Ralph Johns

iChat Information Pages

iChat Icon

iChat

These pages are about iChat.

They consist of old info about iChat 1, 2 (AV), 3 as well as new stuff about the latest incarnation, iChat 5.

The info in these pages has been somewhat reorganized. I hope to make sure that things are grouped in a more logical order to explain somewhat how iChat has got from iChat (ver 1) though to the current iChat 5.x.x

The Menu at the top will contain everything but may change from page to page.

Historical Document

These pages have sat here since 2008 with no update. In that time the AIM servers have been closed down (2017) and iChat has been superseded by Messages. That effectively make this a sort of Historical Document of how it worked.

I will make attempts to renew and refresh Links to either the most current site or use the Way Back Machine Archive so that people can at least look at what was used. I will make Edit Notes on this and on those where I can find no link to replace the older one as I go through the document.

Pictures or the Panther and Tiger Firewall Settings

Panther Ports in the Firewall

These same ports in the one line entry in Panther 5060, 5190, 5297, 5298, 5353, 5678, 16384-16403

Note that there is an "iChat Rendezvous" entry near the bottom. This was added by Apple when iChat came out. Whilst Rendezvous/Bonjour discovery and connections (Finding other Macs and at least File Sharing) is on port 5353 it is not mentioned here.

Above that is an older Test entry I made for iChat where I opened all the ports controlled by the Firewall.

Panther Firewall with New entry for iChat being made

Back to Page 4

Tiger Ports in the Firewall

The ports split into the TCP and UDP lines for Tiger

Altered Pic to show All ports


Back to Page 4

The Ports

Tiger TCP and UDP Ports For Mac Firewall
Service TCP Ports UDP Ports
iChat over AIM 5190 5060, 5190, 5678, 16384-16403
Bonjour 5298 5297, 5298, 5353
Jabber 5220, 5222, 5223 No ports
All Ports5190, 5220, 5222, 5223, 5298 5060, 5190, 5297, 5298, 5353, 5678, 16384-16403

Notice that for the Tiger (10.4.x) Firewall some ports are listed as both UDP and TCP

I have also coloured the backgrounds in the table and behind the "All Ports" ones to show which ports belong to which service rather than have a bland table.


How -To Revisited

  1. Open System Preferences from the DOCK
  2. Select Sharing Preference Pane
  3. Select Firewall tab
  4. On the right use the Add Button
  5. Select Other from the drop down at the top.
  6. Enter details relevant to your OS version
  7. Enter a name for this entry in Description

Leopard (10.5.x)

Leopard's firewall has been moved and changed. It is in System Preferences > Security.
It has three Settings:-

  1. Allow All (which is Off)
  2. Allow Essesntials which is a Partial ON
  3. Allow Specifics which needs applications added to the List and is an On Setting
Applications are given "certificates" by the system and only allowed apps can use the open ports

Eliminating Problems: Page 4 As you have probably came from there.


© 2005 Ralph Johns Edited 24/9/2005, 5/5/2006, 25/08/2007
Updated September 2006. Moved to Gargoyles and edited Mar 2007
Edited: 1:45 PM Sunday; September 21, 2008
Major Review and Edit November 2024 Links check and amended and moving towards HTML 5 compliance.

Information Block

This site is about iChat from Version 1 through to iChat 5.x.x
It has had a major Edit in September 2024 moving towards being HTML 5 complaint. It has essentially become an Historical document on how things could be done in iChat.

It has a mixture of basic info and problem solving help.

The setions below will change for Specifics about info on the page on view

About This Page

A simple split of the two versions of System Preferences > Sharing > Firewall tab showing the Panther (10.3.x) and Tiger (10.4.x) versions as separate pictures. Includes a table after that that shows the Protocols used on each port for the Tiger Firewall.

The "System Preferences > Sharing > Firewall" bit means open System Preferences then Sharing and select the Firewall tab

Compatibility

As mentioned above this has had a Major Edit/Update in September to November 2024 meaning that the Browsers listed at the bottom are likely to no longer work.

I have tested in Safari 18.1, Firefox 130.x and 131.0, Vivaldi 6.9.3447.48 and iCab 6.2.3 (All Mac Browsers) I don't have access to a PC let alone multiple browsers to test on.

The original pages worked with Win/IE 5.5 and later (should work in 5.0, but not confirmed), Firefox 2, Safari 3, Opera 9, iCab 3.02 and later, Mac/IE 5, Netscape 6 and later

Old browsers (IE version 4 or earlier, Netscape 4 or earlier) should only see a text-based page which, while not the prettiest option, is still entirely usable.

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