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Ralph
- posted by Ralph Johns @ 5:05 PM 0 comments   

 
Contact Testers
Suitable for iChat 2.x and iChat 3



Testing with Another User

Use the Tables below to contact the various Test Accounts or Real people testers.



Table 1. These account names need to be added manually to your Buddy List.

Current Known test users (Be polite and Text a request first please).
Auto-Respond Accounts	Whereabouts	Capabilities	Level of Expertise
appleu3test01 (AIM)	Apple	On Tiger: Video only Reponses	Dummy: Auto-respond (No Need to Text)
appleu3test02 (AIM)	Apple	On Tiger: Video only Reponses	Dummy: Auto-respond (No Need to Text)
appleu3test03 (AIM)	Apple	On Tiger: Video only Reponses	Dummy: Auto-respond (No Need to Text)
ichatavtesting (AIM)	Courtesy of Ryan Mathus Occassionally on line	On Tiger: Audio only and Video responses	Dummy: Auto-respond (No Need to Text)
RjinWI PC (AIM)	Courtesy of Rj in WI Occassionally on line	PC Video responses	Dummy: Auto-respond (No Need to Text)

Regarding the next Table. This has been edited in May 2006. It now includes the relevant screen name of the person (Where they have agreed). Their Apple ID is also listed which, in most cases, links to a profile at the Apple Discussions. This can be the Current discussions and in some it is the Profile in the Previous Discussions. With the Previous discussions you may find that if you have recently registered on the Apple Discussions you may find that you do not see the whole Profile and the iChat name is missing from the display.

Regarding the iChat name - some prefer arrangenments by email first - some list trial account @mac accounts that are not current email accounts, just to add to your fun.

Add the Test account name or the contact's account/screen name into your iChat Buddy List. I would suggest Texting first. Then you can double click the Video icon.


Table 2.

Person/Apple Discussion Nickname	iChat name	Whereabouts	Capabilities	Level of Expertise
Erik Bech		Yellowknife.	On Tiger.	Contacting testing only.
Ralph Johns (UK)	ralphjohnsr Please Text first	Dorset, England. UK	Tiger: Can also host 4 ways (outside specs) Panther at 10.3.9 possible still (iChat2)	Some networking/Router/Modem issues and Contact testing
Defcom (UK)	defcom1@mac.com	London, UK	Using Tiger. Can now host 4 way chats.	Can sort some routers and contact testing iChatAV for late Jaguar users
Ryan M	blindside953 Please Text first	Maryland.	Jabber, iChat (AIM) testing and explanations	Knows more about Macs Than most
ChrisBel	chrisbel@mac.cam Occassional contact.	Paris, France.	Using Tiger	Contact Testing. Some Continental popular routers and modes
James A. Weston	jawestonb@mac.com Please Text First	San Francisco	Has PCs and Macs, 3- and 4-way hosting.	PCs and Macs, routers, networking.
Gilbert N Taylor	giltaylor1@mac.com	Cape Cod, MA, USA	Tiger with Jabber Hosting 4 Way Chats	Contact Testing and Jabber set ups Knowledgable Mac user
Jeremy Varner		Pennsylvania	On Tiger	Knowledgeable of Macs, contact for testing audio/video
Rj in WI	rjinwi Please text first	Appleton, WI	Tiger with Jabber includes Hosting 4 Way Chats	Contact Testing and Jabber set ups Knowledgable Mac user Please text
John Holt	nqmacuser	Australia	Tiger includes Hosting 4 Way Chats	Contact Testing. Long time Mac user

Ralph
- posted by Ralph Johns @ 10:08 PM 0 comments   

 
New MacBook Pro !!!
My New MacBookPro has arrived !!!!

Shiney. Warm. And all mine !!!!

Ralph
- posted by Ralph Johns @ 9:55 PM 1 comments   

 
iChat and Parental Contrls
Hi all

I have found out that there is a reset problem with using a AIM name in a Test Mac User account.

Any settings/Confiuration you make to the Test (non Admin account) to the Aim or .mac names account (ichat login name) also gets made to the account in the Admin Users account of iChat.

Lets say I create a a Mac Account (non Admin) called Test
I set iChat up there with the name I use in the Admin account (ralphjohnsr)
Then I set Parental Controls and allow no AIM buddy contacts (AIM or .mac), for the non Admin account.

The Test Mac User account now has No Buddies because of Parental Control disallowing all AIM buddy list names and closing Bonjour and Jabber.

Returning to the Admin Account you find that All Buddies have disaapeared from the AIM buddy list.

This is irrespective if you set both iChat versions to allow Mutlipe Logins of the same AIM or .mac name

The solution is to go to the Admin accounts version of iChat Preferences > Accounts > Security settings tab.
here you will find an Allow Specific people only setting has been made.
This needs setting back to your previous setting.

Can any one confirm ?

Please Post a comment


Ralph
- posted by Ralph Johns @ 10:08 PM 0 comments   

 
About ports and setting them for iChat
Very Basic stuff

Basically the data from iChat has to leave the machine (the Mac firewall does not effect outgoing stuff) through any router (Which could be effected by outgoing filters) to the modem (which again could have ougoing filters) and on to the internet.

Data coming to you has to pass through the modem (if the ports are open (plus any software firewall that has), through the router if you have one (same blah vlah blah) and so to your computer which has to have the port open if the Firewall is on.

A word about Ports.

At a software level your computer can be thought of as having 65535 windows and doors that data can arrive on (and be accepted if certian conditions are met). These are referred to as ports.

Different Applications tend to use different ports to connect to servers on the internet. Web browsers use port 80, Mail apps can use a few different ones (110, GoogleTalk uses and incoming (995 and outgoing one (587) and others, FTP uses 21-23 to name some common ones.

Most modems and routers have a default set of ports that are always open and need no configuring (1-1024). Some applications check on some of these ports if there is a new update, often without you knowing.

Ports that are not open are therefore Firewalled shut and the device acts in this instance as a Hardware firewall.

Some, and your Mac, have a software firewall which needs the ports for certian applications to be open or in some cases the firewall needs to be turned On to be effective.
See this page for a List of Games and applcations that need ports to be set up.

Don't give up yet as we can look on your Mac for some of this.

Go to System Preferences > Network
Open the Connection Method from the second drop down
Click on the TCP/IP tab to make sure it is the front one.

Thsi is mine


Your should look similar. Mine is set to Manual for Stic IP address routing.
By default your probably says [i][u]Using DHCP[/u][/i] in that top drop down.

Further down you see it lists the "[i]router[/i]"
This is the routing device closet by connection to your computer.
If you have only one device it will be the modem.
If you have two devices it will be the router (depending on how the LAN is set up).

---

OK Pause. Take a breath.

In most cases the "router" IP above is the default IP address you type in to a web browser to gain access to the device.
To Access mine I type [b]192.168.1.1[/b] in to the text field of the web browser like I would the name of a web page.

A word about IP addresses.

1) Modems and routers tend to issue IP addresses to your LAN devices.
This allows more computers to share the Public IP from your ISP

2) These IP addresses come in three groups.
a) 10.xxx.xxx.xxx
b) 192.168.xxx.xxx
c) 172.16.xxx.xxx through to 172.32.xxx.xxx

If the IP at "Router" in System Preferences > Network shows one of the above then the device you are connected to is issuing IP addresses.
Using DHCP will confirm it is a DHCP server (giving out Addresses Dynamically)

If the IP and "Router" Ip are not in the groups above then the Modem is in Bridge Mode and the computer's handling the log on to the ISP. In this case all the ports are open.

As you can see from my pic the Manual address I have is from a device that is using a number from the groups above

---

Next we should check the Mac firewall.

Go to System Preferences > Sharing
Open the Firewall tab
Is it on ?


10:44 PM Thursday; February 16, 2006
- posted by Ralph Johns @ 10:43 PM 0 comments   

 
Apple Discussion Boards.
HI,

The Apple Discussion Boards have undergone a revamp on the weekend or the 11th -14th November.

It looks like they have a few teething problems.

I am certainly getting the return to a blank page after posting an answer. This makes it very difficult to spot any glaring errors taright away. I type very badly at times.

In some areas I am getting NO Data responses when tru=yig to post and navigate.

Today (15th) there are no Levels being shown against any user.

The Level 4 lounge, a source of useful info about what is going on also does not seem to be up and running at the moment.

Hopefully all will get sorted soon.

Ralph
- posted by Ralph Johns @ 10:31 PM 1 comments   

 
PostGreSQL info
Hi

If you have PostgreSQL and want to use iChat this page may be of some help
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.2/interactive/kernel-resources.html

Ralph
- posted by Ralph Johns @ 10:30 PM 0 comments   

 
Tables Sorted.
HI,

The tables (see previous post) have been temporarly sorted with adding a Font clour to all text.

Ralph
- posted by Ralph Johns @ 1:13 PM 0 comments   

 
Tables In the Blog.
Hi,

The tables in the Blog seem to display white font colours on a white background.

This seems to be in spite of any edit I have tried on the older posts.

I will correct as soon as I work it out.

The Text can be seen with a Click and Drg to highlight.

Sorry for any inconvience.

Ralph
- posted by Ralph Johns @ 12:41 PM 0 comments   

 
Link Corrected
Hi,

The link to the Pics about iChat 3 has now been corrected.

It was a Upper/lower case problem with the name of the folder for the pics pages.

Enjoy chatting.

Ralph
- posted by Ralph Johns @ 12:41 PM 0 comments