OS X Mountain Lion Pocket Guide (18 page)
Read OS X Mountain Lion Pocket Guide Online
Authors: Chris Seibold
Tags: #COMPUTERS / Operating Systems / Macintosh
Instead of setting up mail accounts in Mail, juggling
calendars in iCal, and so on, this pane lets you set up your accounts
once in a centralized location. Messages, Mail, Address Book, and other
apps use the information you enter here to keep you current.
When you first open this pane, it will look on your Mac for email
and chat accounts and automatically add them. If you’re setting up a new
Mac, this pane comes with iCloud, Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, Yahoo!,
Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo, and AOL accounts preconfigured, so if you’re
using one of those (and you probably are), just click it in the list.
When you do, a window will pop up asking for your name, email address,
and password. Once you’ve supplied your credentials, you’re allowed to
check the services you want to use from that provider (mail, calendars
and reminders, Messages and notes).
If your service isn’t listed, click Add Other Account (at the
bottom of the list) and get ready to do a little bit of work. The
prelisted services all provide calendars, chat, contact, and mail
accounts; to get the same functions from another service, you’ll have to
set these up individually.
You can guess what this preference pane does: it controls
your network configuration. At the top of the pane is the Location menu.
By default, it’s set to Automatic, but if you use your Mac in more than
one place, you might want to add a location. To do so, pick Edit
Locations from this menu; in the window that appears, click the + sign
and then add your location.
On the left side of the Network pane, you’ll see all the
ways your Mac can connect to the network (typically WiFi, Ethernet, and
FireWire, but this can vary according to the model of your Mac). If a
network is connected, it’ll have a green light next to it (unconnected
networks have red lights). It’s possible to have more than one active
network connection—a WiFi connection and an Ethernet connection,
perhaps. If that’s the case, you can drag the connections around in the
list to match your preferred order of connecting. For example, dragging
Ethernet to the top will force your Mac to use the Ethernet connection
before the WiFi connection.
To the right of the list of networks, you’ll find
information about and options for your current network. This is where
you can find your IP address and settings related to the kind of
connection you’re using (like a Turn Wi-Fi Off button, for example). For
wired networks, you get to pick how you want to configure IPv4 (you can
get this information from your ISP, but most use DCHP, and your Mac will
be able to take care of this for you). You’ll also see an Advanced
button that you can click to bring up six different tabs. Configuring
these tabs usually isn’t necessary and is beyond the scope of this
book.
The best thing about the Network preference pane is the “Assist
me” button at the bottom of it. If you’re having problems setting up
your network, clicking this button and following the directions will
likely solve them. The Revert button, as you can guess, will undo any
changes you’ve made to your network settings, and Apply tells the
preference pane to implement your changes.
Predictably, this is the go-to panel if you’re using a
Bluetooth device or if you want to display a Bluetooth status icon in
your menu bar. This panel includes a list of all the discoverable
Bluetooth devices nearby (in other words, ones your Mac can connect to)
and their current connection statuses. If you click the Sharing Setup
button, you’ll open the Sharing preference pane (described next). If you
click the Advanced button, you’ll get the following options:
Open Bluetooth Setup Assistant at startup if no keyboard is
detectedOpen Bluetooth Setup Assistant at startup if no mouse or
trackpad is detectedAllow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer
Reject incoming audio requests
The descriptions below each option explain what they’re for.
You’ll also find an area that lists (and allows you to adjust) Bluetooth
devices that use serial ports on your Mac.
This preference pane allows you to share a variety of
files and bits of hardware over your network (all of these options are
off by default):
- DVD or CD Sharing
This option lets other computers use the optical
drive in your Mac. There’s also a checkbox to have your Mac ask
you before anyone accesses its optical drive.- Screen Sharing
Allows other computers to view your screen and
control your computer over the network. You can specify which
users are allowed to connect or allow all users. If you’d like to
let people connect from non-Mac computers, click Computer Settings
and then enable the
VNC (Virtual Network Computing) option; they’ll need
a VNC client such as RealVNC or TightVNC for this to work.- File Sharing
File sharing allows others to access your shared
files over the network, which is a nifty way to trade files. If
you turn this option on, make sure you create a strong
password.With file sharing turned on, users on other computers have a
few ways to connect to your machine. If those users are on the
same local network, they can get to your computer by heading to
the Finder’s menu bar and choosing Go
→
Connect to Server. The address they’ll
need to access your computer is your Mac’s name with
.local
appended.It may be even easier than that, though. OS X
features a zero-configuration networking protocol called Bonjour.
Folks who have Bonjour will see other computers that they can
access in the sidebar of their Finder windows.Either way, users will have to supply a username and
password to connect. (You may want to set up a sharing-only user
for this—see
User Accounts
).If you want to access your files from another Mac while away
from your home or work network, you can use Back to My Mac (see
Back to My Mac
).- Printer Sharing
Checking this box turns your Mac into a print
server. That means that, if you’re on a laptop and want to print
something in the basement, say, you won’t have to haul your
carcass over to the printer or even send the file to the Mac
connected to the printer for later printing. Just check the
Printer Sharing box on the Mac that’s hooked up to the printer and
you can print from anywhere on your local area network.- Scanner Sharing
This is Printer Sharing’s less-used little brother,
and it works in much the same way: if you’ve got a scanner
connected to the host Mac, you can use it from a remote computer.- Remote Login
This lets users connect to your Mac over
SSH (secure shell). To do that, they’ll need to open
a Terminal window (Applications
→
Utilities
→
Terminal) and either use the
ssh
command-line utility or select
Shell
→
New Remote
Connection.- Remote Management
If you have a copy of Apple Remote Desktop and want
to use it to connect to your Mac, make sure this box is checked.
(Remote Management is a lot like screen sharing except that it’s
designed for people controlling more than one Mac at a time, as
you might find in a classroom setting.)- Remote Apple Events
Checking this box will let other Macs send Apple
Events to your computer. What are Apple Events? They are wide
ranging, but just about anything AppleScript can do can be an
Apple Event.- Internet Sharing
This setting lets you share your Internet connection
with other computers. You can choose to share a wired connection
via AirPort or share an AirPort connection with another computer
wired to yours. If you’re doing the former, you can choose to add
some security measures.- Bluetooth Sharing
Checking this box allows Bluetooth devices to interact with
your Mac. The options here let you customize your Mac’s behavior
when receiving files, designate a folder for the files your Mac
accepts over Bluetooth, set browsing behavior, and designate which
folders users can browse on your Mac.
You can use this preference pane to manage the accounts on
your Mac—if you’re an administrator, that is. To add or delete accounts,
use the + and − buttons under the list of users. (For a complete
discussion of managing accounts, see
User Accounts
.)
Clicking Login Options at the bottom of the list of users
lets you enable or disable automatic login and choose what appears in
the login window: the “Name and password” setting is more secure than
“List of users” because it means that anyone trying to get into your Mac
will need to guess both a username
and
password.
You also get to decide whether to include Restart, Sleep, and Shut Down
buttons in the login window; include the Input menu in the login window;
show password hints; and allow use of VoiceOver in the login
window.
Finally, you can enable fast user switching, which—as its
name implies—lets you switch between accounts without logging out first.
You’ll still need a password to get back to your account, but if an
application was running when you switched users, it’ll be running when
you come back to your account. The drop-down menu next to this setting
lets you view users by full name, short name, or icon. For more on fast
user switching, see
Logging In
.
Fast user switching is nifty, but you might be wondering
if you aren’t better off instead using the Resume feature, which
restarts everything automatically when you log back in. While the end
result is the same, fast user switching is actually a little faster than
Resume because the applications aren’t fully shut down when you use fast
user switching.
Parental Controls are OS X’s way of protecting your kids
while they’re on the Internet. This preference pane takes some of the
worry out of allowing a child to use the Internet unsupervised by
letting you set up a variety of rules and filters that control not only
which sites they can visit but also what programs they can use and even
who they can chat and email with.
While Parental Controls are designed for parents whose kids use
their computers, you can use them to manage any user who isn’t an
administrator.
If you haven’t set up any additional accounts on your machine
(meaning that the only account is your Administrator account), then when
you first open this pane, you’ll see a message telling you “There are no
user accounts to manage.” You can then choose to create a new user
account with parental controls or convert the account you’re currently
logged into as one with parental controls. If you pick the former, when
you click Continue, you’ll see
boxes you can fill in to create a new user. If you pick the latter,
you’ll be asked to create a new Administrator account to replace the
user you’re currently logged in as. Either way, once you’re done filling
in the name and password fields, click Continue.
If you do have additional accounts on your Mac, you’ll see a list
of users on the left side of this pane. Select a user and then click the
Enable Parental Controls button to start setting them up. You’ll also
find an option to “Manage parental controls from another computer” that
allows you to manage the controls from afar (you wouldn’t want to invade
your kids’ space, now would you?).
Either way, you’ll end up with a list of users on the left of the
pane and a set of five tabs on the right. Here’s what each of those tabs
lets you control.
This tab allows you to enable a simplified Finder and
control which applications the user can run. If you’re enabling
content controls, controlling which applications the managed user can
run is essential.
To give particular applications the green light, click the box
next to Limit Applications and then use the settings underneath it to
choose applications. Turn off the “Allow User to Modify the Dock”
checkbox to revoke that privilege. Clicking the Logs button reveals
where your kid has been going, shows where she’s tried to go, and
gives you access to her Messages transcripts. See something you don’t
like? Hit the Block button at the bottom of the window to add the
website or chat participant to the list of blocked sites or
individuals.
This tab is concerned with where people can go while
they’re on the Internet. It offers three levels of control:
- Allow unrestricted access to websites
Clicking this radio button allows this user complete
access to the Web.- Try to limit access to adult websites automatically
If you click this button, OS X will rely on filters and
lists of adult websites and try to block them. It’s surprisingly
accurate. The downside is that the filters also block all https
(secure) websites, so if your teen is doing online banking, she
won’t be able to access her account. To allow a particular site
or specifically exclude a site that isn’t caught by the filter,
click the Customize button.- Allow access to only these websites
This is the most restrictive option. The user can visit
only the sites listed here, which have all been preapproved by
Apple. To add or delete sites, use the + and − buttons below the
list.
The top part of this tab is brand-new and deals with
interactions in the Game Center. The top checkbox allows your child to
join multiplayer games, and the lower checkbox allows your child to
add Game Center friends. Uncheck either of these boxes if you think
this would be a security risk.
This section of the tab limits who the managed user can
interact with via Mail, Messages, or both. Once you’ve checked the
appropriate box(es), you have to approve any person who wants to email
or chat with your kids by clicking the + button and then typing in the
person’s email address and instant messaging information.
This tab lets you set a maximum amount of time the
computer can be used per day and when. Just drag the sliders to set
the durations for weekdays and weekends. Use the Bedtime section to
restrict when the user can be on the computer.
This tab includes five options that let you do the
following: disable use of dictation (hey, they might be taking a
typing class), hide profanity in OS X’s built-in dictionaries, prevent
the user from printing documents, keep the user from burning CDs and
DVDs, and prevent the user from changing the password to his or her
account.