iSight connection overseas

October 16, 2004 6:14 AM

I'm stationed overseas and need help with my iSight connection. Help me out MeFi networking gurus! (MI)

I'm stationed in lovely Diego Garcia, and have an HDSL connection with a static IP, and have opened the requisite ports on my router (Airport extreme G connections on both sides). Wife back home is on DSL, don't think she needs configuration changes because we were able to communicate via iSight during my week layover in Singapore (highly recommended BTW). I'm on a Powerbook 1.25Ghz, she's on an iBook 1.0Ghz, both loaded with plenty of RAM, etc. so I know its not the hardware.

My initial opinion: bandwidth..modem to router connection is 10BaseT, possible bottleneck? Also, router is a Netgear WGR614, not the best equipment, would an upgrade here help, or any specific router settings recommended (MTU etc).

Thanks for any suggestions!

posted by tetsuo to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

A regular old 10BaseT connection should give you plenty of bandwidth for an iSight. What was the problem? Garbled video? No video? What kind of error message did iChat give you?
posted by bcwinters at 8:55 AM on October 16, 2004

Yeah -- it's kind of hard to diagnose a problem when you don't actually say what the problem is.
posted by mdeatherage at 9:20 AM on October 16, 2004

I'm going with blocked ports for $1000, Alec.

macosxhints - iChat AV through a firewall
posted by filmgeek at 9:54 AM on October 16, 2004

Response by poster: No video or audio. The connection doctor offers little information, no dialogue box at the bottom saying ports are unreachable. iChat just gives the "other user did not respond" message, or it just freezes up with no message.
posted by tetsuo at 1:11 PM on October 16, 2004

if you're desperate, skype (audio only) seems immune to firewalls (when i get home i need to check my firewall, because after discussing skype with someone else i no longer understand how it can work, it's that good... :o)
posted by andrew cooke at 3:48 PM on October 16, 2004