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TICKET ARCHIVE -> iChat Video disconnecting

em51907 - Mar 4, 2008 - 11:58 am

I purchased my Apple not too long ago (2 months or so) and one of the primary reasons was to access the video ichat feature. I have 3 family members with new MacBooks and we were looking forward to chatting. All of theirs work fine. They can all connect and chat with each other. Mine doesn't. I have called the AppleCare line 3 times and they can't give me an answer that is possible - they want me to erase my hard drive and essentially "start over" and MAYBE it will help. I'm not willing to erase all of my data/photos/etc. The problem is when we connect, I can see the video image of the other person for 5 seconds-3 minutes and then everything stops, and a box pops up that says there's been a connection error and asks me if I want to report it to Apple. I've been told it's probably my internet - although we have 5megabites through Charter Cable. We use wireless networking at the house and have very high quality downloading, web-browsing, etc. We've been trying this iChat video stuff for about a week and are thoroughly frustrated. Also, although we live an an apartment complex with 7 other apartments, we have tried to use the service when people are not there - in case the broadband is being "split"(something a friend recommended) I've also tried to connect to the internet by manually inserting a USB cable from our wireless router to the computer. That doesn't work any better. Help please? I'm really frustrated.

MACBOY29 - Mar 4, 2008 - 1:52 pm

now i am wondering where in the appartment you are using the macbook sometimes the beams that are in the building mess with the wireless routur signals and could cause the macbook to lose connectivity to your wiresless network. if that fails what version of mac os are you running 10.5 or 10.4 the way to find out is go to the apple menu chose about this mac and a screen with the apple logo and system info will appear please send that to me and see if i can help i will do my best

macboy29

em51907 - Mar 4, 2008 - 2:12 pm

Thanks for your quick response. I am running the most recent version of os - 10.5.2 I believe. (I installed all updates when I was on the phone with the mac people and that didn't make any difference.) I should also add that the time I was able to make a 3 minute connection (the longest connection) I was physically wired to the router - not using the networking wireless thingie.

MACBOY29 - Mar 4, 2008 - 2:23 pm

instead of connecting to the routour try connecting to your cable modem directly and see what happens bypassing the routour all together now do you have a paid membership to .mac if not then the trial period has expired do u see a green light to the right of the camera when you are in ichat ? try all this and get back to me

MACBOY29 - Mar 4, 2008 - 2:38 pm

i am guessing you have tried all that it is apparent that something is blocking your connection to the ichat server try using the laptop out side of the building i am wondering if the building structure is causing the problem not what you can see but the support structure underneath the walls and bricks. get back to me on that oh yea is the routour connected to anothe mac or win based pc and do you have ichat enabled in your system preferences firewall?

em51907 - Mar 4, 2008 - 3:07 pm

so wait I'm still trying to figure out the "connect to your cable modem directly" I have a trial period to .mac - I just signed up for it Saturday. No, there are no other connections with that router, we only have this one computer. Yes I see a green light to the right of the camera - my camera works fine - I can see myself on the computer - just not the person I WANT to see :-p I don't know about the "do you have ichat enabled in your system preferences firewall" - how do I find that out? I need a little direction on that one.

MACBOY29 - Mar 4, 2008 - 6:36 pm

you have a routour which is conected to the cable modem which is conected to your coaxial cable line correct ? what i want you to do is connect your mac via the large overgrown looks like a telephone jack from your mac book to you cable modem which is the box cinected through your cable line and tell me what happens in your system preferences look for i believe in 10.5 firewall tab is in networking but type firewall into tspotlight and it will find it for you or type firewall into mac os help if everything is o.k. there it probably means the router may be blocking your connection but try the first two and tell me what happens make sure that bojour is allowed under the firewall tab meaning there is a checkmark in the box on the left of enable i chat and apple remote events and bojour networking if you are still lost give me a call at 647-242-9419 that is a toronto onario canada number so long distance may apply

MACBOY29 - Mar 4, 2008 - 7:08 pm

good news and bad news bad news no target disk mode in the macbook air but thanks to remote disk you can wirelessly connect to the pro machine at work open the directory where you store the immage mount it and run disk utility wirelessly on the air be careful to to muck up the orginal information installed or make a backup before you do anything also leopard may or may not work properly with your air's config i would recomend getting the installed software cds and romote disking things onto the air or using migration assistant to move files you need to the air wirelessly. get back if you need any help

Macboy29