Problems video chatting with Windows users

Question

It seems like everytime I try and video chat with a Windows AIM user there is a problem. Ralph and other are very techy and know how to resolve these issues. Problem is that 99.9999999% of te people I chat with are not so the advice to resolve these issues proves to be worthless. However me and this individual were able to successfully do audio chat instead. Often when there is a problem like this do I switch people over to Skype which works far better going from Windows to Mac and vice versa and is easier to use. Generally I think iChat has better video quality over Skype, but only with Mac users.
I know there are others here that also have this problem and for you do I encourage the same resolution as bad as it is, but it seems to be the only way to chat with a non techy person who is on a PC.
John

Answer 1

Hi,
Any non Microsoft app on a PC has to allowed through the Firewall as a Exception  (Or at least since Service Pack 2 for XP when Windows got a firewall).
In XP it goes like this
Open the Control Panels (I prefer the classic view)
Open the Firewall
Click the Exceptions tab
In the new window click the Add Button
Navigate through Program Files to the AIM Folder and the relevant AIM#.exe to allow the app itself. (#  is the Version Master number)
Back in the Exceptions window also Allow UPnP
Enable UPnP in their Router.
I am not sure it is that different in Vista or Window 7
If there router does not have UPnP then open port 5190 and 1024-5000  (AIM video does not use all of these they are there to spread the load)
They would have to do similar things for Skype (although like AIM it has Fall Back ports below 1024 for logging in and Text Chatting that get around the firewall issue) other IM apps and On-line Games. 
Of course if they are using some third party Firewall they would have to do the work there.
Audio Chats V VIdeo Chats
Both apps use the same ports when it comes to Audio and Video Chats  (Tend to be the iChat ones)
I believe AIM still uses 4 ports (from the 1024-5000 range) for VId In, Vid Out, Audio In, Audio out, much the same way iChat 2 and 3 did.
It may pay for you to go to iChat > Preferences > Video Section > Bandwidth limit and try either 500kbps or 200kbps as the setting.
In earlier version of AIM (5.5 anbd 5.9) it was possible to reduce the Video quality at the AIM end (less frames per second) which allowed "Space" for the Audio part.
AIM 6.x onwards does not have this and the Video feed can be particularly Processor hungry.  Your lower setting will be fed back to them and their end will make an adjustment of what can be sent.
Some of this knowledge has taken me since 2004 to acquire.
I can see that applying it might be considered "techy"
I can appreciate that it can be very difficult to persuade a Windows user to change any setting once they have their machine "working" (at least as they want).
I realise this was not so much of a Question as being more of a discussion statement.
I am not sure that there is a real answer other than the one you suggest.
10:35 PM      Wednesday; August 10, 2011
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