MAC PROBLEMS And concerns?

[Michelle P.R.G.D.]

This may not be in the right categoriy because it is more of a operating system question but it still kind of fits into software. I am on a mac and I have bnever been worried about viruses etc.... should I be? is the viruses spreadin gover to mac? I know from before that viruses and such were usually just on the pc for obvious reason.

I guess just in general, what are things mac user should be aware of etc????

Michelle, P.R.G.D.



'We strive to exceed your expectations'

[D-Zine]

I think you should always be cautious of viruses whether you are on a mac or a pc. There are far less viruses for Mac but its not impossible to get one. I would still have virus software running if i were you bc new viruses come out all the time.

Power to the Oldschoolers

[PrintDriver]

Just last week while cleaning off some old zip disks I found in a desk drawer, I ran into the old Autostart Worm that infected Macs about 4 years ago. The virus software snapped it right off. Clients may send you disks with who knows what on them.

Also, Macs can serve as carriers for PC viruses. If you get an infected attachment and forward it along to your buddies who have PC's they will thank you.

Most newer virus software for Macs also checks now for PC viruses

Always keep a 'safe zone' folder that is always watched by your virus software and point your browser and ftp utility to that one folder for anything that you download from the net, from clients ftp servers, or even a client's CD or zip.

As to which software to get...tough one. I'm still running Norton Antivirus on my receiving machine but that machine is not on OSX. And not everyone can have just one machine on their network be a receiver of files. This is changing for me soon, as our department is experiencing the upgrade pains of OSX changeover.

There have been a lot of reports about NAV conflicts with other programs and you want to be DARN sure you shut it off while loading new software. There are other virus programs out there for Mac. Macaffee is still around and I remember one called Sophos. I haven't used either of those on a mac but do use Macafee on our PC's. Even your ISP may have a 'free' one but generally speaking, if an ISP even knows how to connect to a Mac, let alone offer virus, spam or ad-blocker protection for it, consider yourself lucky. LOL.

PD is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

[defjoe]

I get alot of stuff from variuos sources at work. I have never had an issue, EVER (actually in my whole time working with a Mac). Now with that being said... I'm very cautious anyway. I never open email which looks liek spam of some sort. also I have an ad blocker up on my browser.

'I will become the most powerful Jedi ever!'
'I'm the damn designer, bitches!'

Check out my indie comic book!
www.assassinsguild.net/ (http://www.assassinsguild.net/)

[Michelle P.R.G.D.]

Thanks for all your posts. I have never had a problem with my mac and i ave been on a mac for the last 4 years or so. I was sort of getting concerend when my computer started slowing down and i know it is not lack of ram or anything. This actualy happened right after i downloaded the osx system update?. weird, i wasnt concerned about where i downloaded it from because it came from the ystem update program that runs perisodically. hmmmmmmm

Michelle, P.R.G.D.



'We strive to exceed your expectations'

[Michelle P.R.G.D.]

Does anyone know where i could download a trial version on norton?
i trid there site but they only had pc dowloads.

Michelle, P.R.G.D.



'We strive to exceed your expectations'

[PrintDriver]

Hmmm... Would that be the 10.3.7 update?
It's buggy.
Norton may actually make the problem worse.

Is is slow just on start up, like the menu bar taking forever and email send/receive slowdown?
There are a million reports on MacFixit about it. And just as many fix attempts.

A lot of it has to do with DHCP settings and whether or not you repaired permissions BEFORE and after the update. Also, Airport on/off, external firewire drives, filled caches, plists...and the list goes on. Mine is still slow after trying all the fixes except for a few root level things I've been leery about so the choice right now is to wait and hope they fix it in update .8 or go back to .5 or .6. And going back isn't easy unless you have a backup disk image...

PD is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

[PrintDriver]

ah, I see 10.3.8 is out.
Will give it a shot. Can't get any worse and I'd just love to spend the rest of my evening figuring out what's wrong now...

PD is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

[Michelle P.R.G.D.]

Thanks PD that is exactly my problem!!!!
i think i did upgrade to 10.3.8 still the same.. which i never upgraded at all grrrr..... another problem i have been havibng latly is with internet explorer, it keeps crashing, well bsically crashing, more of a freeze actaull, but just on loading stuff, the actuall explorer moves etc....

another thing i noticed is my prgrams crash a lot, expecially word, illustrator does it a lot also, and for some reason my quark had to be reinstalled?
hmmmmm

Michelle, P.R.G.D.



'We strive to exceed your expectations'

[PrintDriver]

Ditch IE. It isn't being supported anymore for the Mac.
Try Firefox or use Safari if you can.
It sounds like you have your internet DNS settings messed up from the 10.3.7 update. I really can't tell you how to fix that.
After reading about 10.3.8 I had to decide not to install it quite yet. Too many people having troubles. It's always a good idea to read VersionTracker and the Apple Discussion forums before doing an install.
Did you do the combo? or the auto-update?

How much ram do you have? Word, expecially WordX is a ram hog.

Before reinstalling next time, try trashing prefs. Try that for Illustrator also.

Sorry for your troubles. It may get to the point you have to reinstall Panther. Errr. That is always a pain in the ass. That'll teach me not to do a backup just this one time. Naturally. Good Luck.

PD is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

[Lonepine]

I just read an article in last months Macworld magazine. They rated Intego's Virus Barrier as very good. Here is a link to it if you want to check it out. Not sure if they offer a demo. http://www.intego.com/virusbarrier/

[Michelle P.R.G.D.]

Oh really IE isnt supprted anymore for mac. Well that makes sence why safari works on the homepage and ie doesnt. I do not like safari at all, but I will try firefox.
I had downloaded the combo a while ago and then a nmew update had come out shortly after and I downloaded that also. I wish I would have read this stuff first instead of just downloading it /DesktopModules/dotNetBB/emoticons/mad.gif
I have 384 of Ram. and i do have word x. Wow your great you have nailed all my problems exaclty.
I guess I better do a backup just incase of all my files. GRRRRRR

Thanks for your help PD

Michelle, P.R.G.D.



'We strive to exceed your expectations'

[Michelle P.R.G.D.]

Thnks for the link LonePine I will check it out.

Michelle, P.R.G.D.



'We strive to exceed your expectations'

[Michelle P.R.G.D.]

is there any way to get rid of th eupgrade? maybe by finding the file???

Michelle, P.R.G.D.



'We strive to exceed your expectations'

[PrintDriver]

You really can't get rid of the upgrade. It overwrites the system. Many people will do a system backup if they have the space before they run an upgrade. I didn't have the space before 10.3.7 and, well... Murphy's law strikes again.

As for Ram, these days you really need at least 512 but a gig is better for design work. More if your machine and pocketbook will handle it.
I don't think you really have anything virally wrong with your machine, it's just getting bogged down. More ram may do the trick.

These may help your internet problems:
this article at Apple
docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106798 (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106798)
links to this article at Apple
docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106797 (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106797)

If you can't figure it out, at least point your IT help desk at it and maybe it will give them a reference to start troubleshooting.

PD is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

Post Edited (PD) : 2/22/2005 1:29:02 AM GMT

[Silence04]

having virus protection runing in the background will greatly reduce your performance.
just check for viruses once every couple months from the CD if you really need to.

but otherwise i wouldn't worry about it, i don't think there is a known virus for OS X yet.

as for the speed/performance issue...
your lucky your on a mac cause all the maintinancing is built right into the OS, all you need to know are these 3 things:

CRON scripts - Apps>Utilites>Terminal: type... sudo periodic daily... sudo periodic weekly... sudo periodic monthly (sudo stands for System Utilities Do, cleans out your caches, etc... you only need to run these if you DON'T leave your mac running 24/7, if you DO leave your mac on 24/7 OS X automatically runs the daily every day at 3am, runs weekly every Saturday, and runs Monthly the first monday of the month...).. btw, you can actually re-assign new times for OS X to automatically run these, but it takes some skill within the Terminal.

FSCK - Hold Command+S at start up and type 'FSCK -F'... or 'FSCK -' for more options (you especially need to do this right after a Kernel Panic, otherwise every month or so) if you get errors on the disk, keep typing FSCK -F until the errors are gone.

Repairing Disk Permissions - Apps>Utilities>Disk Utility (do this every other week to a month)


after getting in a habbit of doing all those, you'll find your speed/performance issues will have virtually dissappeared... i sure know mine have. ;D

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Post Edited (Silence04) : 2/22/2005 1:42:22 AM GMT

[PrintDriver]

I just use Onyx.
Why mess with Terminal?
Repairing Disk Permissions should also be done before and after installing new software or updates.

BTW, since when did Mac users have to be tech whizzes in order to keep their machines running. Didn't used to be that way. LOL!

PD is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

[Silence04]

'why mess with Terminal?'

cause it makes you feel smart, thats why....LOL

<SUP>www.jdcgraphics.net (http://www.jdcgraphics.net/)<SUP>- currentlyunder construction
http://www.jdcgraphics.net/banner.gif

[BOSCOW]

IF you want to get rid of you rupgrade you can just do an archived install, to put it back to your CD OS and then do what you want, and you will keep all your work, etc.

[Michelle P.R.G.D.]

Thanks everyone I will try all this. The prpblems keep comong though. NOW IE doesnt work on my mac and so I have to use firefox or safari, thats ok i guiess but my hotmail email wont allow me to attach anythign because i am not in a supported browser. WISH THE WORLD WOULD CATCH UP AND STOP CATERING TO PC'S!!!!!!

Michelle, P.R.G.D.



'We strive to exceed your expectations'

[D-Zine]

Haa..my dad always told me wish in one hand and shite in the other :lol:

http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/DesktopModules/dotNetBB/emoticons/ph34r.gif

Seriously tho at work I'm on a Mac and use Safari and it lets me attatch files there. Maybe it needs updated or something.

Power to the Oldschoolers

[Silence04]

why not just set up your hotmail account in Mail?

<SUP>www.jdcgraphics.net (http://www.jdcgraphics.net/)<SUP>- currentlyunder construction
http://www.jdcgraphics.net/banner.gif

[Michelle P.R.G.D.]

yeah maybe it needs an upgraded i will check it out. My email is not workng anymore either, the one i use with entoruage... PROBLEM AFETR PROBLEM

so break down
1. computer boots really slow
2. programs crash
3. interent explorer doesnt work
4. hotmail in browser wont let me attach messages
5. business email is not recieving messages
6. JUST EVERYTHING!!!!!!!

geez!!!!!!!!!

Michelle, P.R.G.D.



'We strive to exceed your expectations'

[D-Zine]

Back up and reformat! When all else fails, start from scratch and make her good as new!

Power to the Oldschoolers