MobileMe Account required to use iChat?

milhaus · Jan 8th, 2009, 09:04 AM

I have MobileMe, but one of my video chat partners signed up for a trial, then cancelled her account before her 60 days was up so she wouldn't get billed. Several sites suggest that you can continue to use iChat with that .mac or .me address after, but she no longer has access to her account via iChat.

These same websites also reference not needing a Credit Card to sign up for the MobileMe account, but that's no longer the case. Has Apple changed its policy?

Any other suggestions? I'd go to Skype 2.8, but the file transfer and sharing features are not as robust as with iChat, and it seems somewhat ludicrous to pay to use iChat when someone clearly doesn't need MMe.

milhaus · Jan 8th, 2009, 09:07 AM

I may have answered my own question, maybe . . .
MobileMe: About expired accounts and iChat
But I'll have to wait until later tonight to actually find out.

Macaholic · Jan 8th, 2009, 10:23 AM

No you do not need to sign up for a MobileMe trial to get onto iChat, nor do you need a credit card. The trick is to sign up for a .mac account and NOT a MobileMe account. The .Mac account is good forever for iChat (and iChat only).

Yup. The "additional information" on your referenced link is the way to go. I sometimes have troubles logging a newly created account in, however. Can;t recall what works when getting an "authentication failed" failed when logging in but try different networks from the pop-up: .Mac, AIM, or MobileMe with and without the domain extender for your new account.

i4detail · Jan 8th, 2009, 10:54 AM

Also, you can just skip the middle man and get an AIM Username, as iChat uses their network. YouTube - Setting Up An iChat AIM Account

MacGenius24 · Jan 8th, 2009, 01:08 PM

yea all you need is a, aim account