iChat login problems

Hi,

Welcome to the  Discussions

So you went to this page and Registered a Name ?

You entered this in iChat ?
iChat Menu > Preferences Accounts ...
Using the Plus Button to add a New Account/Screen Name you Selected @mac.com in the drop down ?

Did you set up the newly registered names with passwords longer than 16 characters ?
Apple let you register passwords up to about 20 characters but the AIM servers only allow up to 16.



7:55 PM Friday; October 1, 2010

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

hello!

i'm having problems logging into ichat, too. in fact, this happens with some wifi connections but not all. i've been using an AIM account, but as per your advice above, i just opened a mac.com acct. sadly, i'm getting the same message: that ichat can't communicate with the aim (and now the mac) servers. my password is short enough.

can you advise? i'd really appreciate it! i just moved to a far off country, and i miss my friends.

Hi,

I was not recommending one form of name over another.
The Original Poster was saying his Jabber ID and AIM name were working but his @Mac.com was not.

I was confirming that he did mean @Mac.com (And not MobileMe) and that his Password was short enough for the AIM servers.

For You if the password is no more than 16 characters then I would change the Login Port.

AIM and @Mac.com and MobileME names are all valid AIM Screen Names.
Go to iChat Menu > Preferences > Accounts.
In the accounts that Log in to AIM, deselect the "Use This Account" option to log out on the Account info tab on the right.
Then go to the Server Settings tab.
The text for the Port (5190) and th e server name should be dark (editable) text.
Change the port to 443 (in iChat 5 press enter to "Set" the Port"
GO back to the Account Info tab and reselect "Use this Account" to Log in.

This may happen because you have not set or allowed the ports iChat uses in your Router.
By default routers have the port open up to port 1024 so that Web Browsing and mail apps work out-of-the-box
Port 443 is below this threshold. It is also used by some Secure Web Sites (The Login here at Discussions and Banks and the like) and by some Mail servers.

The above may allow you to Log On.
If you cannot Send or Receive files or Video or Audio chat then you will have to sort your router out.

Some "Far Away" places can have their own problems. (once you get past the Login issue)
Mostly it is about the effective Bandwidth/Connection Speed that you may get.
The Middle East in general is one such area but still varies Country to Country.



9:08 PM Saturday; October 2, 2010

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

Ralph, I am currently in the Middle East. I get a "i chat can't communicate with the mac.com account (in quotes is my account) The AIM server has temporarily limited you account due to too much activity. Try again in a few minutes."
When I try to change the port, when I hit enter or switch screens it goes back to the 5190 and will not stay at 443. Please help! I miss chatting with my family while I am over here.

Hi,

In iChat Menu > Preferences > Accounts the Account/Screen Name in question should be logged out first (deselecting Use this Account on the Account Info tab will do this)

It sounds like you have done the above as you cannot access the Text fields in the Server Setting tab until you have done that.

At the beginning of iChat 5 (OS 10.6 base) it did seem you had to deselect SSL and press the Enter key to get this to Stay. ( I have been posting more recently just the "Hit the Enter key" part ).

It may pay to also restart the computer.
iChatAgent (A Support app) starts up at computer start up as a Background app.
It lets the servers involved in iChat that the computer is awake at least - ready for Off Line IMs.

It sounds if you are generally not clearing the Log out of the AIM servers.
This may be caused by the way the ISP and national level stuff drops the connection after you have Logged out and logging in again starts as a new session independent of the one that may not have cleared properly.

If that does not produce a Change in the settings are you using Parental Controls on the Mac User Account you are logged on to the computer with ?



9:30 PM Thursday; October 7, 2010

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

I was able to change it with the same error message still popping up. When it first tries to log in it says "connecting" then goes to "disconnected" than back to "connecting" only to end up with "Disconnected. When it used to connect it did all this except the last "disconnected" was "connected". I haven't changed any settings since the last time it worked about three days ago. I am frustrated I can't use ichat to talk to the family. I can use skype but it is not the same as ichat. 😟

Hi,

It may also pay to report the issue here http://www.aim.com/suspended_account/report.adp



8:08 PM Friday; October 8, 2010

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"