Tweaks aren't eliminating Insufficient bandwidth

My daughter and I have not been able to video and are getting "insufficient bandwidth" error messages and Connection Doctor always says our bandwith is 49 and 50 is the minimum required, but we have checked our speeds and they are 350 or greater (upload). After one tweak, I believe after closing the firewalls, we repeatedly got messages that we had declined to videoconference but we HAD accepted. ONE SINGLE TIME we videoconferenced and audio was fine but the pictures were horribly pixelated and unrecognizable.
Since that one event we are back to "insufficient bandwidth" errors and no resolution......and most bizarre....during the attempts to video I can hear the camera taking snapshots when I,m not asking it to...(I don't even know where the snapshot button is)
We bought an iBook G4 and an iSight camera and before shipping it off to her my husband and I set it up and had both iBooks sending and receiving great audio/video, using wireless in our home with cable broadband(Time Warner). We shipped the new iBook to Texas and my daughter has highspeed via satellite dish (WildBlue).
1.My download speed ranges from 1-6 and upload is about 350 and hers is the same.
2. Both firewalls are off
3. Her streaming is set at 768 kbps DSL/Cable and mine is set 1 Mbps Cable (the guy who installed the dish said hers was a form of DSL which doesn't use the phone line)
4. We do not have Viex installed on our computers
5. We used the Quicktime 7.0.1 Reinstaller for QuickTime 7.0.4
6. I use a DI-524 wireless router
Where do we go from here?

hI George,
Where do we go from here?
System Preferences > Quicktime > Streaming tab
Set this speed to 1meg
The Satelite connection is going to be very difficult to get to work at an acceptable level.
iChat makes a bandwidth check at the start up of the application.
Satelite connections tend to start slow and get faster as the data being sent or downloaded increases. This mean the person is not flat out when iChat reads the speed.
iChat work within the speed it detected.
Attempt to fool ichat by starting it up when doing a download or Uploading to a web page or similar met with little success as it also ignores what is in use and aims to use the spare capacity which in effect does not exist with Satelite.
There is not much you can do about this except move house again or get a new daughter
10:28 PM Wednesday; April 26, 2006

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Insufficient Bandwidth STILL a Problem

I've followed the instructions listed here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301641
Still coming up short. Can anbody provide some other trouble-shooting tips.
Also, I don't know if this is important, but I am presently in Rome, Italy and am unable to iSight with family in the States. I have family in different states, and they can iSight between the two of them, but I am unable to do it with either. Can the "internation factor" be the issue? And if so, why?
Furthermore, I get "insufficient bandwidth" for both video and audio.
Thanks to anyone who can help.
Tim
Powerbook G4 Aluminum

You're welcome, Tim. Interesting points. And some new information..... ... it was certainly working fine just a couple of months ago.Then you can add the suggestions in How to get iChat AV working again to the trouble shooting possibilities I posted in my initial response.If something has that long of a page for trouble-shooting, then the system should be rebuilt, don't you think?I think the system is being rebuilt -- continually. Everyone, from ISPs to the Mac user, is continually updating and adding features to their systems. I believe that is one of the reasons iChat occasionally stops working. It certainly was for me.
After several days of trouble shooting last year, I eliminated everything but my ISP. After several minutes of probing questions and discussions, they finally admitted to me that they had installed new equipment and instituted numerous "improvements" the previous weekend -- the day my internet service stopped working. They made an adjustment, and I was up and running again in 20 minutes. These days, as it says in my How to get iChat AV working again checklist, checking with my ISP is early in the list.
For many of us, iChat AV really is plug and play. Apparently it was for you, too, for a period of time. However, with so much complexity in our individual systems, connection configurations, ISP operations, the very complexity of multi-party video chat capability itself, AND the occasional added complexity of changing locations (or countries,) there are a lot of things that can cause the system to occasionally stop working.
I wrote these lists to keep from forgetting any of the possibilities. However, nobody's system could be plagued by all of the problems listed. Consider only the items that might be relevant to YOUR system, and try them in the order your think will let you identify YOUR problem quickly.
Please let us know what it takes to get sorted.
Jim

Beating a dead horse but...Insufficient bandwidth error on Tiger 10.4.6

So I'm running a new Macbook pro i just took out of the box, my girlfriend is doing the same. It's come with the latest version of Tiger. Here's the thing: with iChat my girlfriend and i get the all-to-familiar Insufficient Bandwidth message when we try to connect. I can connect with another friend on a standard Macbook, and my girlfriend can connect with me on the PC at my work, but we cannot connect with each other.
We're both running off of Cable Modem router wifi and have bandwidth of at least 750 mbps. I've been through the support pages, opened port channels, adjusted quicktime streaming preferences, but to no avail. Any more ideas or any other tips to get this to work. Visual communication was the primary reason for the purchase of these computers, and we're frustrated to no end that it simply will not work after troubleshooting.
Macbook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.6)

HI theBen,
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
At the ned of the day this can come down to the way your individual modems do NAT when using Port Forwarding, Port Triggering or DMZ and just not talk to each other properly.
This is because there are about six different ways manufacturers use to achieve NAT.
UPnP can help avoid this problem.
See here for more info http://www.ralphjohnsuk.dsl.pipex.com/page15.html#CertainBuddy
The iChat error messages are not always clear as to the exact problem and as you guessed ports can also be part of the problem.
11:22 AM Monday; June 19, 2006

Insufficient bandwidth

I'm trying to set up an iChat video chat with my dad.
We both have an brandnew iMac with iSight build in.
Both have an ADSL with more then 250kps upload (should be enough for ichat videoconferencing, isn't it?)
And still we get the warning insufficient bandwidth.
The same warning comes with audiochat as well.
Text chat works.
We tried to chet with the firewalls turned off.
So my guess is that it is the modem, either on my side or on his.
Best guess is his side as he has a wireless adslmodem/router.
But how do we check this and most important! How do we turn the firewall from the modem off?
We only need the firewall on our macs turned on and configurated well.
Ralph. Is was hoping to test my side of the iChat by trying a chat with you, but is your account AIM our .Mac??

Ralph, thanks for the help so far.
My side seemed to be working just fine, considering the succesfull chat we had.
I'm now working on my dads side.
The firewall of the modem (Philips Wireless ADSL modem sna6500) is disabled.
For the macOSX firewall I've installed the same iChat exception as I have on my own iMac, and I've found those in another tread about insufficient bandwidth on this forum.
The test-chat with appleu3test01 works.
But a videochat with my iMac doesn't work. Not even with both firewalls turned off.
Any suggestions what to sort out next?
The settings for Quicktime are set to 256 kbps (the uploadspeed of the ADSL-connection).
The settings for video in the iChat preferences are set to 200 kbps (500 is over the 256 kbps upload).
I'm pretty much out of idea's.
Normally both connections are fast enough.
My dad has 256 kbps upload and 4 mbps download
I have 384 kbps upload and 3,3 mbps download
at least, that is what we are paying for. How can we check the real connectionspeed?

Insufficient bandwidth help please

Up until yesterday I was able to use bbc I player, stv player etc but I am now getting a message saying insufficient bandwidth. On checking my laptop they work fine. Why can I not get it on my iPad now?

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_tv_progs/Insufficient_bandwid th
 Cheers, Tom

Insufficient bandwidth, or not responding

I'm trying to connect with my friend to talk, not use video. it's not working - every time it either says 'insufficient bandwidth' or 'they did not repsond' - but she is responding! help?

This is probably because of your provider. Even if you have dsl or any other sort of high speed internet, it will not necessarily work.
as an example, when I had SBC DSL, I would get that error from home. In the same city at a friends house, it would work. Would work other places. Basically, I read that it was some old protocol or something that not all the providers were compatible with. It was not a case of insufficient bandwidth as the error message would suggested because I checked with dslreports.com. I found that many SBC ichatav users had the same problem.
Try using this apple test account from different places if your machine is portable. If you have a camera you can of course both connect with video and audio otherwise just audio:
appleu3test02

"Insufficient Bandwidth" QoS workaround?

Does anybody have a workaround for the "Insufficient Bandwidth" problem that has plagued iChat 3 users. I have troublshot everthing I can think of, and the only thing I can come up with is my ISP says they are in the process of "bettering" their QoS service. Is there a way to make iChat 3 work like iChat 2 by turning QoS off?
HELP!!!

Hi,
It may be how this commbo is set up
airport card/ netgear router/motorola cable modem
IF the Netgear is using DHCP to give out addresses then the modem needs to be set to pass through the Public IP address or be Static to the router. This will get around any Double DHCP problems.
The next thing to consider is if the modem is Static it will need the ports to be opened. In this case the Modem and the router should not be using Port Forwarding or NAT to open the ports as iChat does not like Double NAT situations.
Port Triggering or UPnP to open the ports will allow multiple computers to access the net using the same ports if required.
Ralph

Insufficient bandwidth with certain buddies

Well... it's the same old problem. I get the insufficient bandwidth error. Only with one exception: I get the error with only 1 specific buddy. I can't seem to do audio/vid chat with Buddy A, but have no problems with Buddy B, and Buddy A and Buddy B can connect with one another.
I have tried all the regular fixes (ie. QT bandwidth, checked download speeds, no firewall etc) and even re-installed iChat the hard way.
Still can't connect to Buddy A though...

I have a similar problem but we are all using the most current, 10.4.5, MacOS load.
I have a 15" PowerMac G4 HD with an iSight conneted and am trying to video chat with a variety of other Macs... another 15" PowerMac G4 1.67, a 15" MacBook Pro, a 17" iMac Intel, and a 20" iMac G5. My Mac and my friend's Macs are all connected to the Internet via broadband connections... some cable modems, some DSL, and one on an AT&T T1. Sometimes it works and other times it does not... It is sporatic enough to call it unreliable. We all have enough horsepower and bandwidth but for some reason the chats fail to start and we are treated with "so-and-so failed to respond"
It is ancient history now but when we all had Panther, iChat 2 and G4s this never occured... we started having problems when we all upgraded to Tiger and started getting G5s and CoreDuos... Not a very scientific observation and I'm not sure of the relevence.
Message was edited by: cadrass.. edited to reflect current model and OS load

Insufficient bandwidth - now solved - phew

I have just 'upgraded' to bt infinity. On trying to play bbc iplayer on an I pad I get an insufficient bandwidth message. How can this be the case, and what can be done to rectify the problem? I have also noticed extremely slow downloading speeds and connection keeps ripping out. Is this all part of the bt infinity experience or am I a one off ? I look forward to any comments
Solved!
Go to Solution.

FTTC is fibre to the cabinet - it's the technology used to provide BT Infinity.
Line training is not true, basically it'll work from day 1 if there's no faults.
Regarding your issue, it's probably a wireless problem. How far are you from the hub? Can you download the speedtest.net app and run a speedtest and see what you get? Once you've done that can you run a speedtest on a computer connected to the home hub with an Ethernet cable to see if there's any discrepancies in the results?
If you want to say thanks for a helpful answer,please click on the Ratings star on the left-hand side If the the reply answers your question then please mark as ’Mark as Accepted Solution’

Insufficient bandwidth error help

Just in this last week I have been unable to video chat or audio chat because I keep getting the insufficient bandwidth message. Keep in mind that I had been doing both types of chats fine until this past week, even 4 way video was very clear. I have a 9Mbps connection and my friends have 100 Mbps fiber so bandwidth should not be an issue. Skype still works as normal though. Any ideas on what might be causing this? Is it possible that my ISP closed a port that iChat needs? In my firewall settings, I opened TCP 5060, 5190, 5297, 5298 and UDP 5060, 5190, 5297, 5298, 5678, 16384-16403. Is there anything else I can try to get the video or audio chat working again? Anyone else have similar problems recently?
BTW, we are all using wired connections, so airport is not an issue here.

Alan..I am having the same problem. We are running a single user on both ends (10.4.4) with a G4 iBook on one end and either a G3 iBook or a G4 iMac on the other. It seems to work OK between the G3 and the G4 iMac but neither of us can do more than text/audio chat with the G4 iBook.
I wonder if there was a setting that was changed when we upgraded to 10.4.4?
< MAybe a default setting?br> Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Insufficient Bandwidth Error

I'm trying to connect to a friend that has dial-up and no camera (I'm doing one-way video chat). I have the right settings and have done everything everyone/every help tutorial has told me to do and I still keep getting the insufficient bandwidth error. Is it my computer or can I just not connect because of her crappy internets?

If you try to connect to another user that doesn't meet the minimum bandwidth requriements (which dial-up does not meet), you will receive the "Insufficent Bandwidth" message.
If you are on broadband, and meet the minimum requirements, you can try testing your set-up with one of the testers listed here: http://www.ralphjohnsuk.dsl.pipex.com/ContactTesters.html

Insufficient bandwidth through airport.

Hi, I'm trying to set my folks up with iChat on their iMac G5. The ethernet connector is loose and unreliable. Rather than pay to fix it, they're using airport through the wireless router to the cable modem. If you connect via a cable (and hold it just right) I can audio chat fine. But if you try to audio chat with airport, I get insufficient bandwidth. What could be different?
Thanks for any suggestions...
Steve

There could be a problem with the wireless connection in terms of signal strength, or there could be a problem with the wireless function on either the router or on the iMac G5.
Test the signal strength by making the wireless connection from point-blank range. If that's not the problem, try another Mac computer with a wireless connection or try another wireless router.

Insufficient Bandwidth driving me crazy!

I’ve read and followed the suggestions in all the discussions on insufficient bandwidth with iChat but I still can’t get it to work with certain people. I can chat with and see my friends in Chicago but not my family in the UK. We’re all using macs. Could someone please help me?
Mac OS X Version 10.4.11
iChat AV 3.1.9
I did a speed test: down load 1163 kbps, upload 1057 kbps
iChat bandwidth limited to 500 kbps
iChat server port set to 443
QuickTime streaming speed set at 1 Mbps cable
ISP: Current through an Asoko PlugLink Ethernet Wall Mount Model # PL9620-ETH
Do you need any other info that would help pinpoint my problem?
Thanks!
Andria

Hi Tony,
Thank you for all your help yesterday! By the end of the day I'd have my fill of trying to get iChat to work and tried another program to video conference (SightSpeed). It worked right away and now all my family can see each other, no problem.
Thanks again for all your help and time,
Andria

Insufficient Bandwidth Linksys WRT54G 2.2

IChat 3.01 works fine if I connect my computer directly to my Comcast cable modem. When connected through the WRT54G I can text chat but audio chat attempts produce the dreaded "insufficient bandwidth" message. I updated the Linksys to v4.20.7. I have tried to open ports as listed in some of the other posts on this problem. I have selected Upnp enable, and Upnp disable. I have selected DHCP disable, and enable. I have reinstalled the 10.4.2 update. I have repaired permissions. In short, I have tried to utilize every fix detailed in the hundreds of messages offering fixes. Since iChat works fine without the Linksys in the mix, I am inevitably led back to the idea that somewhere I have a mistake in my Linksys setup. Has anyone got a setup guide for v4.20.7 firmware of the Linksys WRT54G that will help me step through each and every setting required to get this thing working? Or is this device just not going to ever work with iChat? Thanks in advance for your help.

I have the WRT54G (Ver 4.0/4.20.7 firmware). I have mine configured with UPnP only which opens the following ports: 1024 to 5000 Both TCP and UDP.
Try configuring it only with UPnP enabled(Take out all of the port forwarding and port openings, Unplug your modem, router, and mac and then plug them in in this order: Modem (then wait a minutes or two),router (then wait a few seconds), and then your mac and give that a go.
Then try testing with a known working screen account. (My screen name is in my profile if you want to test with me)
I've noticed the WRT54G isn't real good releasing ports from UPnP without rebooting.
That's how I got my WRT54G working and I can now chat with both Mac and PC's.
Hope this helps!
P.S. I have my mac firewall off.

"insufficient bandwidth" error when seemingly all is OK

after months of flawless iChatAV sessions between me in Los Angeles and my brother in NYC, we recently started getting an error message that there is insufficient bandwidth to make the connection. Yet all tests (and even an in-house visit today from a Covad technician!) seem to indicate that we both have (and exceed) the bandwidth requirements per Apple's specs for maintining a 1-on-1 video chat. As far as I know no other settings have changed on either one of our respective systems or routers.
Oddly enough this started right after (if not actually during) Hurricane Katrina. We surmised - perhaps incorrectly - that this could be a result of increased loads in one area or ISPs systems due to damage in that area and/or bandwidth issues due to rerouted signals. (are we just nuts to even "go there?")
As always - any and all suggestions are grealy appreciated
kind regards
Theo
Studio City, CA
USA

Hello Theo,
I am still on, but your location(s) may be effected some, I suppose.
Were you having this problem before the Security Update 2005-008?
Because you had iChat AV working previously, my best suggestions for troubleshooting be the applicable suggestions in:
]Help for iChat AV 3 Problems and
]the How Can I get iChat working again? FAQ

Tweaks aren't eliminating Insufficient bandwidth

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