Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with internet and osx

Choose Details in OS X

reenum — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:43:43 -0800

Mac OSX Filter: How can I change the details displayed for files in a directory while in list view? This may be a really easy question, but Google has failed me thus far.

When I used XP and viewed directories as lists, I could go to View and then click on 'Choose Details' to pick which file info I wanted displayed.

I can't seem to figure out how to do this on Mac OSX.

The reason I want to do this is because I listen to a lot of podcasts, and the title in the file info is often more instructive than the filename.

Is there any way to 'Choose Details' on Mac OSX?

Laptop connects to wireless network but not to internet

criticalbill — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:50:55 -0800

Laptop (running Vista) connects to home wireless network full strength but not to internet. The other laptop (OS X) connects to internet wirelessly no problem. The Vista laptop can connect the internet via ethernet cable. This seems to be a common problem but i cannot find an appropriate solution The Vista laptop is not new, but it is new to my house; it connected to a wireless network previously.

Things I have discovered while looking through replies to similar questions: The Vista laptop has been assigned the correct IP number (which has a different last digit to the OS X one). DHCP is enabled. Node type is Hybrid. The wireless adapter driver is working. When I try to ipconfig /release it tells me: The requested operation requires elevation.

Latency? This. Is. Infiniteloop!

selfnoise — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:28:23 -0800

Help me try and fix my mother's weird internet/Mac Mini issue. So, my mother has a Mac Mini. This is one of the older PowerPC ones... no wireless. It's connected via a cat5 cable to a ZyXel wireless router, which is then connected to a DSL modem. The problem she has is a delay between requesting a webpage and having it start to load (in any web browser). Since I am a Windows user, I don't know much about Macs, so I am at a loss.

Pertinent factoids:

-When I go to dslreports.com and run a speed test, I get a latency of between 500-900ms, which seems really high.

-When I ping google.com from within OS X's network dialog, however, the latency looks normal.

-My netbook and another Windows PC can connect wirelessly without this issue. I also connected my netbook to the router using the same cat5 cable; no issue.

-I tried setting the DNS servers to opendns instead of the default; no change.

Apparently the system did not originally have this issue. Any ideas?

No mo' Nomadix?

jacob — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:59:00 -0800

Is there a way for me to disable/block Nomadix interstitial pages? I'm staying at a hotel for the next several weeks, and while there's a relatively speedy Internet connection here, the hotel's Nomadix hotspot software inserts an interstitial page titled "Launch the Nomadix Console" after every few requests.

This interstitial page is a minor inconvenience for general web browsing, but when I use other apps (Transmit FTP, Lightroom upload to Flickr, etc.), the page often leads to stalled requests and stopped transfers.

Does anyone know of a way to instruct my computer -- OS X, Leopard, btw -- to ignore these interstitial pages?

Speed suck

zenpop — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:26:54 -0800

Recent Mac software update crippled my online speed/connection. The other day I allowed the Software Updater to run on my iMac. Included in the OSX update was some sort of Airport tweaking as well. Now my connection to the internet has slowed considerably. I've posted 'help' questions on Apple's website and MacFixit. No one answers. I've rebooted both the computer and the cable modem, and router. Nada.

Anyone here have any suggestions? Can I 'undo' the update that happened to Airport in that update? (No, I don't run Time Machine on my computer).

Thanks

Network Knowledge

djgh — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:40:01 -0800

How can I analyse and understand what's going on with my PeerGuardian logs? How can I understand various network commands (e.g. ping, traceroute etc.)? I use PeerGuardian (OS X version), and even when I'm just surfing the internet it's adding to its logs telling me it's blocked various things.

e.g.

Sun Apr 12 2009 23:31:42.447 BST -Blck- 172.xx.xx.xx:xxx (netbios-ns) -> local:xxx (netbios-ns) udp4 'nmbd (xxx)' (Bogon:Ads, Spyware, Bogon, etc)

I'm assuming this means that it's blocked IP 172.xx... from accessing port xxx on my machine?

So taking things a step further, what can I do to work out 'who' this is? I've heard of ping and traceroute, and have a vague understanding of what they do - what else could I use just to gather info for purely academic purposes (i.e. - "ok, I understand what's going on, this black box makes sense to me now", rather than "I want to pwn joo with my l337 skillz!!11!)

Finally, I used to have (back when I was on Windows) what was essentially traceroute on a map (kinda like that scene in Goldeneye when they work out that Boris is in Cuba). Is there anything like that around for OS X? (it looked really cool, even if its utility was suspect)

Diavlogs for the masses!

ecmendenhall — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:17:45 -0800

What's the best way to record split-screen video dialogues to post on my blog? I have recently grown enamored of the budget punditry of bloggingheads.tv, which features hour long conversations between wonky writers, bloggers, and thinkers that make for a refreshing alternative to TV talking heads. Each "diavlog" is essentially a glorified split-screen video chat session that appears to be recorded over Skype, iChat or similar, and later edited together.

But why should the upper echelons of the Web commentariat get to have all the fun? I'd like to create and circulate similar conversations on my own personal Internet, but I'm not entirely sure how to do so.

Unfortunately, Google only serves to confuse, thanks to the constantly changing terminology for video on blogs (am I looking for video blogging? Vlogging? Vodcasting? Video podcasts? Vlogcasting? Diavlogging? Streaming vlogocastalogs!?). All the results that do turn up don't seem to indicate a simple way to do split-screen interviews.

It seems easy enough to record an iChat session, edit it into a splitscreen video, and post it to a site like YouTube or Vimeo. But there are also loads of services offering simple video recording and hosting, many of which can even broadcast live. It's hard to believe none of them can do a split-screen chat between two users, or that a utility for something like this doesn't exist out there in the depths of the Tubes.

So what's the best way to bring bloggingheads-style punditry to the people? I use mostly macs, and I'm not opposed to doing this with iChat + iMovie or final cut or something, but I hope the hive mind can come up with some other ideas. Thanks!

How come my dialup connection in OS X (10.5.x) is so crappy?

jammnrose — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:58:16 -0800

WTF? Dialup on my MBP (OS X 10.5.x) is all wacky. Dialup provider? External USB Modem? Phoneline? Dialup under Leopard is all funky. Upload forms (e.g. posting a picture) do not work under any browser. SSH shells are way too slow. FTP doesn't work (connects fine, but upload is broken/always timesout). Sometimes I'm still connected but I don't get any replies from servers/DNS etc.
10.4.x worked fine, still slow, but not as many problems.

I was away at college for a while (also when I got 10.5). After I've been back is when I've had the problem.

Could this be a problem with 10.5.x or could it be my ISP getting crappy? Problems with the phoneline or house-hookup?
I'm using a MBP with the External USB Modem.

I found a few apple-forum posts with some similar issues with the USB Modem, but mostly system hangs, which is not the case here.
I just have a general sh*t connection.
I've also tried tweaking the TCP settings which don't seem to help.

Are there any tweaks or fixes out there for this sort of thing?

SOCKS proxy on OS X. What a bunch of ocks.

armoured-ant — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:02:37 -0800

I'd like to use certain, specific applications over a SOCKS proxy on OS X. Is this possible? Skype on the Mac, for example, doesn't have proxy settings built in. Is it possible to channel anything Skype does through a proxy, while running everything else over my normal internet connection?

The lowdown on the downloads -- how to stay organized?

Robot Johnny — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:06:11 -0800

How to best organize and maintain my Downloads folder in OS X? Automator tips? My Downloads folder currently has 96 items in it... I know I should just take the time to manually sort and delete/save it all, but I'm curious how other people manage to organize their downloads.

Are there any useful Automator tricks? It would be handy for files older than a week or so to automatically be moved elsewhere, but as far as I can tell, OS X only recognizes a file's created-on date, not its saved-to-this-folder date.

Why a delay when connecting my Mac to the network?

UncleHornHead — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:12:42 -0800

After waking it from sleep, why is there a thirty second delay in connecting my Mac Book Pro to our wireless network? I am powering OSX 10.4.9 and have an Airport Extreme via a cable modem. This has been going on for a while, but last year I could wake my MBP from sleep (open it) and be connected to the net. Is there a simple way to eliminate the delay. I'm impatient.

What say you oh great hive mind?

Mac OSX v Netgear Router

superfurry — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 03:57:41 -0800

Trying to solve a Mac internet disconnection issue. As always there is I have a Mac Mini running OS X 10.4.9 connected to a Netgear DG834G router via an ethernet connection. The router has the latest firmware installed. I also have a Windows XP Pro machine connected. They are both on static IP addresses on the router, though I also tried them on dynamic ones. They have both in the past been connected to this router via wireless and wired connections.

The PC plays along nicely. The Mac has browsing the web issues. Every now and then - actually quite frequently - the Mac gets 'server not found' errors in Firefox, and I have to repeatadly click the Retry button to get it to load the page. Looking at the router logs, the router is maintaining its DSL connection - its the Mac somehow crapping out. Like I said, no such issues on the pc.

I've tried different hardware by swapping the Mac HDD into different machines. I've formatted and re-installed OSX completely. I've tried wired, I've tried wireless. I'm at the end of my tether.

Before I go buying another DSL router, any suggestions or known issues ?

who watches the watchees?

luriete — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 12:07:52 -0800

Can anyone recommend easy to install, cross platform monitoring software for Mac OS X - that is, something that would allow a parent, employer or teacher to, from their PC, monitor the screen of a Macintosh? Will remote desktop do this? Is it relatively easy to install?

My file downloads in OS X are ending unexpectedly

teem — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 09:13:12 -0800

Lately my computer (Powerbook, OS X 10.4.6, wireless ADSL internet) has been giving up halfway through downloading files. What's going on? I'll start downloading a file and before the file is anywhere near completing, Safari (which I use mostly, although firefox gives the same issues) decides that the file is complete and the download appears as 'completed' in the download manager. I've noticed this downloading both large and small files, and also in pre-loading youtube videos (it goes from, say 10% preloaded to believing it's completely preloaded). The youtube thing I'm willing to put down to website problems, but both problems began at the same time.

Although I can't predict what file downloads will be affected, it's not completely random. That is, if it happens to a file once and I try to download that file again it will give up on downloading at almost the same point (this goes for youtube videos as well). Restarting doesn't make a difference. So, once I have a problem with a certain file, it basically means that file is permanently inaccessible to me.

These problems began about a month ago and didn't coincide with any software or hardware changes that I can recall. My computer is a G4 Al Powerbook, running OS X 10.4.6. My internet is ADSL over a wireless network (Apple Airport).

Any idea what's going on, or how to fix it? If not, what can I do to identify where the problem is?

Cross platform video-chat software.

Wild_Eep — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 14:45:14 -0800

I have a Mac (10.4.5), my Dad has a PC (XP Home). We both have cable modems. We want to video chat. What apps can we use together? Bonus points if I can continue to use iChatAV. I've been playing around with my firewire-equipped camcorder this week, and got a one-way video conference going with my Mom some 75 miles away. (She's got a PowerBook). Now my Dad wants to join in the fun and see the grandchildren.

What apps exist for us which are cross platform and decent quality? I've read conflicting reports about AIM for PCs having poor video quality with iChat, when it works at all.

Yes, yes, I know I should just convince Mom to get an iSight, but is there hope for Dad?

Good WYSIWYG web development software for the Mac?

brokekid — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 17:19:45 -0800

I'm looking for very simple WYSIWYG web development software package like JAlbum, Freeway and RapidWeaver. Are there more packages out there that are very similar and very good for the Mac? I do a lot of web design work probono for friends, family and some non-profit. I am looking for software that I can try out to cut my time down even more. Freeway, JAlbum and RapidWeaver are good, but they each are lacking in their own way. Any ideas?

Key-control Firefox like Safari?

ggypsy — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:38:46 -0800

How do I make Firefox's keyboard shortcuts more like Safari's on OS X? I'm used to using [cmd][arrow up] to go to the top of a page, for example, and find it much more intuitive than [fn][pg dwn] on my laptop. Is there an easy way to change Firefox's keyboard shortcuts to match Safari's?

NSPOSIXErrorDomain:13 error in Safari

teem — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 22:15:48 -0800

When I try to access http://apple.com, Safari gives me the following error: "The error was: “POSIX error: Permission denied” (NSPOSIXErrorDomain:13)". What's going on? I'm on a G4 Powerbook running Tiger 10.4.1, accessing the internet with a D-Link DSL-300 modem and an Apple Airport. Safari gives the most descriptive error, but IE and Firefox can't access the same websites, giving me variations on the "Permission denied" error. Even software update doesn't work. When searching for help just a moment ago, I noticed that http://www.hp.com/ also doesn't work.

I've used disk utility to repair my permissions, I've tried moving subdirectories ("Application Support", "Caches", "Preferences") out of my Library folder and logging in again with the defaults, but nothing has helped. No change in software or hardware has coincided with the problem.

Any help would be appreciated.

AirPort not letting me surf

McIntaggart — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 14:33:30 -0800

My Airport Extreme Base Station claims I am connected to the Internet via Ethernet, and yet I am not. We live in Ireland and have recently moved house. In our previous home Internet setup, we had DSL going into our Airport Extreme Base Station (ABS), which then piped Internet access to our two Powerbooks. IIRC, we had an Ethernet cable going from the DSL modem to the ABS LAN connector, and had it set up as PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet). A couple of days before we moved, our Internet access via the ABS stopped working, and we had to use the Ethernet cable directly from the DSL modem to the Powerbook for Internet access.

Now that we are in the new house, we have a cable modem, which is working quite well, but only as long as we connect directly via the Ethernet cable from the cable modem. I have hard reset the ABS any number of times (pressing the reset button on the ABS for over five seconds), then setting up the ABS via Airport Setup Assistant and Airport Admin Utility.

The first time I did this, I connected the Ethernet cable from the cable modem to the LAN connector, but the Admin Utility recommended that I plug the Ethernet cable into the WAN connector instead. I subsequently have run the Airport Setup Assistant as follows: selected “Set up a new Airport Base Station”/selected ”Create a new wireless network”/selected “My AirPort Extreme is connected to a DSL or cable modem”/named both the network and the ABS/selected “No security” as opposed to 128-bit WEP or WPA Personal (I live in a very boring neighbourhood)/selected “I use a DSL or cable modem with a static IP address or DHCP”/entered a password to protect the ABS settings.

I then get a summary of the settings, which includes “Connect Using: Ethernet”, “Configure TCP/IP: Using DHCP”, “IP Address: ”. I click ‘Update’. The Setup Assistant congratulates me, as my ABS is now supposedly configured to access the Internet.

In “System Preferences/Network/Network Status”, it tells me that “AirPort is connected to the network McIntaggart’s Home Network. You are connected to the Internet via AirPort.”

BUT: I open up Safari – no traffic. Firefox – no traffic. Nothing happens. The AirPort TCP/IP settings are set to “Using DHCP”, the IP Address is 10.0.1.3, the Subnet Mask is 255.255.255.0, the Router is 10.0.1.1. There are no DNS Servers and no DHCP Client ID.

Can anyone tell me what I might be doing wrong or in which direction I should be investigating? I’m truly stumped, and any advice/hints/guesses would be most welcome. Thanks, MeFi!

The computer is a G3 900 MHz iBook with an Airport Card (not Extreme), and running Mac OS X 10.3.9. The ABS Firmware is v5.5.1, the Airport Admin Utility is 4.1.

Which Mac OS X Files let Safari securely connect to sites?

John Kenneth Fisher — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 16:38:33 -0800

Which Mac OS X Files let Safari securely connect to sites?

I'd accidentally lost some of my System (my fault) and had to reinstall, etc. to get it back. Looks like everything is working... EXCEPT when I try to connect to https:// sites. gmail, hotmail, whatever.

I have other Macs here, so if anyone knows what frameworks or whatever likely make that work, I can easily copy them over and correct the permissions. But WHICH files? (minimally more inside) Just wanted to append that I did the perms repair, other browsers are working fine, etc.

Using T-Mobile for portable internet connection using a Mac laptop.

weston — Mon, 05 Apr 2004 00:02:44 -0800

Wanted: recommendations about using T-Mobile for portable internet connection using a Mac laptop. [more inside] I've been with T-Mobile for about three years and have been pretty happy with the service. About a year ago, though, I looked at the mobile internet options available through them and decided that nothing there had either the speed or cost I was looking for.

Sprint offered PCS vision enabled phones for less than $50 per month for unlimited access, and while connecting your laptop was a violation of terms of service, if you did it carefully and didn't hog bandwidth, they seemed to look the other way. So I carried that service for about 8 months. The in-phone internet features were OK in a pinch, but I was getting up to 100k of transfer speed sometimes and generally good, reliable connectivity at home and travelling.

Eventually, though, I decided I didn't like other aspects of Sprint's service and I was probably paying too much. So I dropped it.

Recently I noted that T-Mobile has started to offer an "unlimited internet" plan you can add to any phone plan for $20/month. I'm considering signing up for this. Does anyone have information about its speed, reliability, and general utility for use with a laptop? I have a Nokia 5190, so I'll probably have to buy a new phone, too, and could use recommendations as far as that goes.

Taking Notes

MiguelCardoso — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 17:33:38 -0800

It's embarrassing but a real need: Is there a simple one-click way, freely downloadable or hidden somewhere, to keep a permanent notebook while surfing and writing? I'm on an imac with OS X/Safari. [More inside.] I'm afraid that, apart from one-time-only cut & save, I still have to jot down my comments in a little notebook I keep next to the keyboard. What I'd like is something I could click which would keep all my cuttings, addresses and thoughts. Thanks beforehand for any suggestions and explanations.