iChat AV/iSight issue
 

Have just bought an iSight, expected it to work with iChat AV so I can chat with my brother. However, everytime we attempt to connect to eachother it says that he didn't respond on my screen and that I didn't respond on his screen. I suspect this has something to do with my router. I have a btvoyager DSL Modem/Router plugged into my airport. I have no idea what settings to change on the router as i am a newbe to all this wireless networking stuff. Anyone help?

I dont know about routers, but the firewall could be blocking your video communication. Make sure following ports are open:

5298 (this one is for the text)
16384-16403 (for the video)

check that the airport and router firewalls (if they have one) are letting the ports through. (and the one on your machine!!)

if you are sure they are all open (you can go to "Shields up" at www.grc.com to check) then:

You might have to set your router (and airport?) to forward those ports directly to your mac for ichat DV to work. check your router manual for how to do that.

and check that your bro has his settings sorted out ok too...

That message usually indicates that the connection speed was not fast enough to support the video chat. Try setting the Bandwidth Limit (iChat Prefrences==> Video ) to 200 MPBS or less and try again. By default this value is set at "No Limit".

Thanks for your replys you two. I have tried both ideas but still had no luck. I just checked the connection doctor and it says: -

...did not respond.
Tried to send UDP SIP "invite" to the following IP addresses and ports:
81.156.164.96:5060, 169.254.36.79:5060

Anyone got any ideas? :confused:

I'm having the same issue - this is my error message in connection doctor (name in msg changed to protect the innocent...):

2004-10-20 14:54:01 -0700: John Doe did not respond.
Tried to send UDP SIP "invite" to the following IP addresses and ports:
68.145.248.251:5060, 192.42.172.5:5060

I've opened the ports on my router specified in doc 93208 on Apple's site and spent some time on the phone with my ISP and my router maker, but no luck.

My only thought for my situation is that I'm running iDSL (DSL over ISDN) which only affords me a 144kbps connection. I have my bandwidth limit set to 100 kbps, but still doesn't work. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Mike

i had a similar problem with my router (from linksys).

opening the relevant ports on the router did nothing, neither did forwarding those ports to my mac.

one thing that DID work was temporarily putting my mac in the 'de-militarised zone' (DMZ)... which effectively puts the mac on the outside of the firewall. this is the equivalent to forwarding every port on the router to your mac. (it doesnt stop other machines connected to your router from surfing)

I ran into this problem audio chatting yesterday with two people. One person had internet sharing turned on when it didn't need to be. He turned it off and it fixed that problem. The other one we never figured out. It would get a did not respond error. The only thing we could think of was that their Packet8 phones use the same port as iChat does for audio chat. We never got it to work.

I have exactly the same issue as you guys... "so & so did not respond..." even though they're clicking 'accept'.

If anyone gets to the to the bottom of it let me know before I take back my isight to the store!

Equally I will post if I resolve the isssue....

Thanks

Jz :)

Did Not Respond issues
 

Why is it that there is no answer to this problem? So many people have it and I have searched everywhere online for a solution...

How do we get Apple to pay attention to this fault? Are there forums their programmers read?

blaim

Upgrading Router Firmware Solved iChat AV Did Not Respond Prob.
 

Apple web site had a suggestion, which solved the problem you guys were having with iChat AV's erroneous "did not respond" message. I upgraded the firmware on my brand new Linksys router, and the problem was solved!

I knew my ex employer would have a solution!
----------------

I had this problem a while back - in my (humble) opinion, its nothing to do with iChat (and definately nothing to do with the iSight).

The 'not responding' problem is most likely due to a firewall or router blocking part of the transmission.

You could test this by doing the following on your machine and your iChat buddy's:

- turn off the firewall and internet sharing (in the 'sharing' pane of sys prefs)
- plug your mac directly into your modem (NO routers etc)
- test your internet works (ie with safari)
- go to 'Shields Up!' on grc.com and run the port scan. As long as all the little boxes are green, you know that your net connection is unhindered.
- fire up iChat
- talk to your buddy, then plug in iSight(s) and give it a go.

NOTE - someone mentioned above a "Packet8" phone. ive no idea what that is, but to eliminate anything that might be interfering with iChat, if you plug your machine directly into the modem and dont run any other software (and maybe uninstall any ones that might interfere).

Once you find the iChat works, gradually put things back in (start with your firewall). then at least you might discover what it is that is causing the problem

good luck

No offense, Chris - but that is not a solution for the average user (like my Mom!)

Lots of people connect to the internet with airports and linksys routers. And lots of people have this connection problem.

Please Apple, we need a better solution other than walking my Mom through putting her computer in the DMZ. (And even this doesn't work sometimes!!)

Port forwarding, DMZ ... I've tried 'em all. The fact is that iSight communication works about 50% of the time.

cleaner416, i sympathise - its definately beyond my patience if not beyond my technical skill!! Once I put in my linksys router, my step-dad and i had all kinds of trouble not being able to video chat with each other. I tried all of the above to fix it (and assumed it was due to a problem at my end of the connection) and it started working by putting my machine in the DMZ of the router.... then one day I forgot to put my machine in the DMZ (i didnt leave it there for obvious reasons) and it connected straight away! no port forwarding or anything!!

ive not done much ichat since, so dont know whether it still works or not....

... sorry i couldnt be more helpful

A Few Specifics
 

The Apple Support article suggests specific ports to be opened on either end of a iChat AV discussion to avoid the problem noted above.

The ports are: 5060, 5190, 5297, 5298, 16384-16403
These can be added to your Firewall setting in the System Preferences panel.

For full details, go to:

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

I will test this out today for my case, and report back if it solves the issue.

VPN helps
 

It's too bad there isn't a clear solution. I've recently had this problem trying to set my parents up with iChat AV. they are behind a router with a firewall, and we were able to connect once (voice), but can't now. We can connect with just text.

We've found that if they make a VPN connection then we can chat just fine (voice). sort of a pain, but at least it works.

And the answer is: NO.

It did not fix the issue. The search continues ... :(

same problem
 

I also had exactly the same problem as everyone else here - using abelkin f5d7630-4a router with my pipex account - this is on an iBook.

just tried it again, and putting my machine out in the DMZ (ie 'outside' the firewall) worked...

wonder if there is a siimple way of documenting all the ports that ichat uses (in real life, during establishing a connection) to make sure all the correct ones are opened....

Using netstat and for short-term connections, tcpdump, you should be able to figure out what is going on in the most detailed way.

Unfortunately one thing Apple can't do is teach people how to program and update the firmware on all the 3rd party routers being used here that sound like the source of a lot of these problems.

Although they do document configurations which have been tested and found to work.

well I have a speedtouch modem, so I plugged speedtouch and ichat into google, and I found a thread, with some commands that I could type into terminal. I did it and it fixed the problem. It did involve a port number.
Love esther
PS good luck. I was as frustrated as you, and I couldn't believe it when the thing actually finally worked and I could talk with my dad.