I am a DISH dealer and installer. I have run into my first problem with MAC equipment. I have a customer with MAC's and he wants to chat with i-Chat to family members. It seems that WildBlue will not allow him to chat through the i-Chat program. Is there a way around this problem or am I going to have to go take the system out because he is not satisfied? Please advise if you have any ideas that work. Thanks.
WildBlue and i-Chat Compatibility
- Thread starter Midas42
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with satellite modems, the bandwidth speed starts out slow and will then slowly begin to progress as needed. iChat looks for a highspeed connection right off the spot, and there is too much latency in the modems performance, and before the modem winds up its bandwidth ability iChat will fail with the bandwidth error.
whatcha gotta do is get the modem wound up before you launch iChat. go to a site with streaming video, like youtube for instance, start watching a video, wait for the modem to kick in its bandwidth capability and for the video to come in without being choppy, then attempt to log in to iChat.
pretty much, the wildblue modem has an extreme case of turbo lag. and its not just wildblue, hughs net is the same way. so even if the dude does want his wildblue removed, he will have the same result with hughs. and i doubt he has dsl or cable modem access if he is using wildblue. by the way, will chew through his bandwidth allowance really quick if he uses the video chat feature often. keep in mind he only has a 7.5 gig download limit on the cheapest package and 17 gigs on the highest end. and with his upload thresholds even being lower, 2.3 gigs low package and 5 gigs high package, he will be at his limit really quick.
whatcha gotta do is get the modem wound up before you launch iChat. go to a site with streaming video, like youtube for instance, start watching a video, wait for the modem to kick in its bandwidth capability and for the video to come in without being choppy, then attempt to log in to iChat.
pretty much, the wildblue modem has an extreme case of turbo lag. and its not just wildblue, hughs net is the same way. so even if the dude does want his wildblue removed, he will have the same result with hughs. and i doubt he has dsl or cable modem access if he is using wildblue. by the way, will chew through his bandwidth allowance really quick if he uses the video chat feature often. keep in mind he only has a 7.5 gig download limit on the cheapest package and 17 gigs on the highest end. and with his upload thresholds even being lower, 2.3 gigs low package and 5 gigs high package, he will be at his limit really quick.
The lag is not caused by the modem. It is the latency inherent in the distance between the ground and the satellite. There are 2 hops for a 2-way conversation.
In iChat Preferences/Accounts, check the server and port that are entered. The default server should be login.oscar.aol.com and the default port should be 5190.
If that doesn't help, try marking the Require SSL checkbox which will change to a different host and change the port to 443.
There's also this thread, but it's not very useful:
Apple - Support - Discussions - iChat AV not working with Wildblue ...
Finally, there are good alternatives to iChat that you might investigate. Adium is my favorite (Adium - Download). The only drawback is that it does not support video chat.
Jeff
Satellite Internet is an oxymoron because of the inherent latency. Despite WildBlue's attempts to mask the issue, it can't change the speed of light or reduce the distance between the Earth and Geostationary satellites. 
In most cases, if you can get your cell phone to work, you can get a cellular internet connection that is faster than WildBlue's best shot for about the same price. Even AT&T's slowest EDGE network beats WildBlue for nearly everything except raw downloads. IMHO WildBlue (and HughesNet) is the last resort for bandwidth in the boonies.
FWIW I had WildBlue for a little over a year before the transceiver on the dish failed the 2nd time and the sat modem failed. We celebrated converting the old WB sat dish into a bird bath
Talon Dancer
p.s. Go to the WildBlue site and read the FAQs carefully. You'll find that they only intend their service to be used for E-mail and browsing-- not iChat, not streaming video, not gaming, not ....
Go to WildBlue Uncensored ! Satellite Support Forums - Powered by vBulletin for the real skinny on what does or does not work with WildBlue.
In most cases, if you can get your cell phone to work, you can get a cellular internet connection that is faster than WildBlue's best shot for about the same price. Even AT&T's slowest EDGE network beats WildBlue for nearly everything except raw downloads. IMHO WildBlue (and HughesNet) is the last resort for bandwidth in the boonies. FWIW I had WildBlue for a little over a year before the transceiver on the dish failed the 2nd time and the sat modem failed. We celebrated converting the old WB sat dish into a bird bath
Talon Dancer
p.s. Go to the WildBlue site and read the FAQs carefully. You'll find that they only intend their service to be used for E-mail and browsing-- not iChat, not streaming video, not gaming, not ....
Go to WildBlue Uncensored ! Satellite Support Forums - Powered by vBulletin for the real skinny on what does or does not work with WildBlue.
WildBlue ain't exactly fit for iChat. I'd get Adium instead...it's been my IM client of choice ever since the day I got a Mac.
Satellite Internet is an oxymoron because of the inherent latency. Despite WildBlue's attempts to mask the issue, it can't change the speed of light or reduce the distance between the Earth and Geostationary satellites.
FWIW I had WildBlue for a little over a year before the transceiver on the dish failed the 2nd time and the sat modem failed. We celebrated converting the old WB sat dish into a bird bath
Talon Dancer
p.s. Go to the WildBlue site and read the FAQs carefully. You'll find that they only intend their service to be used for E-mail and browsing-- not iChat, not streaming video, not gaming, not ....
Agreed, and well put. We won't install WB for anyone who can get anything other than dialup. We turn people down every day that are looking for an alternative to dsl or cable.
When WB first came out they used to tout their latency compared to HughesNet. WB was 600-700 ms and Hughes was 900+. Then, to squeeze more users in, they started staggering packets per user and ping when to 1200-2000ms
and then they claimed they never maid any promises about ping. At 600-700ms you actually could play some online games, but not at almost 2 secs.WB is definitely better than dial-up, but that isn't saying a lot.
I too had Wildblue for about a year before DSL came along and had nothing but problems. I've lost count with respect to how many service calls I've had which almost always ended up with the repairman replacing something since he really had no idea what the problem was.
As previously stated in this thread, raw downloads were generally acceptable but that was about it. Latency issues caused severe delays in loading web pages and other back and forth communication, not to mention frequent packet losses and PC lockups.
Some days it would be marginally acceptable and some days you couldn't do anything, and did I mention their Tech support is pretty worthless.
All this for a service that's more expensive than any other kind of service (except possibly ISDN but who uses that anymore?). Anyone who would choose any satellite internet service over cable or DSL (if available) needs their head examined.
The conclusion? Wildblue (and Hughs) is better than dial-up but that's about it.
P.S. There are other satellite services available that would accomodate I-Chat, VPN, etc. but be prepared to pay the much higher fees.
As previously stated in this thread, raw downloads were generally acceptable but that was about it. Latency issues caused severe delays in loading web pages and other back and forth communication, not to mention frequent packet losses and PC lockups.
Some days it would be marginally acceptable and some days you couldn't do anything, and did I mention their Tech support is pretty worthless.
All this for a service that's more expensive than any other kind of service (except possibly ISDN but who uses that anymore?). Anyone who would choose any satellite internet service over cable or DSL (if available) needs their head examined.
The conclusion? Wildblue (and Hughs) is better than dial-up but that's about it.
P.S. There are other satellite services available that would accomodate I-Chat, VPN, etc. but be prepared to pay the much higher fees.
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