iChat AV echo test accounts

I’ve been troubleshooting a friend’s iChat AV setup – he’s not able to have an audio or video conversation with anyone. Oddly enough, I seem to have recently lost that ability too. Stepping through the problem, I want to find an account to connect to that I know works.

I’ve searched high and low, but I couldn’t find any simple test accounts that echo back what I send, or at least send out some audio and video. This morning, as I was doing an unrelated search, I came across a discussion that divulged three test accounts, provided by Apple:

• appleu3test01* appleu3test02* appleu3test03

Add them as AIM accounts to your iChat buddy list, and connect to them. Apparently, they will send some Apple propaganda. I wouldn’t know, because I can’t connect at work for reasons I don’t yet understand.