How to open TCP ports. Problem with skype, facebook chat, msn messenger.

I have just moved from the UK to France and had been banking on using Skype to keep in touch with family and friends.

However, I cannot log in to Skype. The problem is not isolated to Skype though, I cannot login to msn messenger, and although I can access facebook, and it tells me I am appearing available, everyone else appears to be offline to me and they say that they cannot see me either.

I am living in a school with a pedagogical network, but I am on the administrative network without the same restrictions as students and know that Skype can be accessed because I have used it successfully on PCs on the same network.

I have also managed to successfully use my computer with Skype on other networks, i.e. in internet cafes.

So it seems that the problem is not exclusively with my computer or with the network but with the combination of my computer on this network.

I searched the TCP ports needed and the ones needed for Skype are not open on my computer when logged into the network where I live.

Do I need to open the ports on my mac when it is logged into the school network? If so how can I do it? Or do I need to do something different?

Any help very much appreciated. It's my birthday soon and I would love to be able to speak to family! Thanks in advance.

This is not something in your Mac, its the Network Firewalls between your Mac and the Internet. You will have to see your Network Administrator. Or go off campus.

Oh ok. So is it possible for them just to block Macs or is there a reason that mine is the only computer that seems to be blocked? Since all the PCs work with Skype. the network administrator is the local education authority so not sure how much luck I'll have there.

Thanks for replying!

If its just the Mac then you should check how you've got their Network Settings set. Its more likely to be that than anything else. Macs just work.

The one place you could check is System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall should be Off

It's off. Any other ideas?

Not really, as I don't think its your Mac, and the schools Network is a huge unknown. You can't be the only Mac on there network (can you???), find another Mac, see if that works and if so copy its Network Settings.

As I say these services normally just work, if you can get the Web, you can FaceTime, if they don't then they are blocked by the Network Administrator and that's called network security, not something you can "fix".

The other test is to find a Starbucks or Library somewhere with public access to the web and see if it works there.

In iMovie or PhotoBooth does your Camera work?

Haha. I've ended up in the most obscure little town which lives to prove that Starbuck's is not as pervasive as we might have thought!

I think it's quite possible that I'm one of the only macs on the system as most of the computers being used on it have been bought by the schools and are therefore PCs.

I'm pretty sure it is network security. I'm just baffled by the fact that it only blocks me! I think I will try to use Skype on the network on a friend's iphone and see if I have anymore luck.

My camera works, I can send photos. Just not videos. I can't even upload videos to facebook.

So frustrating. The first time I've ever found having a mac to be a disadvantage, cause as you said, it normally just works.