open source firmware for the linksys, I do know it was set correctly regarding the router/gateway option.

I am starting to wonder if any of this has to do w/ using a dsl connection, as opposed to a cable connection.....perhaps it's nothing, but still....
 
jolton said:
I am starting to wonder if any of this has to do w/ using a dsl connection, as opposed to a cable connection.....perhaps it's nothing, but still....
Click to expand...
Only if the router isn't playing nice with the DSL connection. Here's something I found on the Linksys user guide:

16. I can’t access my e-mail, web or I am getting corrupted data from the Internet.
The Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) setting may need to be adjusted. By default, the MTU is set at 1500.

For most DSL users, it is strongly recommended to use MTU 1492.

• If you are having some difficulties, perform the following steps:
1. To connect to the Router, go to the web browser, and enter http://192.168.1.1 or the IP address of the
Router.
2. Enter the password, if asked. (The default password is admin.)
3. Look for the MTU option, and select Manual. In the Size field, enter 1492.
4. Click the Save Settings button to continue.

• If your difficulties continue, change the Size to different values. Try this list of values, one value at a time,
in this order, until your problem is solved:
1462
1400
1362
1300
 
yep. Tried that too. lol. The default was set to 1500, and I went and changed it to 1492. however I didn't try any value lower than that.
 
I'm running out of ideas!

This site recommends turning off "Block Anonymous WAN Requests".

Actually, the site seems chock full of interesting information on port forwarding for a variety of routers.
 
That is the exact implementation I followed....

By all means this SHOULD be working. I have no other conclusion except to say that this HAS to be caused by some conflict going on with os x and a router.

I am going to try to delete and reinstall ichat later today. Don't know if that will work but I'm out of ideas.
 
Alright, so let's assume it's some strange interaction between OS X and the router. If that is indeed the case, I'd have to figure that it has something to do with the network settings used in both cases. Maybe not, but let's look at it anyway.

1. You say it works fine when you connect directly to the modem, but not through the router. What are the network settings in both cases?

2. Are you connecting via wireless or wired to the router?

I'm just trying to think if there's some strange DSL PPPoE problem or something. We're starting to stretch beyond my realm of knowledge, so I'll just shut up if this is making things worse.
 
emw said:
Alright, so let's assume it's some strange interaction between OS X and the router. If that is indeed the case, I'd have to figure that it has something to do with the network settings used in both cases. Maybe not, but let's look at it anyway.

1. You say it works fine when you connect directly to the modem, but not through the router. What are the network settings in both cases?

2. Are you connecting via wireless or wired to the router?

I'm just trying to think if there's some strange DSL PPPoE problem or something. We're starting to stretch beyond my realm of knowledge, so I'll just shut up if this is making things worse.
Click to expand...

okay, when connecting directly with the modem and no router, the ethernet is set up to use PPOE. When using the router, the modem goes into "bridge" mode, and os x is set up to use dhcp over ethernet.

Now I'm thinking maybe what i could be is that when the modem is set to bridge mode, it's kicking on some type of firewall that's blocking access before it even reaches the router. When the modem is connected directly, it's not using it.

or

It has to do that it works correctly in os x using ppoe, but not ethernet dhcp.
 
jolton said:
When using ichat (aim) and talking to another pc or mac user using either the latest ichat version or the latest aim version, whenever we try to connect to do a video chat, I keep getting an error:

"Video chat could not be established because you did not respond".

This happens even though I click "accept" to the invitation.

I have turned off the os x firewall, placed necessary ports in my port forwarding, and have also place the imac in the dmz zone of the router. I am also updated to the latest os x version.

I have tried 3 different routers (2 netgears, 1 linksys-all updated with latest firmware) and all 3 for some reason will not allow ichat video to work. However if I take the router out of the mix, and use a direct connection to my dsl modem, it works. However, this is not a viable option for me as I need the router in place.

I have been following other threads here about this problem, but none give a definitive answer or fix to the problem. Any one else having this issue still?
Click to expand...

You need to both be in Tiger using iChat AV 3. I had the same problem.
 
macgeek2005 said:
You need to both be in Tiger using iChat AV 3. I had the same problem.
Click to expand...

Hmmm. Well I'm using an intel imac. She's using a powerpc imac. I know we're both up to date....

However, that doesn't explain why it won't work with a windows xp based aim client, and why it does work without the router there.
 
jolton said:
When using the router, the modem goes into "bridge" mode, and os x is set up to use dhcp over ethernet.
Click to expand...

Are you using a static IP address like you mentioned somewhere up above? I think OS X should be set up for static IP as well to make this work correctly.
 
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