Cannot get screen sharing to work long distance...

Question

Level 1

8 points

Cannot get screen sharing to work long distance...

I set up an AIM account for my mother-in-law so that I could remote screen-share her MacBook and help her with learning how to use it and trouble shoot it (it's a Late 2008 Aluminum MacBook hand-me-down from my wife).

I've set up the account, but cannot get remote screen sharing working. Screen sharing works fine over bonjour, but no go over the internet using AIM. I can control my wife's MBA from my iMac and vice-versa, but neither of us can control her MacBook. When we choose "Ask to share users screen...", we get the pop up window stating "Waiting for response from user", along with the spinning gear icon. If she chooses "Share my screen with...", the pop up window appears on our Macs and we're able to choose accept. But then the pop up window switches to "User would like you to share his or her screen" and just sits there. Nothing happens. On her screen, she gets the message "waiting for response from user" and nothing else happens.

After a long wait, my screen will say, "There was a communication error during your chat. Messages didn't receive a response from..." and gives me the option to report the details to Apple.

What am I doing wrong?

Her MacBook is running Mavericks, as are our machines.

Message was edited by: pmpknetr21

Posted on Aug 3, 2014 11:31 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 3, 2014 1:28 PM in response to pmpknetr21

Hi,

@mac.com and @me.com ID works as AIM Screen Names (you add them like they are and existing name) but only if you are using Messages 7 or 8 plus later versions of iChat 6 in Lion.

You should be able to use the Apple Issued IDs in Mavericks.

If you using an AIM Registered name try using it without the @AIM.com or @AOL.com suffix (User Name only)

As AIM can "read" the Apple Database it will think the Apple IDs exist already but may not tell you that is the reason you can't re-register them.

Can you post the info being sent to Apple here ?

However stop the log after about 10 lines of the Binary Images (I will not need it all).

9:28 pm Sunday; August 3, 2014

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 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

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Answer 2

Aug 4, 2014 12:29 PM in response to pmpknetr21

for the Points.

No Problem.

8:29 pm Monday; August 4, 2014

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 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

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Answer 3

pmpknetr21 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 3, 2014 12:19 PM in response to pmpknetr21

UPDATE:

So, I deleted my mother-in-law's AIM account from Messages and sign in with my wife's instead. Screen sharing worked just fine! So it seems to be relegated to the new account I created for her...

I initially tried to create an AIM account using her mac.com email address, but it seems that AIM no longer supports mac.com/me.com/icloud.com email addresses for use with AIM account creation. So, I had to create an account for her using aim.com as the handle. Could this cause an issue with the connection?

(Also, I know Apple has discontinued support of legacy mac.com addresses with older versions of OS X and iChat. But this is Mavericks. Also, the issue is not with Mavericks, it's with the actual account, from what I can tell.)

Thanks for any help you can provide.

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Answer 4

pmpknetr21 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 4, 2014 6:17 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Hey Ralph,

Thanks for the explanation. You were exactly right.

I had not tried to just add her Apple ID as an AIM ID. When I went to "Add Account" under Preferences for Messages, I added her Apple ID as an AIM account under "other messages account..." and it accepted it perfectly. I then tried remote screen sharing again, and it worked flawlessly. Just like you said; didn't even need to export the info being sent to Apple.

Thanks again!

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