iCam does not work on Mac Mini running OS X 10.6.3

[jzmn27]

I have 2 computers connected to the same router: a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.5.8 and a Mac Mini running 10.6.3.  I can get the MacBook Pro to work fine. But the Mac Mini just will not work.  Here is my setup:

Both are connected to the same wireless router.  Both have the same permissions and open ports on the router.  Both have the software firewall activated with the exact same settings.

I have 3 cameras hooked to the mini - 2 HP USB webcams and 1 Airlink wireless IP cam.  All of these cameras function perfectly when connected to the Macbook.  I have 3 instances of iCamSource launching at login.  They will start but even though each instance has Auto Start checked, none of the instances will actually "start" when launched.  Each instance has to be opened and started manually.  This is bug #1.

No camera attached to the Mini will communicate with the iCam servers.  I have the same username and password for the Macbook and the mini.  When I go to the iPhone, the camera on the Macbook is there but the ones from the Mini are not.

After wrestling with this 3 months ago to no avail, I set it aside having reached the conclusion that I had screwed up my user accounts somehow and the iCamSource application was running under one user account and a different account was controlling the connection to the internet.  I decided to wipe the Mini clean and rebuild it from scratch.  I completed this last night.

Nothing.  The iCamSource launches at login but doesn't start.  When I start it manually, I can see the camera through the preferences screen but it will not communicate with the iCam servers and thereby will not communicate to the iPhone.

With all of this, I've concluded one thing -- iCam works on a Macbook Pro running 10.5.8 and does not work on a Mini running 10.6.3.  Those are the only variables -- the hardware platform and the OS.  If there's something else at work, it is completely buried from my view.  I am running iCamSource 1.4.2 on both machines.  I have not loaded the 1.4.2.5 beta and will not unless someone can articulate why the version I have will not work with my configuration and why the beta version will.

I have been very impressed with the app....when it works.  I'm at the end of my rope and ready to go find another solution to meet my needs.  One last chance, guys - any suggestions?

[OUAnthony]

You have different UDP ports open for each computer on the router, right? Each computer with icamsource needs several (5 I think) ports. I have 2 computers and was having issues until I read the port forwarding posts and opened up 10 ports on the router (5 for each computer). Did you also enable the ports in icamsource?

Initially I was only able to connect to one computer. After correctly configuring the port forwarding, everything started working great.

[jzmn27]

I read the port forwarding posts but I don't understand why my Macbook is working fine when I have zero UDP ports open on my router?

[Stefan]

I am assuming that you are having problems connecting to the mini iCamSources when your iPhone is connected to the same local network, correct? If that is the case then port forwarding isn't the issue, since that only has to do with connections coming from external networks into your local network.

If you just run the Mac mini iCamSources and not the MacBook Pro one, do you see "No Sources Found" or "Source Connection Error" when attempting to connect? If it is "No Sources Found" then the iCamSources aren't communicating with the iCam Broker Server. If it is "Source Connection Error" then something is blocking the peer-to-peer connection between iCam and the iCamSources.

If all of your devices are connecting to the same WiFi router, are they also connecting to the same WiFi network / SSID? Some routers allow you to have a "guest" WiFi network in additional to the primary one that is kept separate from the primary.

If you could go to http://whatismyipaddress.com/ from the mini and e-mail support@skjm.com what it says your external IP address is then I can attempt to look it up in the Broker Server logs and hopefully troubleshoot the problem. Please reference this forum post in your e-mail.

[jzmn27]

You are correct.  I cannot connect from my iPhone as a Wi-Fi connection or 3G.  When running only the Mini cameras, the iPhone reports No Sources found.