"insufficient bandwidth" error

If both ends are using NAT based methods to open the
ports (Port Forwarding, Port Triggering or DMZ) then
there are more likely to be problems.

Okay, thanks. That seems to explain things. My mom in AZ has a DSL modem/wireless router combo and things work with her. My sister in IL has a DSL modem and ethernet cable to PC and things work with her. Another friend in IL has a cable modem and ethernet cable to PC and things work with him. Recently I was traveling and on the road hooked up to a university ethernet output and iChatted back home. My dad is currently the only one on the other end using a cable modem and wireless router combo. So that's the difference.

As the appleu3test accounts seem to work with anyone
then the logic is that they are not using NAT.

One of then should in order to assist people in working through these problems.

One more thing, it's an SMC7004VWBR wireless router with suggested iChat settings here which isn't what I've done at all. But then my router set up doesn't look like the one pictured there. For instance, my router doesn't have DDNS or UPnP in the menu on the left, the rest are the same as is the overall appearance.

Your router (SMC) has UPnP enabled by default. You
should not have to change any settings. What you
could try is to reset it. That often solves
problems.

Are you sure about that? Not on mine it doesn't. At least the way I see it. There's a picture of the "front page" of the SMC setup at this link There's on UPnP selection on the menu at the left. Nor could I find one as a subset of the menus listed.

I know there is UPnP listed as an option in the software on write ups online, but there is not on the software on my modem. Also I've checked serveral times, it's an SMC7004VWBR, that's written in the front and bottom of the router.

Given the fact that I don't see any UPnP options, is there a way that I can set it to that other than reseting the router to factory defaults (which would, I'm guessing wipe out a password that I can't remember!)?

Yes,

You can conclude that (apart from me giving the size
of the hole, the object to use, and the address to
access, etc) if you can't find a switch to enable it
it probably is... and you could have been chatting by
now.
When you try to reset we can see how your multi lan
UPnP air extreme x2 network can get the neighbourhood
online. 🙂

Sorry, I don't follow this post all. 🙂

IN the Efficient device.

The Efficient device is the ADSL modem, which as far as I can tell doesn't do any routing (one phone line in, one ethernet cable out).

Take out the 8th entry as 1 should cover it.

Done.

Take out the 5190 on TCP

And done. I've posted a picture of the new port settings at this link.

in iChat > Preferences > Accounts > Server setting tab change the
port to 443

Done (after I read the instructions that told me to logout before I changed the settings).

In the Base Station deselect the "Distributing Addresses"

Done.

This should allow just the Modem to route and do away
with two device doing DHCP (Step one) It will also,
as the Airport does NAT at the Same time get rid of
two lots of NAT (Port Triggering the modem is NAT
based).

I think you meant the SMC will route since I don't think the modem does that. Or do you know something that I don't about the modem?

Okay, after doing all this I promptly lost connection to the internet. But a quick restart of my laptop and I was connected again. I started iChat and connected to the appleu3test0x channels even doing a three way video chat with two of the channels. Then my mother called and we successfully chatted for close to an hour. So the changes made based on the above instructions haven't adversely effected anything. I'll have to wait to try things out with my dad to see if they solved the problem.

Thanks for all the help.

How do I RESET the router?

You will have to use a paper clip or a similar
pointed object to do the reset procedure.

Thanks, I think I have reset the modem in the past. The reason I'm not so keen on doing that now is that there's a username and password in the current set up of the router that is needed for me logon to my ISP and connect to the internet. I can't find the paper where I wrote down the password and I can't recall it, hence the leaving the SMC in the loop after I bought the Airport equipment.

So if I reset the modem will the password be lost? Of course I could call my ISP and go through the hoops to change the password. Maybe I'll work on that now.

Yes James, you are right.
It has no UPnP functionality.
I apologise,they are extremely hard to distinguish.

No worries. The thing it that some online write-ups about setting port forwarding for iChat and SMC7004VWBR routers show it as having UPnP while mine doesn't.