iChat (again) - “Failed to start because the other party cancelled”
I’ve been having a weird problem with iChat for the last month - I couldn’t get voice or video chats to connect (either making outgoing, or accepting incoming).
I’d start a chat, the other person would accept and I’d get an error “Failed to start because {other party’s name} cancelled.” The other party would then get this error: “Failed to start because Diggory Laycock did not respond ”
The errors would be the other way round if the roles were reversed . It looked just like a NAT or Firewall issue - but I knew it wasn’t (because I don’t use either.)
This morning I just figured it out - my VOIP softphone (X-Lite) which I have as a startup item was using the same ports (they both use SIP.)
So - if someone calls you on iChat - or you plan to call someone else - make sure that your softphone is not running.
John Mallery says:
We have encountered the same problem running IChat AV under Mac OS X 10.3.6 and Xten-Vonage Softphone 2.0 release 1103d stamp 14130.
Worse yet, I’m paying $10/month for this softphone to interfere with IChat AV!
November 13th, 2004 at 1:01 am
Tony says:
I’m having the almost the same damn problem. Only the message I get is that it’s because I cancelled, not the other party.
I don’t have any softphone software…
July 8th, 2005 at 11:24 pm
Hasnain says:
Exact same issue. I just got the isync and was very excited to use ichat av. when i start the video mode, after a while it says “failed to start because hasnain did not respond” What is going on?
August 1st, 2005 at 2:08 pm
score says:
Anyone get further with this issue? Am trying to use ichat - text no problem, but audio and video same deal….did not respond, and vise versa!
October 8th, 2005 at 10:55 am
Diggory says:
If you’re not using a softphone - then the problem is probably due to a firewall blocking the communication.
You (or your network administrator) will need to open some ports on the firewall.
see here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93208
October 11th, 2005 at 10:25 am
Kees Prins says:
I never used softphone.
All ports are open. (no firewall).
Problem: failed to start, because I (!!?) did not respond.
Provider is: KPN (Netherlands).
On a local net: no problem
Between MCI as ISP and UMTS provider: no problem.
HELP, HELP, HELP
November 2nd, 2005 at 2:50 pm
Han Zuyderwijk says:
Same problem here! I also tried turning off the Firewall (both on my Mac as on our Gateway). No success…
Also have KPN as provider…
I am also interested in the solution.
November 7th, 2005 at 5:27 pm
Diggory says:
Sorry - I’ve no idea why you might be having problems with KPN -
The best place to look for solutions would be either Apple’s Support/Discussions:
http://www.apple.com/support/ichat/
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@956.JSlwagdyUJf.0@ichatav
Or, I find the MacNN forums very useful:
http://forums.macnn.com
Good Luck, I hope you find a solution.
November 7th, 2005 at 5:39 pm
ouchman says:
me too . . .
I’m using a G4 powerbook titanium with 10.4.3
At home I can use my iSight no problem but at my second location I get the “did not respond” error message -
This happnes using a
Speedtouch 530 modem (ADSL)
I’ve tried the speedtouch support, the ISP support and as soon as I mention I use a Mac they say “unsuported - it has to be the modem as the harware combination works fine at home.
I can get to the diagnostics page of the modem via my browser but no one can tell me what to do to open up the ports!
Help!
November 21st, 2005 at 5:21 am
Diggory says:
Ouchman - I’d suggest getting rid of the modem and getting a proper router (preferably wireless.)
November 22nd, 2005 at 12:51 pm
heyther says:
hey i was just wondering what i can do to make my ichat audio work. I do not have a firewall up, i dont understand all of the port discussion that goes on about this stuff, but i do know that my freind has the exacct same computer a powerbook G4 10.4.3 system and we have the same settings (i have compared them) and her ichat audio works while mine doesnt. We have the exact same modem and cable internet provider. whats wrong?
December 11th, 2005 at 9:32 pm
Doug says:
When A initiates an AV chat with B, I always get “Failed to start because failed to respond”. The other person gets the same error with their nick.
What’s agrivating is that I can imediately initiate an AV conference with someone else (person C). That both B and C can then initiate AV chats between them.
So it seems like it’s something specific between the computers A and B (not network related).
May 17th, 2006 at 3:26 am
Jesse Wilson says:
There’s some useful strategies here:
http://homepage.mac.com/scottomacuser/help/iChat/iChat.html
June 6th, 2006 at 6:20 am
Patsy Callaghan says:
Did anyone come up with new tricks on this? I’ve upgraded my router (Linksys WRT54GX, wireless), I’ve tried new accounts, and all we get is “Communication Error” and ‘failed to respond.” The link above to the “useful strategies” doesn’t work any more.
July 7th, 2006 at 8:29 pm
luisa says:
Hi trying to find a solution to an ichat problem. I am on a MacBook Pro running Mac OS X, version 10.4.7 with iChat AV 3.1.5 tryint to connect to an eMac running Mac OS X, version 10.3.9 with iChat AV 2.1.
We keep getting the same error “There was a communication error during your chat” when we are trying to connect to do a video chat, it doesn’t connect and we don’t get to chat it just comes up with the same error message. If you can please help with this problem that would be fantastic. Thank you for your time.
August 4th, 2006 at 3:27 pm
arnila says:
I have exactly the same problem. I have been video chatting with my friend in Australia and it worked fine the first week. Now, we keep getting the communication error and it keeps saying that I failed to respond. He gets the same error message. We did not change anything in our computer settings, so it’s very strange that it worked fine first and now it doesn’t. I hope someone finds a solution.
August 24th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
Steve in Minne says:
Same problem here. Never had seen this error before. Now I can’t get past it.
October 13th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Dawn says:
Same problem here - I am on MacBook iChat 3.1.5 and other party is on same iChat with an older machine but same OS. At home with comcast and a complex hookup with Vonage and wireless router - no problem. Other “wireless” provided location we can’t get together. Although I can easily video with sis on Macbook Pro. No firewall yada yada. Go figure.
November 9th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Gundisalvus says:
I have had the same problem after buying a MacBook (Intel Core 2 Duo). Previously no problems on a PowerBook G4. I have been getting the ‘did not respond’ and ‘refused to connect’ problems. I found a solution that has worked for me. Give it a try maybe it also works for you. The original source is from the iChat discussion forum: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=787242&tstart=0
— This is the solution —-
Log on to AIM on port 443 rather than port 5190. Yo do this, follow these steps:
Go to IChat > Preferences > Accounts.
Log out of AIM and then use the Server Settings tab
Set the port to 443.
Log back in again.
———– end of solution ——
After making this small change, I can voice-chat and video-chat on my MacBook as I used to do it on my PowerBook. Interestingly, I also noticed that if you change back to the 5190 port (after changing to 443 once), voice and video chats still work. Hope this solves the problem for those many out there having the ‘did not respond’ and ‘refused to connect’ problems. By the way, voice and video chats work fine for me with two different wireless routers (two different locations) which in principle do not support macs.
December 28th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
fish says:
man, i was hoping that would fix this issue for me - but no dice. still getting errors.
August 22nd, 2007 at 2:28 am
georgie says:
me too! I’m starting to think cheaper things like MSN are a lot better…
October 20th, 2007 at 12:27 am