iChat problems!

So my friend and I are both trying to connect with iChat with our macbooks, but it says theres a communication error! Both of us accept the invitations, but it says "starting video chat" then gives the communication error. Why?

what type of connections are both of you guys running? i know video chats can be temperamental if both connections aren't sufficient.

you mention "both of us accept the invitations"; only one of you should need to send a request to have a video chat, the other should accept.

yeah one sends, the other accepts. my friend said he connects fine with his roomate who also has a macbook... could it be my school's firewall? No audio or video is possible... yet I can do AIM audio chat through AIM only. When I run AIM through iChat, not even the audio works....

iChatAV and hotels?

I cannot get connected when I am on a wireless network in a hotel. My family accepts at home, but we get a communication failure, just like mentioned above. "Friends" have told me it is because of a firewall config at the hotel, though I cannot verify this. These friends told me that if I can get a "public" ip from the hotel network, it might help... no luck so far. dying to video chat with my family, since I'm gone half of the year.

I have tried skype for mac with video and the audio works great, the video won't work at all - it crashed skype on my computer.

Would love to hear some suggestions to work-around the alleged firewall issue with hotel networks.