Can't remember where I first stumbled upon
this article, but it is a very interesting read on how Skype punches holes in firewalls and makes video/audio chat work for the user anyway it can.
At work, I have to use Skype on OS X if I want to get a video chat going with someone outside the network, it's the only thing that
just works.
iChat only uses
SIP, and it is a shame it does because I would love to have it's H.264 encoded video all the time instead of Skype's barely YouTube quality. The network admins are not allowing the SIP ports out.
I actually filed a
bug with Apple (which requires a freee Apple Developer Connection account) to ask for a feature request to work like Skype when punching holes in firewalls.
![I'm Batman!](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vmMpdwk5T_wlmwm-5gI8Fzn30wsB2uwap2QM0dglKNgoWmuCu-D0_T61NbAj8uGPwVn-KYbQJ4dx_45ZdTj8XgwCGGSc6s25jhtctUhZnYVkrTV4jucXYFJe5LqUyaBZxaQQG1QgYkMQ=s0-d)
It may not matter all that much if iChat gets the functionality though, because since
Adium hit 1.0 I have swithed over to it exclusively for all instant messaging. One app and I put the multitude of IM accounts in and it works great. I must confess too, the fact that I can change over the icon to be a duck dressed up like Batman, that flaps the cap when I get an IM, priceless.