iChat stops responding or "Could not connect to Rendezvous" appears (Mac OS X 10.2)

Besides the message "Could not connect to Rendezvous. Login failed: couldn't open session" appearing, one of these things might happen:

• Starting a chat or file transfer from your Rendezvous Buddy list does not work. You may see an empty, white chat window.
• iChat displays a spinning disc cursor and is unresponsive.

The first and easiest solution is to restart, then try to login to iChat. If the issue is resolved, you don't need to do anything else.

If it isn't fixed, it might be caused by not having the Mac OS X BSD Subsystem installed. It is installed as part of a default installation, unless you chose to perform a custom installation that excluded the BSD Subsystem package. If this is your situation, you must install the BSD Subsystem software. See "Mac OS X 10.2: How to Install the BSD Subsystem After Mac OS X 10.2" for more information.

Finally, the Mac OS X Firewall, found in the Sharing preferences, can block the port used for local iChat traffic (port 5298). Firewall blocks this port in its default configuration. Follow these steps:

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click Sharing.
3. Click the Firewall tab.
4. Click Stop.
5. Click the New button.
6. Choose Other from the Port Name pop-up menu.
7. In the Port Number field, type: 5298
8. In the Description field, type: "Rendezvous"
9. Click OK.
10. Click Start.