"Ask To Share Screen" Greyed Out in Messages

Hi,

If you want to use the DHCP with Manually set IPs as well then the DHCP server needs to be On but the range of IP address used under DHCP needs to be reduced.

Cisco on Linksys so this pic and Instructions may help

http://www.ralphjohns.co.uk/iChatPicsFolder/8%20modem-router/Linksys%20Router/sl ides/2_Router_Modem-DHCP.html

Basically on this Linksys the DHCP could be Off as in the Pic.

However if Left ON the first issued IP was 192.192.1.100

This means the other 98 between the router's own 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.99 can be used as Static Addresses.

Google Talk.

If he is using iChat then he should be using Buddy Lists to start chats.

IF he is using Messages and typing your Name in the "To" spot he need to make sure he picks out your Google Talk ID when Chatting.

Example if I type in "ralph"

I have three Addreess Cards. One refers to me on this computer. One as Me on my G4 an another for me on my MacBook Pro.

In theory each computer has it's own AIM name at least and possibly a Jabber ID as well.

In practice some accounts are set up in iChat and Messages on the various Computers.

The "To" spot tends to think any phone Number is a potential for iMessages

It also gets confused over Jabber/Google IDs as you can see with the longer ID.

If I hit enter to accept the highlighted name then I start an iMessage chat.

10:33 PM Saturday; August 31, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi,

You don't say what account you are trying this from.

It will work with any AIM to AIM or Jabber to Jabber connection.

Obviously your AIM account could be a Valid Apple ID that ends with either @mac.com, @me.com or @icloud.com as well as a regular AIM registered name.

Jabber include Facebook and GoogleTalk as well as many other Jabber servers and will work as long as the other end is using iChat or Messages.

The iMessages account, which also uses an Apple ID invokes the FaceTime app to do Video.

The Yahoo Account if you have one set up only does Text messaging.

The Bonjour Account will Video and Screen Share but it is only on your LAN.

In broad terms a Screen Share in Messages/iChat is an Audio Only Chat with a VNC connection along side.

The Audio part uses the same ports as a Video chat and you need the same Minimum Internet Speed to do a Screen Share or Video chat.

So...

The Screen Share will be greyed out if you are using Yahoo or iMessages.

NOTES

The Screen Share does use a Random port for the VNC bit.

This means you have to use UPnP (or Port Mapping Protocol in Apple Base Stations) to allow the use of the port.

When the Messages App or iChat starts up it "reads" the Internet Speed.

If it starts up when the Mac starts up this "reading" can be "wrong"

The App Writes the Speed to the .plist involved and uses it until the app is restarted.

9:26 PM Wednesday; August 28, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi,

When Messages on the Mac starts up for the first time you are encouraged to add your Apple ID for the iMessages "registration".

Depending how you go to Mountain Lion you may have iChat IDs listed in System Preferences > Mail, Contacts and Calendars and made active for Messages.

This should mean any AIM or Jabber IDs are already in Messages as Accounts.

From there it tends to depend on how you use the Messages window and the process of Starting a New Message.

You can use the New Message icon that then makes the Blue + icon appear on the right.

This in turn can be used for Contacts or Buddies.

Or you can just type in the "To" spot and then chose the option you want that refer to that person.

Example of typing "ralph" in to the "To" spot.

It lists iMessages IDs and thinks any telephone number is a potential for iMessages.

My List is actually longer than shown and several Jabber accounts are listed as "Google Talk" like the one shown.

Messages will not switch Services mid chat to so Screen Sharing per se.

If you have the iMessage contact listed and are sending iMessages then using the Video icon will invoke FaceTime and not the older iChat Video that a Google Talk/Jabber or AIM Chat will do.

However clicking the Video icon will show you FaceTime and other Accounts Options (Depending on the info on the Address Card)

Google Info (not linked to and Address Card)

As you can see I prefer to use the actual Buddy Lists that are the background to this pic.

For me having the Buddy List displayed offers an One Click start to a Chat.

The icons below a Buddy List can be used to start the Chat type you want.

I will come back with another reply about Screen Sharing.

8:30 PM Friday; August 30, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi,

You can use the Messages app and possibly FaceTime in a mixture of text and Video chat to do support.

However as you know this does miss out on the option of "Just doing" and gets around that gap in understanding in what the other person is describling (or thinks they are seeing)

You can use the System Preferences > Sharing > Screen Sharing.

You start this in the Finder > Go Menu > Go to Server.

Instead of asking to connect to an IP address with SMB (windows) or AFP (Apple File Protocol) you use VNC.

This means starting the request with VNC://

On your own LAN this is a similar IP address to the one you are using.

Such as VNC://192.168.0.4

Doing it over the Internet require you use the person's Public IP address

You can find out yours by going to http://www.whatsmyip.org/

If your brother goes there he finds out his.

Basically when you make a "request" now you get as far as his router.

His router needs to be set up to forward the data to his computer.

As it is all based on the Apple remote Desktop App this should be on port 5900.

In his router setting this ports needs to be "Forwarded" to his Computer's IP.

Skype has Screen Sharing http://www.skype.com/en/features/#sharing

I have not used Skype in a very long time and this is an addition since I did. (See the last two paragraphs before the Contents Panel)

You would have to read about Skype to find out if it is one of the Free Features.

It is of course now owned by Microsoft.

8:51 PM Friday; August 30, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi,

It would be best if the Router had DHCP turned Off and the Mac was set to use an IP "Manually" as Apple calls Static Routing.

The router then does need to be forwarding that port. It needs to pass on the data arriving on that port to the computer so that his computer "answers".

You can't Port Forward the ports to all IPs that might be attached to the router.

On most devices there is a table that can be filled in.

Most have somewhere between 12 and 20 lines in the table.

A port is then Listed (in some cases a group of ports) and linked to an IP that you want the data to go to.

Example Pic of the old iChat 3 Ports set up in a Linksys.

Did you have any joy with checking you were chatting via Google Talk first ?

7:10 PM Saturday; August 31, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

HI,

There are literally thousands of different routers.

I chose a random Cisco device at the Port Forward site (http://portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/Cisco/870_Series/AIM_Talk .htm)

It seems they call Port Forwarding "Virtual Servers"

You have to enter the IP (of his computer) in one of the Boxes and then the Port (Start and End Port being the same) in two other boxes.

Protocols also seem to be listed in this (you would normally chose between TCP and UDP but it gives an option for "Both").

There is s then a box for a Description of what it is for. (the sample page is listed for AIM Talk which is only one port). i.e. ignore the port 5190 in the 5th Pic.

9:04 PM Monday; September 2, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

HI,

Address Reservations are a sort of halfway house affair.

If you had a router and only one computer the computer would always end up with the same IP even when it had been off for a fer days (or at least longer than the lease period).

The Address Reservation makes use of this.

Nominally a router can have 254 devices connected to it.

The Linksys I used to have used to list only some of the IP addresses as being Available for DHCP

The Pic for DHCP from an earlier post

Although at 2) the DHCP is actually off you can see at 3) it starts the DHCP Range at 192.168.1.100

This means that there are 98 IP addresses that can be used by Static routing.

On the Mac in System Preferences > Network > Advanced Button > TCP/IP tab you have the option for Manually with DHCP (i.e. a Static IP to a router that is also doing DHCP to other devices.)

The Linksys in the pic did it this way by default but you can reduce the DHCP IP addresses if the current list is for all of them.

Once the computer has what is effectively a permanent IP address with the router you can Port Forward to that IP.

7:47 PM Tuesday; September 3, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi,

I will endeavour to explain how they got into this mess as this leads to some clarity about what can be done with which accounts.

Basically this is a small essay to explain 15 years of history.

Messages can use accounts that use five services.

Original iChat (ver 1 and 2) was an AIM only client for External chats and had the then Rendezvous (No Bonjour account) for LAN chats. At version 2 it could do Video and Audio Only chats.

iChat 3 added Jabber (this now includes the Google Talk server and Facebook chat accounts)

All of these (now up to three accounts types) can do Video and Audio Chat.

Screen Sharing is added in iChat 4.

iChat 6 (Lion) add a Yahoo account ability.

However this is only a Text based version.

It also uses a different plug-in mechanism to the ones that run AIM type, Jabber type and Bonjour accounts.

Version 6.1 was in fact Messages beta which ran from May to Dec 2012.

Version 7.0 becomes the full on Messages app.

It has all the four types of previous accounts and adds the iMessages account.

Obviously at this point the whole interface changes and so does what Messages asks you to fill in as the "first account".

The iMessages and Bonjour accounts can only be disabled and not removed from the List (in Messages > Preferences > Accounts).

Obviously the Apple ID can also be removed from the iMessages details as well.

How accounts with certain places can already be in the Preferences > Accounts

If you Upgrade from Lion or Snow Leopard you may already be using a Google Email account or a Facebook connection or even a Jabber email.

These will get added to the Mail, Contacts and Calendar System Preferences Pane.

They may also get Enabled for Messages.

So after you add your Apple ID to "register" with iMessages the Messages > Preferences > Account may show more accounts based valid AIM, Jabber and Yahoo IDs.

Names and IDs valid as Messages accounts

Ever since Version 1 of iChat Apple have had an agreement with AIM that Apple IDs issued by Apple will also be valid as AIM Screen Names

Over the past 15 years that has acquired some history to it as well.

Firstly were @mac.com names. These worked as Paid For accounts, Account that were Trial accounts even after the Trial finished and any account that was paid for but lapsed.

These were issued under the .Mac Service that Apple did back then.

Secondly Apple changed to MobileMe.

Trial accounts worked only for the Trial period and paid for accounts worked only during the time they were paid for. These ended @Me.com

However... During this period Apple Continued to run an @mac.com "iChat Name" registration page were you linked an existing email to an @mac.com ID to us as a AIM Valid Screen Name in iChat - rather than registering with AIM.

Obviously more recently Apple did away with Paid For services and went to iCloud.

The change initially gave you iCloud Issued @Me.com (it seemed it was moved server as an iCloud account) and then later @icloud.com IDs

This means if you have not updated an @me.com account form the MobileMe period to be an iCloud account it will not work.

There are two NOTES for these accounts

1) AIM limit their passwords to 16 characters so you must as well for these Apple IDs.

2) iCloud registered Accounts (@me.com and @icloud.com) will not work on iChat 5 or Earlier due to a new security check the later version make.

Jabber Accounts.

This is a non centralised service based on various server working together.

Many take the form of UserID@jabberserver.com

However Facebook and Google also run Jabber servers.

Google's is based on direct Google Mail IDs.

However there are two forms of these (@gmail.com and @googlemail.com) which means there is a server name issue that is got around by there being a separate option to Add Google accounts (the server is called talk.google.com)

Facebook issue you with a "Chat" ID after you have Enabled "chat" on your Facebook settings.

It adds the word Chat into the ID.

Yahoo

Whilst using their own Yahoo for Mac you can use any of the IDs that Yahoo have allowed to be your Account in Messages it can only be an Yahoo account itself.

However your Buddies in this account can be all type that Yahoo support.

Interservice compatibility

Whilst at AIM (web pages) you can add Google and other IDs to a Buddy list and have similar AIM Buddies to a Google Buddy list at Google the accounts within Messages (or the earlier iChat versions) cannot connect to each other.

This means it is AIM to AIM or Jabber to Jabber etc.

As the naming format looks like email IDs it is possible to actually add a Google Buddy for example to a AIM Buddy list and of course vice versa. However the Buddy will either not show up or look Off line all the time depending on the Service/Buddy list type.

iMessages is to iMessages capable Macs or iOS devices only.

The Mac version though will not send SMS instead (it does not have a Phone Carrier to fall back on.)

The iMessages account invokes FaceTime if you use the Video icon that appears top right in a Chat/Conversation.

Only the AIM and Jabber plus the local LAN based Bonjour account can do Video and Audio Chats.

It takes an account that can do these to do Screen Sharing.

Screen Sharing is actually an Audio Only chat with a VNC connection running alongside that provides the "pictures" of the Desktop at the other end.

8:11 pm Monday; April 14, 2014