AOL IM clients no longer working, but only at home. Could it be my router?

December 24, 2007 4:53 AM

AOL IM clients no longer working, but only at home. Could it be my router?

On my Mac, I use both ichat and Adium for AOL IM. I can't get AOL IM to work on either one when at home any more. I can access GoogleTalk with either client, but not AOL. When I use the same network on the wireless network at work, I can access AOL IM on Adium on my Mac with no problem.

Another family member in the house has a PC, and she uses Trillian. She also can't access AOL IM lately. This has been going on for about 2-3 weeks. Once in blue moon it works, but 95% of the time, we can't connect.

Note - We can both connect via Meebo from home with no problem.

At home, I have a cable modem connected to a wireless router. It's worked fine for the last 2 years.

posted by kdern to computers & internet (5 comments total)

On your mac, does iChat work? Does AIM's own client?

Do you know how to log into your wireless router? Could you check the firewall to make sure that port 5190 is open?
posted by filmgeek at 5:34 AM on December 24, 2007

Who is your ISP?
I have Comcast and both Adium and iChat connect to AOL just fine.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:27 AM on December 24, 2007

The answer to your question is yes, it could be your router.

I guess the next question is 'how do i fix it?'

For that we'd need to know the model of cable modem and router you have. Have you tried powercycling everything? This fixes a surprising amount of problems. Try turning off both your modem and router, then turning the modem on and then the router after the lights finish blinking on the modem.

Some other things to check are your port triggering/port forwarding rules, and if there is an option, check the udp time out on your router as well. If you have one of those modem/router combination boxes from your ISP, you might be double-NAT'd which can also cause problems with internet apps.

You can also check to make sure you have the latest firmware on your router and modem.
posted by empath at 12:15 PM on December 24, 2007

One other thing to do is just try factory resetting your router if you can't figure it out and it used to work before, but keep in mind, that's going to kill all your wireless settings, etc..
posted by empath at 12:17 PM on December 24, 2007

Update for future readers - I restarted my modem and router and AOL IM works fine now.
posted by kdern at 5:00 AM on December 28, 2007