Getting Messenger to work for Mac's on campus

Whelo10

I know people have had problems with this before, but i still cant get messenger to work on campus at all...unless its web messenger which sucks! I've noticed a lot more people using mac's on campus as well which is good to see, and was hoping somebody knew how to get this working! I've tried changing proxies before but to no avail!! Any help would be much appreciated!!

Red Alert

Make sure that your proxies are set in your system preferences - so you need to go to Network, then click Airport, then Proxies tab and enter 'using a PAC file' and enter http://proxy.ucd.ie/proxy.pac as the address. Then restart the network (or the machine) and restart messenger.

Whelo10

Hey Red Alert, i've tried what you said, but the same error came up, i can connect using web messenger alright, but both adium and messenger for mac both failed to connect...dont understand why this aint working

Red Alert

Try the wired network if you're registered on it - that definitely does work for me. There does seem to be some issue with the WLAN MSN for mac - if I've time on my way home I'll try this from the laptop area.

gubbie

Ah I really should just walk to your office but I'm on the 3rd floor and I'll come down when I'm stuck with my circuits but...

Mine doesn't work either. I've got normal ass windows xp though but it just won't work. Any ideas mister smart?

fillefatale

Messenger on mac, works for me an odd time.. but it insists I download the new version each time i sign in, which i do, bt it persists in showing up.

Vorsprung

This question should be a stickie!

Whelo10

I've never tried the WLAN, dont even know if i have the cable to be honest! My msn worked for a split second in the lib the other day then dropped, theres no logic behind it! Nd i agree with the previos stickie comment!!

MistressPandora

Have you tried perhaps going into one of the IT Centres and asking nicely?

Whelo10

Many a time, all they check is the proxy settings, they dont know how to fix the prob on mac's, well at least the guy i was talking 2 didn't!!

Breezer

I tried this in vain for several weeks last year. Tried Adium, MSN for Mac, aMSN, God knows what else. Pidgin on Linux had the same problem. In the end I remembered I was supposed to be studying for a degree and gave up.

My solution was to run the Windows version via VMWare Fusion. Not much of a solution but if you have that option it works

dewey101

have you tried the meebo thingy on the library's homepage?

fillefatale

I was in the Daed building and I overheard one of the IT guys that messenger services don't work over the wireless system. Yet my roomie with a pc can get it to work in belgrove and the odd time it works for me on my mac.

Whelo10

Yeah i gave the Meebo thing a bash last year, but it was the same prob, it would connect alright, but then drop minutes later...im starting to think this could be a lost cause!!

fillefatale

fillefatale wrote: »

I was in the Daed building and I overheard one of the IT guys that messenger services don't work over the wireless system. Yet my roomie with a pc can get it to work in belgrove and the odd time it works for me on my mac.

I was in Daed today and messenger worked fine, same in Roebuck.

MistressPandora

They can work fine on Macs...if you have the right settings.

Breezer

MistressPandora wrote: »

They can work fine on Macs...if you have the right settings.

And they would be?

Red Alert

This might be a sign that it's time for the SU IT officer or Education officer to try and make Mac a normal supported platform in the college. It has a sizeable enough chunk of usage, but Computer Services Management appeared to use Mac OS X as an excuse to discontinue support citing it as a 'UNIX OS'. In fact they recommended people use Mac OS 9 in preference rather than treating it as an opportunity for giving front line staff some simple new skills.

fillefatale

Breezer wrote: »

And they would be?

I'm in Belgrove on WLAN and its working fine.

Cannibal Ox

Anyone know if AIM or iChat works? Or is it just MSN? I might give the proxy thing a shot Red Alert suggested tomorrow because I've tried everything else and gotten no where.

fillefatale

Cannibal Ox wrote: »

Anyone know if AIM or iChat works? Or is it just MSN? I might give the proxy thing a shot Red Alert suggested tomorrow because I've tried everything else and gotten no where.

aim doesn't work for me, just msn

Hunty

How do u even get messenger to work on any of the PCs in any of thee computer rooms??

Whelo10

AIM doesnt work either, Bonjour on iChat works fine though, i've only ever used web messenger on the computers on campus, not sure if they let ye download windows live messenger on2 them...This place really has to start catering for mac's!!

Tigrrrr

Hunty wrote: »

How do u even get messenger to work on any of the PCs in any of thee computer rooms??

http://www.webmessenger.msn.com (it's crap!) and allow the popups. I don't think there's another way unless you have a laptop/ ibook

Red Alert

There definitely is a problem on the WaveLAN with MSN Messenger for Mac. I've tried everything including manually setting proxy servers both in system preferences and in MSN Messenger itself. Computer services if you are reading this can you please sort this out?

Breezer

Red Alert wrote: »

There definitely is a problem on the WaveLAN with MSN Messenger for Mac. I've tried everything including manually setting proxy servers both in system preferences and in MSN Messenger itself. Computer services if you are reading this can you please sort this out?

Well it seems to have improved since last year. Set it to use proxy.ucd.ie and port 8585 (not the usual 8484) and it not only connects, it doesn't crash the second a contact comes online the way it used to, AND it sends messages Too bad it can't receive any :rolleyes:

fillefatale

I notice that it works best after 12am.. which isn't of much use to those who live off campus.

Whelo10

I'm in the library now, and its working!! For the time being anyways!! I manually changed the proxy settings in messenger to proxy.ucd.ie and changed the port to 8585, not sure if this will work all around campus.....hang on, its just dropped on me!!! NOOOOO!!:mad: Ah lord....thought i had cracked it!! Guess not

Cannibal Ox

I had a look around the old interweb and apprently MSN not connecting on macs over wireless networks isn't something new. I've had a look through the MSN newsgroups but haven't found any real solutions (most of them invovle deleting preferences, unclicking the remember password box, e-mailing microsoft support).

Linky...type in wireless in the search box and it'll pull up a bunch of threads with the same problem. Basically, from what I've read, I don't think UCD tech support will have the answer.

Red Alert

Yes they have - let MSN go through the router. Seen as it works on my own WLAN at home and as far as MSN is concerned the wireless LAN is just another network interface (like ethernet or token ring) I think the problem is that UCD have a draconian firewall policy.

MistressPandora

Hunty wrote: »

How do u even get messenger to work on any of the PCs in any of thee computer rooms??

You can't. Not one bit.
We've had questions about this before and it's not possible on those machines because of the way they're reimaged. Your best bet is to just use web messenger.
Hang on, you're all students, aren't you guys supposed to be studying or something?

Red Alert

If the machine's image included MSN there wouldn't be a problem, because I re-image Win XP machines at home and the image includes MSN.

PennyLane

MistressPandora wrote: »

Hang on, you're all students, aren't you guys supposed to be studying or something?

Well, there's those of us in the dorms who would like to occasionally be doing other things. And then there's those of us in the dorms who are international students and would like to do things like use Skype, which doesn't seem to get along with the proxies either, at least on Macs.

Breezer

Hmm, should I be worried that no one has started yelling at us all to use 'proper PCs' the way they did the last time I brought this up?

Red Alert

I think the slight increase in mac market share has knocked that one on the head. CS should have a network that works, not one that just serves their self-appointed role as policemen. The messenger port should be open - full stop.

Notorious

I think its ridiculous that comp services block the MSN ports. Think there is a perfectly valid reason behind it?
I'm using Pidgin and setting the port to 8585 and using HTTP method I connect perfectly. The connection to MSN drops occasionally, but after around 5 sec., it'll have connected again.
Whelo10, have you tried using Adium yet? Maybe give that a shot with the port setttings?

Breezer

Adium doesn't work at all in UCD in my experience. If this was working I wouldn't care about MSN messenger

Whelo10

Whelo10, have you tried using Adium yet? Maybe give that a shot with the port setttings? [/QUOTE]

Yeah im always on Adium, its never worked in ucd, the closest ive gotten to it working, was using the 8585 port using msn, but that only lasted 2mins

OTNiner

PennyLane wrote: »

Well, there's those of us in the dorms who would like to occasionally be doing other things. And then there's those of us in the dorms who are international students and would like to do things like use Skype, which doesn't seem to get along with the proxies either, at least on Macs.

Has anyone logged this as a formal call with IT Services?

perhaps MistressPandora can shed some light on this?

given they report on top issues / calls to the help desk under performance

http://www.ucd.ie/itservices/itplanning/itperformance/

logging a sufficient number of calls should generate a response

MistressPandora

OTNiner wrote: »

Has anyone logged this as a formal call with IT Services?

perhaps MistressPandora can shed some light on this?

given they report on top issues / calls to the help desk under performance

http://www.ucd.ie/itservices/itplanning/itperformance/

logging a sufficient number of calls should generate a response

AFAIK I haven't heard anybody logging calls, but a few people came into the centre when term started asking about getting Skype and MSN set up, but nothing about Aduim etc.
And as for my earlier post where I asked if you're all supposed to be studying, t'was a joke. Personally I believe you should be able to connect to messenger in UCD, but maybe the higher-ups think it'd slow down the server. And considering how slow it can get between noon and 4pm (mostly from people using Bebo from what I see), it's not surprising why they think that.

OTNiner

PennyLane wrote: »

Well, there's those of us in the dorms who would like to occasionally be doing other things. And then there's those of us in the dorms who are international students and would like to do things like use Skype, which doesn't seem to get along with the proxies either, at least on Macs.

Skype om MAC has a problem with autodetect proxy settings - set the proxy to proxy.ucd.ie on port 84848 or 8585

Give it time to connect, the skype client allways tries to connect directly to the internet and only when this fails / times out will it attempt to connect through the proxy server