machelpplease said:
...my fire wall is off and my internet sharring is off.
Turn it on (the Firewall)! It's there to protect you from nasty people on the Internet !
;-)
I am in the process of doing a "How do I protect my Mac, post" but in the meantime...
Imagine, that when you connect to the Internet there is a 'big pipe' between your computer and the Internet, within this 'pipe' are hundreds of smaller 'pipes'...
...with me so far ?
So, when you open up your web browser and type in an address this information goes through one of the smaller 'pipes' (pipe 80...the technical term is "port 80"), email goes through another 'pipe' etc !
So from your point of view, most computer users have all the 'outgoing "pipes"' open, so anything you want to do can be done from your Mac, this is the default and how most users have the computers set up.
...but you probably want to stop any 'requests' that come from the internet down those 'pipes' to your computer.
...are you still with me ?
This is where the Firewall comes in !
If configured properly, the Firewall on your Mac effectively makes all those 'pipes' into one way doors, you can send data through them, but people on the other side of the Firewall (the Internet) can not 'come through your door'
The reason Cory was asking about the Firewall, was because for some people when using programs such as iChat with their Firewall active, they can have similar problems to you. So when ever someone has problems with iChat the first course of action it to 'turn' the Firewall off, and see if it works. Then you can turn it back on and 'open' some of the 'pipes' that iChat needs open.
It is not always the case that 'pipes' have to be open for software such as iChat to work, mine works fine with the Firewall completely blocking 'all' incoming connections !
There is an Apple document
here, that explains what ports (pipes) may need to be open.
This how ever may not help, because you have no control of what ports are open on the coffee shops Firewall !
regards
Ric