iChat firewall question

A coworker and I tested two iSight cameras at work with iChat. He used
his .mac account and I used my AIM account and we connected fine. He
was running 10.4.4 on a G4 tower and I had 10.3.5 on a G4 laptop.

He said when he has tried in the past he cannot make an iChat connection
to his son's .mac account when he is at work and his son is at home, it
never makes the connection.

So it made us wonder:

1. Does the firewall at work affect the iChat connection if one of the
viewers is outside the firewall, but not if both viewers are inside?

2. When we are able to connect inside the firewall is all the video data
packets going up to the Mac and AIM servers? We are concerned about
security and having proprietary information outside the company.

3. Can Windows users connect to a Mac user who is iChat? Is there iChat
for Windows or something similar.

4. My last question I just answered on my own, which is I can use my
Sony Camcorder with iChat, it doesn't have to be an iSight camera.


Any help would be appreciated, as you can tell I'm new to iChat.

Thanks

bloomite writes:
>
> 1. Does the firewall at work affect the iChat connection if one of the
> viewers is outside the firewall, but not if both viewers are inside?

Probably.

Firewalls typically block all incoming connections, but allow most
outbound connections.

When you're text-chatting you typically connect to AOL's AIM server, as
does the other party. So you're both making outbound connections.

When you set up a direct-AIM text connection, or any kind of audio or
video chat, one party opens a connection directly to the other party.
Which means someone needs to have a firewall rule in place to allow the
inbound connection.

I think the protocols are smart enough to attempt the connection with
either party playing the role of server, to allow the service to work as
long as one party is not firewalled. If both are, however, the
connection probably won't go through.

> 2. When we are able to connect inside the firewall is all the video data
> packets going up to the Mac and AIM servers? We are concerned about
> security and having proprietary information outside the company.

Audio and video should be going through direct connections. But if
you're not sure, it should be easy to use a packet sniffer of some kind
to be certain.

> 3. Can Windows users connect to a Mac user who is iChat? Is there iChat
> for Windows or something similar.

There is not, but AOL makes Instant Messenger for Windows. It is
compatible with iChat. I know text chats work just fine. It's my
understanding that they also support audio and video (but only
two-way chats, not multi-way.)

> 4. My last question I just answered on my own, which is I can use my
> Sony Camcorder with iChat, it doesn't have to be an iSight camera.

Don't know for sure about this. It's my understanding that third-party
cameras don't work out of the box, but they can be made to work with
some minor software installation.

-- David