ziehensack9

Thanks for the info Tim. It's a relief to know I can use my external hard disc for the basic stuff.

And I've finally made my decision and ordered myself the iMac yesterday. Although it was the mac mini that got me thinking about switching to mac from pc (that and frequent crashes that drive me up the wall!) I decided that I might be happier for longer with the iMac - especially when it comes to doing video related stuff. It just seems the more capable of the 2.

Anyway I can't wait for it to arrive and I'm counting the days already!

RMCF

I am a happy icebook owner, and looking to getting a mini.
Also have a Sony laptop to go with it

oz-nom

You're welcome.



I'm sure you'll love it. The specs for the current iMac are quite impressive (I'd love a G5!). My iMac G4 is 2 & 1/2 years old now & works a charm. Not to say there have never been problems (it is a computer after all), but most of them have been software related, not OS. I had a system freeze (quaintly called a "kernel panic") for the 1st time in over 12 months last week while installing some software. And that is the only problem I've had since installing OSX 10.3 last December. It's just so stable. And any problems I have had are NOTHING compared to the grief my Pentium based Windows system gave me...

If I didn't love my 17" flowerpot so much I'd be jealous

Cheers,
Tim

exNewt

To put it in perspective, my biggest concern is the security/virus issue. I actually bought my own laptop (15" Al book) for my job, as my employer does not support Macs (except for MarCom, Graphic Design, product desing in Finland, etc.). Anyway, I use Virtual PC for the only thing not on a Mac - Access databases. Anyway... regarding security/viruses; there are two anecdotes I can relate.

One was about a year ago when one of the Windrows worm/viruses came out and apparently caues the update site at MicroSot to be inaccessible. Our MIS team had set up a local server with the file, and were quite literally running office to office to set up and install the patch. I remember the Manager of the MIS dept (we're friends, his daughter had to buy a Mac for school and he was "impressed") running into my office, doing a double take at my computer, saying "sh*t, sh*t, that's a Mac" and running to the next office to fix them!

I was on a trip to a business in CO, and before I could hook into the wired network their MIS folks had to check my laptop, as they had been DOWN FOR 3 DAYS after a Winblows virus e-mail attack. The guy walked in, saw the Apple logo on the laptop, asked "OS X?"; I replied "yes", he said "you're okay" and left.

__________________
original Newton+Moto flipfone+adapter->Newt 2100+NovaTel Merlin->Newt 2100+Visor Prism/Visorphone->UX50+Moto RAZR GPRS->iPhone->iPhone 3G

MOBLOG - http://www.flickr.com/photos/opusmark/

-- Global Warming? I worry about the Permian Extinction repeating! --

ziehensack9

I'm now waiting impatiently for my iMac. It was shipped on Friday from Shanghai so hopefully I'll have it by early next week!

Anyway, just wondering if anyone can recommend a download manager for the mac? I've been using reget on the PC but I don't think there's a mac version available.

oz-nom

I use Speed Download 2 and am very happy with it.
Cheers,
Tim

SAXONIK

Agreed, Speed Download 2 is the one for Macs.

oz-nom

ziehesack9 - got your new mac yet?

ziehensack9

Sorry about the delay in replying. I didn't get an email notification of your post.

Anyway, my iMac finally arrived on Thursday and I have to say I'm thrilled with it. I still have a lot to learn but it's so much nicer to work on than the pc. Everything works like a dream, it's intuitive and OSX looks amazing.

I have a few questions though - what do you do about internet security?
Do you (or anyone else!) have anti-virus software installed or any kind of utility like Norton Systemworks for defragmenting etc?

Also, I haven't quite got to grips yet with uninstalling things. I installed Firefox to see what it's like and dragged to the trash what I thought was the installer file but I seem to have deleted Firefox too. Which ending do the actual apps and installer files have?

ok, one more thing before I leave you in peace! I think the mac is having problems with my Maxtor external hard drive which is in FAT32 format.
When I installed it I was asked if I wanted to reformat it in HFS (?) but I sadi no in order to keep my data. When I've transferred all my stuff to the mac would you recommend reformatting it just for use on the mac or could I try the other Windows fromat of NTFS?

Any help is greatly appreciated! Cheers.

nickms

For file maintenence and defrag. Norton is nice. However, anti virus is unecessary. There are no real viri for Mac OS X. Symantec is going to discontinue producing anti virus software for Mac. You might also consider Techtool Pro or Drive X for file sytem maintenence.

Applications end in .app but, you'll probably never see the file extension. Highlight a file and select Get Info from the file menu to see a file's details or press apple+i on your keyboard. The "disk image" file you downloaded contains the Firefox application. Just drag the application inside the .dmg file to your Applications directory and then drag it to the dock.

If you want to use your drive with Windows and Mac CPUs then leave it FAT formatted. Mac will read Windows volumes. Windows will not read mac volumes. So much for MS' interoperability.

Congragulations on your new mac. However, I hope you realise that you have impinged on the livelyhood of numerous IT personel, anti virus software authors, virus authors, spyware/adware authors, and Microsoft. What will all these people do with oneless Windows user to prey on.

sungecko

congratulations on the imac! welcome to the lighter side of life. i've used both for my professional life, and you can't pay me enough to go back to the wintel world.

as for your question, look at system preferences/sharing. the OS has a built in firewall that should always be "ON". you can always allow the services you choose to open ports (that even you choose).

also, depending on your internet connection and network, get a hub with another firewall in it (say linksys). then the world will only see the linksys box and not your computer. layering, that's what its all about, layering. when it's cold, don't just go out with one big thick jacket, wear layers for the most flexible options. good luck.

Joel

It's a shameless plug but visit our other site BYODKM.net. There have been many tips and tricks discussed which are aimed at new switchers. Even if it's a site for Mac mini fans, there's always a lot to learn about OS X.

Congratulations on your new Mac! I've been using a Powerbook and have recently bought a Mac mini.

ziehensack9

Thanks for all the advice guys. The firewall is now switched on!

Checked out the mac mini site again Joel and posted yet another query there

oz-nom

Congrats your new Mac. Welcome to the brighter world of computing...

I do have Norton Anti-virus installed. Some (like Joel) recommend not using an anti-vrius app. Personally, I feel more comfortable using one, but then again, I've yet to hear of a real live Mac virus. I'd recommend you switch the Mac's internal firewall on. Others can better advise you than me about that, but I found it relatively painless.

As for defragmenting, I did use Norton until about a week ago. Australian Macworld published a small article about whether defragging Macs was needed, especially those running Panther (10.3). In short, their finding was no, for most users it was unnecessary with disk journalling enabled (default setting). However they did recommend defrag if you work with very large files (huge photoshop files or digital video). I'd be curious to know what others think of this (perhaps in a new thread?). Anyway, I've stopped doing nightly defrags and will probably do it once a month or so.

I can't remember for certain, but I think that Firefox comes on a "virtual" disk (a .dmg file). Drag the application from the virtual disk to your applications folder (or wherever else you want it) then you can delete the dmg file.

As for your hard disk, if you're only going to use it with the Mac, then yes, I'd reformat. If there's a chance you'll keep using it with a Windows PC then I'd leave it as is. Your iMac should have no probs with Fat32.

Cheers,
Tim

EDIT: I should have read the whole thread b4 posting. Sorry fo r the duplication. Nice to know we're consistent though...