iChat voice & proxies

guilly · #1 November 12th, 2004, 02:28 AM

Hi there

I configured iChat at home and tried it with other mac, and all of its features (except for webcam, since I do not own an iSight) worked fine. I got to work where I have to configure a HTTP proxy server to get Internet, hence I configure iChat to do so and the program connects properly so far.

However, when trying to "talk" via voice IP, or even sending a file to a remote computer (the same one I did the testing with, at home), the requests are reached but cannot be accepted whatsoever, and finally they expire by timeout. This only happens when iChat is configured thru a proxy server.

Any idea? Has anyone experienced the same problem?.

Thank you!

bobw · #2 November 12th, 2004, 09:11 AM

If you're using OS 10.2 thru 10.2.8, iChat does not work with proxy servers that require authentication (user name and password.)

If you're behind a Firewall/Router, you have to open ceertain ports;

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93208

Yu don't need an iSight to use video with iChat, most any Firewire and a lot of USB webcams will work.

P.S. - Put the version of the operating system you're using (10.2, 10.3, etc) on the end of your machine specs in your sig. helps people help you.

guilly · #3 November 12th, 2004, 02:30 PM

Sorry, you're right. I have OS X.3.6 (Panther). iChat does support proxy servers. At my work, it is a HTTP proxy server with port 8080. However, it seems that some services might not work thru this port, since text chat works fine.

Anyhow, it is quite bizarre that this same thing happens with Yahoo! Messenger (text chat works ok, but sending files might even hang the appz). Also, the magnificent voice IP application Skype has some trouble when going through this proxy. My voice reaches the remote computer with lots of noise, whilst I recieve perfectly clear sound from the other side. That, of course, does not happen when I have a direct connection.

Unfortunately, I could no try this issue with some other proxies yet. Firstly I thought that since voice IP consumes quite a lot of bandwidth, the proxy might be restricting excessive traffic (ICMPs...), but that can't be possibly true when I have already used Acquisition (Gnutella) to download files at 500 Kb/s.

Well, thank you anyway for your time.