ichat can't communicate

Hi,

@mac.com names are valid AIM names as you probably know,

However you do need to keep the Password to a max of 16 characters as the AIM servers cannot cope with longer ones.

Use iForgot to change the Password

You can try an log in to the AIM Settings page and this may tell you that the account has been suspended.

If you have seen this message you should also change your password.

8:07 PM Sunday; July 22, 2012

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HI,

There is an email listed on this page at AIM

However they may try and give you the run-around seeing it is an @mac.com name (I ma sure they will also suggest changing the password).

Using the "Manage Account" link in this page can you access your account ?

If you can, is it possible to use the menu to get to the password page ?

8:11 PM Monday; July 23, 2012

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HI,

You cannot change your @mac.com password via the AIM Settings login page.

As the name is a Valid AIM name you can login (if the password is working).

You will be able to Access some of the Settings options which you can Change such as inventing a "Display Name".

Others will be greyed out as the info is changed or held somewhere else (in this case at Apple).

The @mac.com Password would normally be changed at iforgot

The same would be true if MobileMe (@me.com issued names) were still valid (they ended 30th June 2012)

As iCloud also now issues @me.com names it is difficult to know if you meant a MobileMe or iCloud name.

To be clear.

Names ending in @mac.com or @me.com are valid AIM screen names.

Older ones (All @mac.com and MobileMe issued ones) can login to the AIM Settings page and change a certain number of Settings.

The later iCloud issued @me.com names cannot login to the AIM Settings page (this due to iChat 6 and later doing a dual Login to AIM AND me.com and it is the second login that allows AIM to "See" these passwords).

This dual Login prevents you Logging in with an iCloud name to the AIM settings page.

For the same reasons iCloud @me.com names do not work in iChat 5 or earlier.

However Logging in, if you can, to the AIM site does give you extra info sometimes such as you found when you logged in with the @mac.com name.

If you can change your @mac.com name's password then do so (I hope this is not linked to the iCloud name).

If that does not solve the Login issue then use the Contact AIM page I Linked to speak to AIM about your suspended Account (if you have linked IDs at Apple they will not be linked at AIM).

7:30 PM Thursday; July 26, 2012

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Hi,

I know about the message at AIM a because as I said you can't change the password there.

The iForgot page should ask you to Login if you can and if you don't know the password it will ask you and direct your down a different path as it were.

If you can login you end up at the ID page

On the left is a menu

One of the items is Password and Security

In Fact the @mac.com Name and the @me.com name for iCloud are different "names" to the same account (it uses the same password)

In iTunes, the App Store and Support Communities you an type either Name and then the password and get in (In iCLoud and iTunes it then shows you the name you linked to the @me.com iCloud bit - in your case this will be the @mac.com name)

However these two Names are in fact two separate Messages or iChat (AIM valid) names.

You can enter XXXX@mac.com and XXXX@me.com and run to separate Buddy Lists (i.e add different Buddies to each list)

The Buddies in one list cannot be "recovered" in the other if one name is working at AIM (Can be logged in) and one cannot.

As you are using iChat 5.x.x the @me.com name will not work for you in this Version.

IChat 5 no lnger links to the page that AIM had their registration at when iChat 5 came out.

I am not sure where you are being sent now (for a long time you went nowhere (AIM 404 page) )

(I Looked in my iChat 5 and it does look like the AIM registration "Promocdoe " version I used the "Get Username" Link on the AIM Settings page which gives a longer URL)

With the particular page that iChat 5 sent me to I could not enter a British Post code.

I would guess that error 420 is something along the same lines.

If you can login to Apple with your @mac.com name and the new password I would contact AIM via this line from earlier on the 23rd

There is an email listed on this page at AIM

The issue will then be on their end.

10:20 PM Saturday; July 28, 2012

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Ok,

9:19 PM Saturday; August 4, 2012

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Hello Ralph,

It's been a while since we've spoken and I'm glad to know you are still hard at work solving iChat issues. am facing the same issue as the original poster - I've been using iChat successfully for many years. I recently bought a new MacBookPro and I'm running Lion 10.7.4. Just arrived in Dubai last night and I cannot log in to iChat anymore.

I am using a screen name that ends in mac.com, which I've had since 2004 or maybe even earlier.

(1) First error was that my iChat screen name was not a valid screen name.

(2) I followed the steps described in the above thread and encountered the following AIM message: We have detected unusual activity on this account and for your security are temporarily blocking access. To regain access to this account, please change your password.

(3) I changed my password on the Apple ID page. My password is under 16 characters in length.

(4) Still can't log in - the error message now is "Cannot log in to AIM. General error. Try again"

I've played around with different server settings including login.oscar.aol.com and slogin.oscar.aol.com Port is 443. I have toggled SSL on and off, to no avail.

For what it's worth, I also have a Jabber account that I access through iChat - it is working perfectly.

I am wondering if this is something with the AIM servers? Or with my location in Dubai. I was able to log in last week from Tokyo . . . Would be grateful for your thoughts and continued attention.

Hi DBX Law,

Nice to see you back although I am sorry it is with a problem.

It does seem that AIM are now Suspending accounts that travel by saying it is "Unusual Activity".

At one level I can see that this maybe useful.

On the other it seems to penalize regular Travellers.

This AOL Help page has a TOSGeneral email address about Suspended Accounts.

From other threads I have read it seems this is a bit of an Auto response set up suggesting that you sort your Password.

Of course the AIM servers can't tell that you have changed the @mac.com password at the Apple Servers.

I notice that the Link has another Email Us link button at the bottom of the page if nothing on the page helps.

My own @mac.com accounts are having no problem with the AIM Servers but are when used in Mountain Lion as the Apple ID for iMessages.

8:17 PM Sunday; August 5, 2012

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Hi Ralph,

Thanks for the quick reply.

It's a bit of a catch 22 because if I didn't travel, I would not need iChat - I mainly use it to audio and video chat with my wife and kids when I am overseas. But I'm sure there is a way to sort it out with AOL - the trick will be finding out exactly how.

You seem to be saying three things:

(1) I do need to change my password;

(2) The AIM servers have no way to tell that I have changed my password at the Apple ID servers; and

(3) there is no way to make the password change at AOL's servers because my AIM screen name is a Dot Mac screen name.

If all those three points hold true, then I think the only option is to abandon the Dot Mac screen name, creater a new screen name through AIM and see if that works.

But I'm not so sure about point #2. I have from time to time changed my password at the Apple ID server and the change seems to have propagated immediately through to iChat, which means that the AIM servers must have known about it. And, anyway, when I first set up the iChat account years ago, the username/password combo had to be propagated over from Dot Mac, later known as Mobile Me.

So I'm still hopeful that there is a way to salvage this. One thing I will try is to troubleshoot this from outside Dubai - I will try that later this week and in the meantime I will keep trying here.

It is somewhat comforting to know that I am not missing something obvious, though. If I am going to have a problem, it might as well be a difficult one.

Thanks,

DXB Law

Hi,

I don't actually think you do need to change the password. (AIM have "blocked" it for their reasons)

However when you contact them they will stuck with the "Script" and "insist" on this step.

re 2)

If there are no problems then you can change the password any time and the AIM servers will "See" the change.

What we are talking about here is a "Suspended" account at the the AIM end.

With an @mac.com name you can normally sign in here (AIM Settings) (there are extra settings in here such as creating a Display Name and Tuning ON or Off the Off Line IM setting plus some Privacy settings that need looking at)

When the Account is suspended you can't login.

As a process you can think of AIM as having all the Apple ID names and then checking your Password against the Apple Servers.

Your "account" with AIM as such is "Flagged" to say it needs sorting.

Re 3) Yes it is true that you can only change the password at Apple.

With regard to resolving this the only route AIM gives you is the TOSGeneral@aol.com email address on the "Suspended Account" Page.

At the bottom of that page is this Link (on Line email)

I would guess due to the number of Posts about this that there has been a change in policy at AIM about this.

Having said that I would guess an Account that does get Hacked at AIM is likely to be from "Abroad" from where the person lives.

7:34 PM Monday; August 6, 2012

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Ralph,

A couple of things - I tried to log in from back home in the US just now. Still no luck. Not unexpected, but at least it rules out the possibility that it was the UAE national firewall/proxy that was keeping me out.

I telephoned AOL's customer service line about this issue and got nowhere. Here's a summary:

(1) Customer service representative wanted me to provide the street address recorded when I opened the account to give me the screen name. Nothing matched AOL's records (which is not surprising, because the account was opened through Dot Mac and not AOL). This representative was completely unfamiliar with iChat and insisted that I must have obtained my screen name through AOL. So I asked for escalation.

(2) The supervisor was more knowledgeable and more helpful (but still insisted on demanding non-existent data and on searching for my screen name as xxxx@mac.com@aol.com).

(3) When the supervisor finally dropped the "aol.com" from the screen name, he realized that he did not need address verification - but he told me that the account had been suspended because there was no name, street address, rescue email or security question associated with the screen name.

(4) I told him that all that information is on file as part of my Apple ID - including two or three tiers of security questions.

(5) Apparently none of the data in my Apple ID record propagates over to AOL, and therefore AOL is suspending these accounts from the AIM service.

(6) The supervisor advised me to contact Apple. I still have AppleCare on the new laptop I recently bought, so I will give them a call later this evening and report back on how it works out.

Hi,

That's even more messy that I thought it would get.

Apple brought ichat in 2003 as an AIM only client and with an Agreement with AIM that all Apple ID issued by the .Mac Service (@Mac.com names) would be recognised.

At the same time AIM had agreement with several ISPs in the States to do the same with their emails as IDs for Valid AIM Screen Names.

Effectively we are talking about a agreement that has been in place for nearly 10 years !!!

If the Senior guy had really know what he was talking about he would have know that the AIM servers have access to the Apple servers to verify the Screen Name and access the password and that logic would mean there would be no details on their server.

The Process acts like the @Mac.com names are held on the AIM servers in some form, but it is unclear whether this is actually so.

The other things is that some of us can still login with @mac.com names

I have one @mac.com and one @me.com name that would have the same "No Details" issues.

The only other common fact is the posts by others that have used their "Account" whilst travelling abroad.

At the iChat 2 to iChat 3 change over I had contact with the then Host here at Apple Discussions about an issue AIM had with @mac.com names where the username part made the whole thing more than 12 Characters.

Again this did not effect everyone.

At that time Apple waved a big stick at AOL/AIM but it took a few days to resolve.

It sounds like Apple will have to do this again.

7:53 PM Wednesday; August 8, 2012

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