Grrrr! What's with the whole AOL Chat thing?

Question

I have an Apple ID and am trying to use it to create an iChat account on my new Mac on the iChat (V5) program. But it keeps prompting me to enter my "AOL" account login information.
I don't HAVE an AOL IM account, nor do I want one. I want to use my Apple ID to use iChat.
If I look at my account settings, it is showing my Apple ID account as "@mac.com" and it says Account Type "Mac.com", yet it is still arrogantly prompting me for an AOL login whenever I try to go online.
Please help!

Answer 1

Hi,
By Default most domestic routers have the first 1024 port open so that any computer/device that is connected can access basic services such as Web Browsing (Port 80) and emails (different ports of which 25, 110, 443, 567, 965 are common ones).
Some Applications and On-line Games require ports above this 1024 threshold and iChat is one of those Apps.
This site can be of help http://portforward.com/routers.htm
Find your Device and click on it in the list.
Dismiss the Advert page (top right)
Use AIMTalk in the next page (Games and Applications list)
The following page will be the Instructions on how to access you Router (or Modem/Router combined device) with the default IP, User Name and password (Presuming that you have not changed it)
The rest of the page tell you how to set up Port Forwarding.
This is only one method that can be used to open Ports.
It is not ideal as it restricts the ports to one device (not useful for Phones and Macs using Face Time or multiple computers using iChat or AIM)
Some devices have menus down the left
Some have tabs and smaller menus down the resulting page. (Basically there is a Web server in the device and the pages are the interface for changing things)
Check every tab and every menu to see if your device has UPnP
Linksys have it in the Administration tab
Netgears tend to have a Menu items for it
D-Links have it in the Tools Tab then the menu down the side.
(Basically different manufacturers put it in different places hence the reason the look everywhere).
Enable UPnP if it is Not done already.
Save (Or Apply) Button (you may lose Internet briefly as the device Saves or resets as it Saves)
UPnP allows the apps to tell the device which ports to open.
It also allows multiple computers and devices to use the same port at the same time.
There is no way around doing these settings.
7:39 PM Wednesday; February 2, 2011
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