ichat problems

Hi,

In System Preferences > Security is the Firewall ON ?

If so have you enabled the Allow Signed Software in the Advanced Button ?

If you did this dis you add iChat to the List ?

Most apps like Web Browser and the Mail app use Internet "Ports" as they are called below the 1024 threshold

iChat uses ports above this threshold and these may need opening or allowing in your routing device.

Most routing device now come with UPnP which is an On or Off setting that allows the apps to tell the router which ports to open (Simplified explanation).

Check if your device has it and if it is Enabled.

The Firewall on the Mac and most routers will only block Incoming stuff which is why you tend to get this inbetween half-way house response.

10:25 PM Wednesday; June 20, 2012

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

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Same problem, did you find a way of fixing it?

Please help me, I had the same problem with ichat and now that i upgraded to os x mountain lion same problem. How do I fix it?

HI,

Are you getting any messages ?

Often in iChat you get a pop up about sending the info to Apple about the failed connection.

There is a details reveal triangle on the left which shows you the log of the failure which contains useful info if you know what you are looking for.

Across the to of the failed Chat window should also be a message.

Also in the Video menu you can open the Connection Doctor and then select Error Logs which will give a longer version of the Message and a shorter form of the Log.

In iChat versions up to version 5 the error messages had single digit or numbers in the 20s.

In iChat 6 and later the Messages seems to have error codes in the 1000s

Error code 1008 in iChat 6 seems to be the same as error code 8 from earlier versions but after that I have not matched them yet (I tend to get less error messages myself these days)

10:29 AM Friday; July 27, 2012

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

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

The messages work fine, But I had the same problem as the person with the ichat, so I thought if I get the new mountain Lion it will replace it but I have the same roblem and cant find a solution to fix it and its driving me crazy

Hi,

If iChat had a probelm with the Video or Audio Only chats then updating to Mountain Lion will not change that as the apps use the same ports to do Video and Audio Chats.

These are the ports iChat 3 uses (used)

At iChat 4 Apple dropped the use of SIP connections on port 5060 - although an internationally agreed port many ISPs "blocked" it and then "offered" it as an "extra" service to recoupd lost Long Distance call monies - Also the so called "group of 20" at the end for A/V chats was reduced (video and Audio were sent on the same ports instead on being spread over four ports)

Nothing changes then until Messages beta when the AIM login was moved to port 443.

Some of the iMessages side logins also use this port.

The Apple Push services (used by FaceTime and iMessages) use port 443 and 5223 (It looks like a Jabber connection but the processes are in fact different)

This in fact means that for Text Chatting an "AIM" login will use port 443 (or 5190 in older versions) to Login and Text chats

Video (Or Audio Only) Invites are on port 5678

A/V chats then moves to port 16402 as first choice (Apple list having 10 ports "ready" 16393-16402 so that if one is busy or Unavailable it can check others), it works top down the list if not available, for the SIP connection process and actual A/V Chat.

In router the first 1024 ports tend to be open.

This allows Web Browsing (port 80), Mail app (many ports like 25, 110, 567, 568, 995 and 996 and others) to access the internet "Out-of-the-box".

AS the Login port of 443 in iChat 6 for AIM and iMessages is below this 1024 threshold you may be able to Login and Text chat with an AIM Login but not A/V chat.

Any error message you get could be helpful.

See http://www.ralphjohns.co.uk/page16a.html

11:29 AM Friday; July 27, 2012

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

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Thank you for your respond, but i still dont 100% understand how i stop the problem does this mean i need to switch my port to one of the ones you told me to, please respond this is making me go crazy

HI,

This is the Messages Accounts pane in the Preferences but look identical to iChat 5 and 6 at this point.

It's greyed out as it is logged in
Uploaded with Skitch!

The List on the left may look diiferent but the right hand pane with the Server name ands port will look the same.

Messages and iChat 6 use the same API server to login into but is serves the same fucntion as login.oscar.aol.com if you are using iChat 5.

In iChat 6 Apple moved iChat to use the API server and the port was moved to port 443

Postings going back some while in this iChat forums have long been suggesting changing to this Port.

The Table above comes from this info

You can only change the Login port in iChat

You cannot change the File Sharing port

You cannot change the port that the visible part of A/V invites are sent on

You cannot change the port(s) the actual Video or Audio Only takes place on.

Originally the AIM side of iChat use port 5190 to do both the Login and the File Sharing stuff but on the TCP protocol and then the UDP Protocol.

Setting up Port Forwarding in some routers saw this as Forwarding a port twice (Something not allowed in Port Forwarding) and would stop File Sharing in iChat

In same cases as with Zyxel routers this would, for some reason, effect the A/V side of things.

Hence the Login Port change.

In Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion you tell the firewall to allow an App and the System takes care of telling the firewall which ports are being used.

So...

If you see a Visible Invite from your Buddy and you Accept and the Camera Light goes on (As in the first Post)

then we will know that port 5678 is open (or you would not see the invite)

After that you may see this

If you open this you wll see a Log of why the chat failed.

It will start something like this

Date/Time: 2006-07-05 21:11:03.403 +0100
OS Version: 10.4.7 (Build 8J135)
Report Version: 4
iChat Connection Log:
AVChat started with ID 485234091.
[Edit Name]: State change from AVChatNoState to AVChatStateWaiting.
0x157a780: State change from AVChatNoState to AVChatStateInvited.
0x157a780: State change from AVChatStateInvited to AVChatStateConnecting.
[Edit Name]: State change from AVChatStateWaiting to AVChatStateConnecting.
[Edit Name]: State change from AVChatStateConnecting to AVChatStateEnded.
Chat ended with error -8
0x157a780: State change from AVChatStateConnecting to AVChatStateEnded.
Chat ended with error -8

The version is likely to be different, the Error code will vary as well.

The error codes can point to whether the issue in in the router or elsewhere.

To say this another way.

There are 65535 ports which an internet Connection is divided into.

A router will have the first 1024 open by default (Web Browsing, Mail etc).

iChat uses some port below 1024 in later versions but mostly ports above this threshold.

If the Mac Firewall Is ON then App need to be listed as Allowed and then there is no problem at the Mac end.

There are different methods of Opening port in a router.

One of these is Port Forwarding.

This allows one port to be pointed to one port on the computer

This is then repeated fro other ports

Basically a port is Opened to one IP (Computer)

Port Forwarding restricts things to opening a port to only one IP (Computer)

If your computer changes IP for any reason then the Port Forwarding (however many ports were set up) are not pointing to the computer.

This may mean that in iChat your Can Login and text chat but have problems doing File Sharing and A/V chats.

Another method is UPnP

This allows multiple Computers to use the same ports (it then does not matter if your computer changes IP) at the same time and the ports are opened by the App telling the router when it needs them (A bit like the Mac firewall)

(This is a really rough and ready description).

It would help to know which OS version and which iChat version you are using as things like the firewall have minor changes to them that are important and so does iChat.

9:52 PM Monday; July 30, 2012

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

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Thank you once again, My firewall is on and I allowed skype,facetime, and messages but once again it doesnt seem to work. I also went on the Upnp and it said it was enabled. I did not however get any error message... ⚠ℹ

Hi,

Go to the iChat Menu > Preferences > Alerts and change the top item to read Video Invites

Check then that it does not have Auto Accept set in the AppleScript line (This might explain why you are not seeing a Visible Invite)

In the Video Section set the Bandwidth Limit to 500kbps

Get her to do the same at her end.

8:35 PM Wednesday; August 1, 2012

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

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

The apple script isnt checked, what now?

Hi,

If you are using an AIM name add the 6 names from Table 1 to your Buddy list and tell me if you an Video to any of them.

http://www.ralphjohns.co.uk/ContactTesters.html

They Auto Answer and have some differences about how they are connected to the Internet that can redcue issues (It is only a partial test at this stage)

10:00 PM Wednesday; August 1, 2012

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

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Where is table one? and now my aim isnt turning on, my jabber and everything else turns on but the aim doesnt when i click on it nothing happens

In the Contact Testers link (that is where Table one is)

If you go to the Messages Menu > Preferences > Account can you untick the "Enable this Account" box and then re-tick it again to turn the AIM account Off and the ON again ?

10:42 PM Wednesday; August 1, 2012

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

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

thanks it works again ( aim not the vc ) But whenever i try to message one of the six names it tells me that acount isnt rejestered to messages...