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iChat does not equal Rendezvous
Authored by: fletcherpenney on Apr 09, '03 10:42:31AM

First, I believe the original post should substitute iChat instead of Rendezvous almost every time it is used. iChat is Apple's program that allows both AIM compatibility, and local chatting without a central server using Rendezvous. Rendezvous is Apple's implementation of ZeroConf - a means of allowing computers to set-up a network without relying on adminstrators or special services such as DNS server, etc. (This is definitely an oversimplification). Rendezvous is NOT an Instant Messaging protocol.

More importantly, I too noticed that I could not use iChat for local messages without modifying the firewall. Note that this is different from connecting to an AIM server, which does not require any modifications. The rendezvous portion of iChat allows it to detect other people on your local network using iChat, regardless of whether they are logged into AIM or not. It is actually 2 different chat programs working in parallel. Once I opened my firewall to port 5299, my computers were able to chat locally using iChat and without access to the internet to reach an AIM server.

As for the other comment, I agree that the other forms of Rendezvous Apps mentioned (Apple's mod_rendezvous, or the other (I can't remember the author right now, Hydra, Printer Sharing, AFP servers, etc) do not require firewall changes, as long as the appropriate server is allowed (HTTP for mod_rendezvous, etc)

From what I have been able to tell, Rendezvous works by creating "fake" domain names for local DNS without a central DNS server (such as BIND). The names are something like:
My_Home_Page._http._tcp._local. You do not need any firewall access to discover this (or it is allowed by default), but you DO need firewall access to reach the web server on this computer.

I am not sure if this clarifies things, or makes it more complicated... ;)



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iChat does not equal Rendezvous - Typo
Authored by: fletcherpenney on Apr 09, '03 10:45:30AM

CORRECTION.
I allowed access on port 5298, not 5299. And not 5289 as the original poster used, though I have not tried this. I have seen both 5289 and 5298 used on various web pages, and it is possible they both work, or many people keep making the same typo.



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use http port?
Authored by: Lizard_King on Apr 09, '03 06:21:34PM

I have to configure my AIM clients at work to use port 80 (http) because our corporate firewall blocks AIM's standard ports. Can't you just configure iChat to use port 80 instead?



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iChat does not equal Rendezvous
Authored by: adriaant on Apr 09, '03 06:32:32PM

Erm, Hydra does require you to open a port as well in the firewall (see their homepage's FAQ).



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