How do I Set up iChat ...?
Why doesn't my router work...?
What Ports Required and Why?
but Black screen in chat.
Redirect to Error Message page.
These iChat 3 ) pages are coloured Orange and have the iChat 3 icon on them that was in use at the time, so you know where you are. The icon differs from Version 1 by having the camera logo added and from IChat 2 by having the Running Man removed.
iChat made it's it way into the Apple Application fold in about 2003 with the first version. We are talking at the time of Jaguar (10.2.x).
At that point it was just a basic AIM client. That means that Apple developed an application that worked with other Clients that use the AIM Service. They came to an agreement with AIM that @mac.com email IDs would be recognized by the AIM Servers as valid AIM screen names (See iChat 4 section about changes to @mac.com/.mac).
Then comes iChatAV (iChat vers 2). It came initially as a Beta and then as a $29.00 Add-on application for 10.2.x (Had to be 10.2.5 or above though). What it added was the ability to do Audio only and Video Chats with similar equipped Buddies (AIM went A/V for PCs around the same time). It was free with Panther (10.3.x).
iChat 3 adds Multichating to Video and Audio only chats. It also adds a much improved Group system in the Buddy list allowing them to be displayed in Groups.
Multi-Video chats can be between up to 4 buddies (you and three others. Audio Only chats can be between up to 10 Buddies.
iChat 3 also adds the ability to use Jabber IDs creating a thrid Buddy List that can be on view. If you have a Googlemail ID and enable GoogleTalk you can use this in iChat.
As with other versions of iChat the Password for any Screen Name has to be 16 Characters or less to be accepted by the AIM Servers for a Log in. As @mac.com (and the newer @me.com) passwords can be longer, this needs to be watched.
As well as these Pages here, help can be found at the Apple Discussion Boards This link is to the Front Index page.
The Boards are hierarchical. You can see from the URL of the page linked that it has the word "category" as part of the URL. The links onwards to the Forums are shown with folders on the Index page. What you will find is that there is often another category level to go through. For instance iChat AV links to here which still has"category" in the URL. At the top of this page are two links but they do not show folders at this Level. (below is a list of Topics to have the most recent posts in them - not all categories do this) These are to the actual Forums (iChat 1 is with iChat 2 and Earlier) where "forum" appears in the URL.
You can not post until you are in a Forum where the New Topic link is or have clicked on a Topic. You also have to be registered with Apple. Apple uses a common ID for iTunes, the Store and the Discussion - so you may have one already.
It has a mixture of basic info and problem solving help.
A small history of iChat and what iChat 3 adds and links to the other pages in the iChat 3 section.
Old browsers (IE version 4 or earlier, Netscape 4 or earlier) should only see a text-based page which, while not the prettiest option, is still entirely usable.
CSS is based on Comic from Ruthsarian Layouts.
© Ralph Johns and others where credited.