Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Back To My Mac Stopped Working

I can log into MobileMe fine, but trying to turn on BTMM gets me an error message which says, "Back To My Mac isn't working properly because of a problem accessing MobileMe. A firewall or router may be preventing access, or the MobileMe server is temporarily unavailable."

On the advice of "SnoopDog," who patrols the MobileMe group on Apple Discussions, I did an mDNS Responder search in Console's system log. Snoop then reported that I have "the dreaded 'SSLHandshake failed: -9813' error." Rebooting should fix it, he suggested, at least temporarily. No luck, though, after many reboots and explorations with the Airport utility.

I didn't turn up anything useful on Google.

I connect through an Airport Extreme. Am wondering if a reset to factory settings, then setting up again with the Airport Utility would help.

BTMM had been working beautifully. I don't know if this is a Snow Leopard issue. Hopefully I can fix it, or Apple posts a fix soon. I have to clean up a mess I made on my sister's Mac using screen sharing!

Thanks for any suggestions.

Hmmm? I just checked BTMM on my IMac and on my MacBook Air, both running OS X 10.6.2. The iMac, much to my surprise, showed the same message your Mac is showing while the MacBook Air said, "Back to My Mac: On".

As both connect to the internet and MobileMe via the same WiFi network that eliminated anything in the network such as the Airport or the DSL modem. The only thing I could think of was in System Preferences > MobileMe > Back To My Mac I clicked the Stop button, entered my password when prompted, then after it had completely shut down I clicked on the Start button and Back To My Mac is now ON.

That sounds like too simple a solution, but since it worked for me, it is certainly worth a try. Hope it works for you, I know what my sister's attitude would be had I messed up her computer and failed to clean up my mess. It is not pretty to contemplate.

No luck here after resetting the router. I am wondering if the modem needs to be shut down briefly.

Did you try joemike's suggested approach?

Yes, I've tried that many times over the last few days.

Will see what happens Wednesday AM following some BTMM maintenance at Apple tonight. The 10.6.3 update will be here soon, too.

Other than BTMM, MobileMe is working.

check routers and wireless (anything that routes) and make sure uPNP is enabled.

You may end up needing to map ports.

Thanks. Did not find any uPNP settings in either the Airport Utility or the Airport Network preference panes. I believe it's built into the Airport Extreme.

I do see options for port mapping. If that is needed, I invite some direction. (I tried a public router in a local cafe yesterday and got the same error message about a router, firewall, or Apple server problem.)

Everything else is working well. I don't want to create any more problems by getting over my head.

Have had some problems with security certificates not being trusted. Also VerizonWireless and some other sites have loaded in Safari without any images, just links and some text. Is there a connection with MobileMe being confused about who I am? (Verizon loads fine in Firefox.)

I'm going to look into other ways of doing screen sharing.

all three of the airports (1 extreme 2 express) are set to bridged and uPNP is not a bridged option otherwise I'd check. But iirc it's under "advanced" or "gaming". A lot of the non apple routers put it under gaming.

I have what is perhaps the most interesting question, why did BTMM quit working when it was working before? The fact it works for other users, such as myself, running OS X 10.6.2 would seem to eliminate Snowy as the culprit. Did the failure occur concurrently with the installation of Snow Leopard, ie. you were running Leopard and it worked then installed Snow Leopard and BTMM never worked after that or was BTMM working under Snow Leopard then quit at some point?

Yes uPNP compatibility is built into your Airport Extreme Base Station, but depending on how the AEBS connects to the internet the uPNP may be blocked by your modem and/or router before it ever reaches your AEBS.

In my case the 2-Wire modem/router provided by AT&T does not support uPNP and there is no way to change that. So through the 2-Wire setup routine I disabled its WiFi function altogether and configured the router to pass everything through an ethernet connection directly to my Airport Extreme Base station without any filtering, NAT, etc. It treats the AEBS as an unprotected or demilitarized zone. Everything else routes off of the AEBS WiFi network. Essentially the Airport Extreme (or it could be an Airport Express) is seeing the internet directly and vice-versa. Since the AEBS is uPNP compatible, BTMM works like a champ even though the 3-Wire modem/router does not support it.[{list]
[*]Who is your ISP? [*]Is this a DSL, cable, or satellite broadband connection? [*]what make and model modem or modem/router do you have?
[/list]
With the answers to these question perhaps I, or someone else, can offer some guidance on how to setup your network to re-enable BTMM.

Since my sister (whose screen I need to operate) has been able to get BTMM to start following a Snow Leopard upgrade, the problem is somewhere on this end. On this end, MobileMe will log in; but BTMM won't start.

Router is an Apple Airport Extreme just a few months old. It had been dealing fine with BTMM.

ISP is DSLExtreme.

Okay it does sound as if the problem is most likely on your end but your network is not entirely exonerated. Unless your ISP has run ethernet directly to your location (unlikely unless you are in a dormitory or apartment) there will be a DSL modem between your AEBS and where the network enters your premises. That modem could be blocking the uPNP. There is also the possibility your ISP has elected to block uPNP as a security measure to protect Windows users on their network from hacker exploits.

I know you did a lot of troubleshooting but you haven't done this, try creating a new account on your computer. (System Preferences > Accounts and click on the plus sign (+) at the bottom of the list of accounts). Setup the new account to connect with your MobileMe account and see if BTMM works in this new account. If it does work then the problem is isolated to your regular user account on your computer. At least that will narrow the solution space.

joemikeb - Thanks for that suggestion which I will try later.

The good news is that I was just able to get screen sharing going without my BTMM started:

Typing Comm-K in the Finder brings up a 'Connect To Server' dialogue. I used my sister's IP address to enter a "vpn://__________" address, then entered the username and password for myself which I'd originally created on her machine in BTMM. (I suppose that IP address could change, but at least it appears I can resume tech support without the agonies of voice overload.)

So with my BTMM not on, it worked. I noticed that hers WAS on, but I've still to learn if that makes a difference.

More to come.

I used my sister's IP address to enter a "vpn://__________" address,

wow... didn't know you could DO that. I will have to play...

What I've yet to experiment with is just what my sister needs to have turned on at her end, i.e. MobileMe and BTMM, just MobileMe, or neither.

I did use the user name and password for BTMM which I'd entered on her machine.

I don't know enough about IP addresses to know if we'll need to keep checking to see if that changes. She's on a Comcast modem.

Assuming your sister is configured using DHCP, her "lease" will be periodically renewed and she may or may not get the same IP address each time.

While this does not answer the question of why you cannot turn BTMM on, when I am "fixing" other Macs I generally use the iChat Screen Sharing instead of BTMM. The other Macs do not have to be logged onto my MobileMe account and in addition to being able to share and control their screens, I can voice chat with them at the same time. The procedure is easy to initiate:

1. Assuming both parties have iChat and are using their MobileMe account as their AIM identity each launches iChat
2. I select the other party on the AIM Buddy List in iChat and click on the screen sharing icon (two overlapping windows)
3. When prompted I check to box to share the other person's screen
4. A popup appears on the other persons screen indicating I wish to share their screen
5. They click on accept and their screen appears on my desktop and we are in voice chat mode.
6. Depending on the other person's settings in System Preferences > Sharing I can then pretty well do anything I want on their computer and even better we can talk about what I am doing and what their problem is.

Thanks for the iChat suggestion. Since I seldom use it I didn't know screen sharing is available. Will look into that, assuming using my MM login info on her end will enable her to open a Chat. She doesn't have a MM account of her own.

Today I was able to screen share without my sister's Mac being signed into MM. Though some experimentation will tease out what's needed, and what's not. And when. Possible IP address issue still to be discovered.

For voice, I've been in the habit of using Skype on my Mac to call her landline. Hands-free operation makes a big difference.

My sister has very little tolerance for tech support, even with screen sharing, so may take a while to tease out what works.

Good luck. It took me fifteen years to get my sister to consider getting a Mac.

After much travail my Mac is once again whole.

The initial problem was the failure of MobileMe's "Back To My Mac" to start. (No green light.) That was followed by Safari loading some websites without graphics, and asking endlessly to verify security certificates. (Firefox was fine on that score.)

Two attempted re-installations of Safari (one downloaded, the next from the Snow Leopard disk), failed. I followed this with a failed reinstall of the 10.6.2 Combo Updater downloaded from Apple.

Finally, a full install of 10.6 from the Snow Leopard disk fixed all three problems, with no complications arising from applying the 10.6.2 Combo Updater and the subsequent software updates.

Exactly what was the source of the problem remains a mystery.

I did discover an additional and simpler way to do screen sharing with the Finder's Command-K (Connect to server…) capability. (It may be faster than using MobileMe.) Tech support for my sister should now be a bit less irritating to her. ("Show me, don't tell me.")


Back in business. Thanks all for your suggestions.