Ralph Johns

iChat In Pictures >> You are in Folder 3_iChat Prefs >> Page: 2 Accounts Prefs

	2[6]	2 Accounts Preferences	02-10-2006

Next is the Accounts Preferences. Apart from setting the Login details for each account you may have you also have the tabs, Security and Server Settings.

The Security tab has the settings for what used to be called Privacy in iChat 1.x and 2.x (it had it's own Toolbar icon and screen then ).

It's where you set your Allow and Blocked settings and lists. The options on the allow side are expandedin iChat 3 & 4 compared to iChat 1 and 2.

Note: This picture and the Server Settings tab picture below are from iChat 4 hence the reorded list with Bonjour appearing higher than in earlier versions.

The Server Settings is where you can tweak the Login port that iChat uses. You have to be Offline to AIM to do this. However the default port in here is the 5190 near the top. If required we suggest port 443 (a secure Mail and Web Page port) which is below the NAT threshold (1024) on most routers and modems. Actually the AIM servers will accept a Login on almost any port.

There used to be alternative servers. The only other one of these I found is no longer working, but if more come about this can also be changed in the tab.

If you know about Proxies this is where you can set it for iChat alone. It seems though that iChat does better if these are set at System level in the System Preferences.

This picture is set at the default tab which is Accounts Info which is the bit you fill in when creating a new account with the Screen Name info you have set up. The Description option is what shows in the List on the left as the name for the account. As a note the last tab you used will be the one it retruns to on subsequent visits.

The List on the left is added to with the + button which then allows you to choose between Apple names (Blue globes), AIM (Running Man) and Jabber IDs (Light Bulb). In iChat 4 this list is dragable so that you can reorder it which in turn makes a difference in the Window Menu and the Keystrokes used for Revealing a Hidden Buddy List. The Add button gives access to choosing 1 of sveral types of Name. In iChat 4 this becomes the two Apple varieties and the AIM one as AIM valid names and the the Jabber and Googletalk as Jabber valid names as seen in the Pic. You always have the choice of activating Bonjour/Redezvous in whever version without adding/settting it up.

In this pic you can see there is one AIM Valid name (Running Man or Blue Globe) one Jabber ID (Light Bulb)and the Bonjour option ticked. In iChat 1,2 and 3 Bonjour or the earlier name or Rendezvous is always at the bottom but in the Window menu they are listed AIM/Apple, Bonjour then Jabber.

On the right side you can see Allow Multiple Logins In iChat 3 and above this allows two computers (or two AIM Clients on the same computer) to log in with the same Screen Name. In iChat 1 and 2 it was possible to login with two computers anyway and they would Text chat to each other (after you ignored/dealt with the message from the AIM servers). However in iChat 3 and 4 iChat to iChat will not do this although iChat to another client like AIM for Mac will.

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© 2005 Ralph Johns: Edited 24/9/2005, 5/5/2006
Updated September 2006
Updated October 2008

Information Block

This site is about iChat from Version 1 through to iChat 4.x.x

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About This Page

The Accounts Prefences - Picture 2 in this series.

As it has Tabs in this iChat 3 verion I have included smaller versions of those as well, albeit from iChat 4. I did this as I felt including them as separte pictures would have people looking for additional icons to access them when they are tabs on this Screen.

I have pointed out that iChat 1 and 2 had a Privacy Screen instead of a Tab in Accounts

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