Overseas iChat?

October 10, 2006 9:56 AM

Do iChat's audio and video functions work overseas?

I'm going to the UK for an extended period of time and was wondering whether I could use my MacBook Pro's audio and video chat function to communicate with friends and family in California. I was under the impression that it wasn't a problem until I went to Kauai and couldn't launch an audio chat with folks in L.A. Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks in advance!

posted by Lillitatiana to computers & internet (6 comments total)

There's no restriction based on your geographical location. Any problems you have are likely to be due to the connection speed or the network setup at either end.
posted by chrismear at 9:58 AM on October 10, 2006

I've used iChat audio and video to chat with friends in California from all over the world.

As chrismear says, if you're having difficulty it's going to be either bandwidth or the local network setup.
posted by tkolar at 10:05 AM on October 10, 2006

if you were at a hotel in Kauai and using their connectivity, it's more likely the firewalls/routers there were preventing it from working. sometimes hotel networks can be pretty restrictive, and video/audio chat uses ports beyond what you might need for text IM/web browsing.
posted by mrg at 10:34 AM on October 10, 2006

As chrismear says, there's no geographical restrictions, only the need for a reasonably stable connection. I'm in Washington, DC, and I chat with family members in London weekly -- full-motion video/audio chat, great quality, altogether seamless -- using iChat. So it's doable, but you need to make sure that your connection in the UK is reasonable (DSL or cable with OK upstream bandwidth), and likewise for your family members in California.
posted by delfuego at 10:49 AM on October 10, 2006

I've used it to chat with a friend in Australia, and the only problem encoutered was getting their lousy Windows machine to work. Don't forget if you need audio and video capabilities, you can now use the beta version of Skype for Mac, which works great.
posted by Vaska at 11:05 AM on October 10, 2006

I used iChat audio and video extensively when I lived in Japan for over a year. Had no problem contacting people in the states, and the latency was actually quite good. No problems at all.
posted by dead_ at 11:20 AM on October 10, 2006