Computer/Internet Issues & Troubleshooting Anyone with questions about the terribly complex world of computers or the internet should try here. NOT FOR REPORTING ISSUES WITH PPRuNe FORUMS! Please use the subforum "PPRuNe Problems or Queries."

iMac

Old 13th Jan 2016, 11:45
  #1 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Here
Posts: 318
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
iMac

We are about to take possession of one of these. I have always been pretty much exclusively a 'Windows' man so have little experience of Mac's and their OS etc.


One of the things I've read about the Apple operating system(s) is that it fairly hack proof and generally less prone to internet/emailing problems as the OS is tightly controlled by Apple with less opportunity for malcontents or external third parties to invade/interrupt or interfere with individual machines. I would like to believe this, but take it with a pinch of salt.


Can I ask what the general feeling is here on the forum with regard to protecting oneself from on-line 'external interference' on the iMac? I was thinking of installing a paid for antivirus app (if such things are applicable to Mac's etc?). Norton has always worked well on our Windows laptop and I use the Norton Identity safe app on it too which I was hoping to install on the iMac so I was hoping to go down that route. Any thoughts appreciate.


The purchase is made, so not a thread discussing the merits of Apple v Microsoft please.
yellowtriumph is offline  
Old 14th Jan 2016, 12:06
  #2 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Confoederatio Helvetica
Age: 68
Posts: 2,847
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Here's a PC World article on the subject.

Personally I don't use one on my iMac - just keep my eyes peeled in the media for reports. The media just goes into a feeding frenzy whenever a new 'virus' or 'trojan' is detected. And Apple's built in protection has worked well for me.

Beware - if you are running Windows, or using MS Office products you are not protected from malware affecting them. For my needs the built in Apple products work just fine.
ExXB is offline  
Old 15th Jan 2016, 21:12
  #3 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Here
Posts: 318
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thank you for your input. I will be using Microsoft Office on the iMac so I guess I must give this some thought.


I was interested (confused/alarmed?) by the comments after the review from posters brawling over whether the iMac was vulnerable or not. I guess there will never be a consensus.
yellowtriumph is offline  
Old 18th Jan 2016, 02:00
  #4 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 1998
Location: Where the job is!
Posts: 451
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
A bit more than an anti-virus app is needed. I recommend you read though this article and implement the precautions mentioned about halfway down.

https://bananas.liberty.me/youre-a-c...ot-get-caught/
Carrier is offline  
Old 18th Jan 2016, 06:31
  #5 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Confoederatio Helvetica
Age: 68
Posts: 2,847
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Carrier,
That article isn't about anti-malware for iMacs. Interesting subject but probably better discussed in Jet Blast.

YellowTriumph look into Macro Viruses for MS Office products.

In today's iteration of the Mac OS, there has never been a (self-propagating) virus. Trojans, which attempt to fool the user into loading the malware, do exist and you need to be careful.

Check your firewall settings (lots of good advice on the Internet, and on Apple support pages).

Create a User ID with no administrator privileges and use that for day-to-day computing. Be suspicious if/when you are asked to enter your administrators password. In the system preferences under privacy there are some settings that shoul be set tightly, for example to allow downloads only from Apple and known companies. An administrator can always override these settings, but it does make one think "should I really be doing this"?

Join the Apple Support Communities. https://discussions.apple.com/welcome Which is maintained by Apple, but it's Apple users who contribute to the discussions. You can learn a lot here.
ExXB is offline  
Old 19th Jan 2016, 11:11
  #6 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Saigon SGN/VVTS
Posts: 6,625
Received 58 Likes on 42 Posts
yellowtriumph,

I agree with ExXB's very good advice. I've used Macs for 25 years (since System 6!). I don't use anti-virus software.

Once you get used to the iMac and learn how to use it, I am sure you will enjoy it.

Here is a good place to start: http://www.apple.com/support/osx/
India Four Two is offline  
Old 21st Jan 2016, 11:02
  #7 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Here
Posts: 318
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Many thanks for all these helpful replies. I have fired it up now and am gently probing its capabilities. As our existing Windows machine is still very capable we are going to take it slowly but surely as we transfer over to 'Macland'.


I am giving some consideration to backups etc. I am cautious, probably too cautious, over nefarious scoundrels entering the house and taking not only the iMac but any backup drives or hardware hanging onto and around it. I was hoping to be able to back the whole thing up to the icloud on a regular basis but I gather this is task too far. I was thinking of backing up (with Time machine?) perhaps to a wireless NAS drive that I could hide away in a very unlikely to be found place. I am paranoid I know.


Can the team give me any advice or personal experiences with their failsafe backup procedures? I appreciate the time you've given already.
yellowtriumph is offline  
Old 21st Jan 2016, 11:45
  #8 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 1,528
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes on 3 Posts
Me too - paranoia that is. I back up to a Time Capsule which, as you say, I would like to hide in the loft or a wall void somewhere. I also periodically back up to an external drive which I keep separate from the computer.

Time machine will allow you to keep backups on several drives concurrently. The only cloud backup I use is my apple mail, contacts, calendar and notes but you can use more - eg photos and documents. Wherever you back up, it is usually only the first backup that takes some time, thereafter it is only the changes that need to be backed up. Time machine keeps adding backups until the drive is full and then deletes the oldest ones to make way for newer ones.

I don't use any anti-virus software but I occasionally scan with a malware checker. I use MS Office, through and annual subscription, which gives 5 installs of the latest versions of either Office for Windows or for Mac, or both, and can also be be used on tablets in addition to the 5 'PC' installations. I use OSX on a Macbook as my main computer but have windows installed in bootcamp on my iMac so that can boot up in either OSX (although it is too old to run the latest version) or windows. I have MS Office running on both partitions.

The main reason I have the windows partition is for some work I was doing using Office. The company reckoned there were odd differences, deep in the formatting, between documents and presentations written in office for mac versus those composed in the windows version.
Background Noise is offline  
Old 21st Jan 2016, 12:09
  #9 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Confoederatio Helvetica
Age: 68
Posts: 2,847
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Having used both Office for Mac is a poor cousin to Office for PC. I don't think you can write Visual Basic (or whatever MS is using these days). I find that using Apple's iWork applications works for me, and files can be read by PCs using Office. But that's for a retired guy who doesn't write many letters and doesn't open a spreadsheet more than a few times a year.

Backing up a Time Machine can be a simple as making a copy of the sparsebundle file on the time machine. (See here) Also your time machine doesn't have to be physically connected to your Mac. You can hide it in your attic, as long as it's within Wifi range.

Apple's 'Find my iPhone' App will find your Mac as well, and allow you to 'brick it' next time it's connected to the Internet.
ExXB is offline  
Old 21st Jan 2016, 18:20
  #10 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Here
Posts: 318
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
All very useful input - thanks.


Any recommended books for an iMac beginner? The man in the Apple shop thought OSX/Mac for Dummies likely be too simple given the questions I was asking! Retired electronics engineer now, always had a gentle interest in PCs etc, wrote some Visual Basic stuff in the past but not into that sort of thing now. Just general PC work, email, surfing. Might buy myself a Raspberry Pi to play with.


I will retire into the background whilst I give all of this some further consideration. I hope no-one will mind me resurrecting this thread, or starting a new one, in the future when I inevitably go into all this in more detail.
yellowtriumph is offline  
Old 22nd Jan 2016, 05:26
  #11 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Saigon SGN/VVTS
Posts: 6,625
Received 58 Likes on 42 Posts
I am giving some consideration to backups etc.
I was hoping to be able to back the whole thing up to the icloud on a regular basis but I gather this is task too far.
Two very strong recommendations.

1. Get an external drive and buy SuperDuper! It is a bullet-proof backup program that does incremental backups, so after the first backup, it is relatively quick. The added valuable benefit is that the backup is a bootable clone of your hard drive, so in the event of an internal disk failure, you can just switch over and boot from your external drive. Ask me how I know and why I recommend it so highly!

2. Cloud backups are easy - for any computer, not just Macs. Subscribe to http://backblaze.com.It gives you the insurance of an offsite backup. It's completely automatic and works continually in the background. A nice feature is that you can recover any file from anywhere, using their web interface. So if you are away from home, you can still access your files.

Last edited by India Four Two; 22nd Jan 2016 at 05:37.
India Four Two is offline  
Old 22nd Jan 2016, 05:34
  #12 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Saigon SGN/VVTS
Posts: 6,625
Received 58 Likes on 42 Posts
I don't think you can write Visual Basic
ExXB,

Not true - you can write VB code in Office for the Mac. However, like the rest of the application, it's sufficiently different from the Windows version to be very annoying. What were they thinking of?
India Four Two is offline  
Old 22nd Jan 2016, 06:13
  #13 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Confoederatio Helvetica
Age: 68
Posts: 2,847
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I agree, clone your internal drive daily. I have been using Carbon Copy Cloner for years. First as freeware, then as shareware and now as commercial software (fixed one-off price, not a subscription). In addition to cloning it can also work to schedule backups of specific files or folders (i.e. Documents).

What were they thinking of?
Well, as a cynic, they were thinking they could increase their market penetration to non-PC users while not encouraging their existing customers to move to a (superior ) platform that doesn't use their OS. Office for Mac is not much loved in the Mac community, sorta like kissing your sister.

I don't have Office on my Mac, not for years now, so my memory not perfect.
ExXB is offline  
Old 22nd Jan 2016, 06:29
  #14 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Saigon SGN/VVTS
Posts: 6,625
Received 58 Likes on 42 Posts
ExXB,

Yes, CCC is a good alternative to SuperDuper!

I've become sufficiently comfortable with Office for Mac that I can do what I need for simple tasks. However, for any heavy duty work, I switch to Parallels or Bootcamp and run the Windows version.
India Four Two is offline  
Old 22nd Jan 2016, 06:29
  #15 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Confoederatio Helvetica
Age: 68
Posts: 2,847
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Books I have used previous versions of 'The Missing Manual' for Mac OS and can't say enough about them.

They are not cheap, but they are good value.
ExXB is offline  
Old 23rd Jan 2016, 07:30
  #16 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Saigon SGN/VVTS
Posts: 6,625
Received 58 Likes on 42 Posts
yellowtriumph,

I would second ExXB's recommendation. Assuming your Mac is running OS X 10.10, you need:
OS X Yosemite: The Missing Manual

ISBN-13 978-1491947166


By the way, to be taken seriously by Apple geeks, make sure you say 'OS Ten', not 'OS X'!
India Four Two is offline  
Old 23rd Jan 2016, 15:07
  #17 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Confoederatio Helvetica
Age: 68
Posts: 2,847
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
But ... If it's El Capitan OS X 10.11 (I hate these names) it would be:
ISBN:978-1-4919-1795-4

Available at the publishers O'Reilly

shop(.)oreilly(.)com/product/0636920036326.do

and likely Amazon, et al.
ExXB is offline  
Old 23rd Jan 2016, 16:03
  #18 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Here
Posts: 318
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Yes, I believe it is El Capitan. With regards to books, are the books you recommend beginners books? They perhaps sound more like 'insider or hidden tips and trips for experienced users. I am not that.

As well as buying the iMac we did buy the MS Office suite for 5 users. Although it seems that I may be disappointed with it my actual use of office is really just limited to email and writing a few documents. I bought the licence for 5 machines since if our iMac experience is a positive one we are anticipating replacing our other windows laptops. What we are really hoping for in the future is a limited number of machines easily staying in sync with one another with minimal user intervention.
yellowtriumph is offline  
Old 23rd Jan 2016, 16:50
  #19 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Confoederatio Helvetica
Age: 68
Posts: 2,847
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
No, they are not books for beginners, or those needing help transitioning from a PC to a Mac*. But they are excellent reference books to have on your desk. Good indexing means you can find relevant information in just a few seconds. But if you have some computer knowledge and basic familiarity with a Mac they should be invaluable. And if you are a bit of a nerd, they can be enjoyable reading as well.

The author, David Pouge, used to write the IT columns for the NY Times and has a way af making complex stuff understandable.

I still find my 'Lion' version (OS X v10.7) useful even though I'm now using Yosemite (v10.10).

*Help for this really isn't needed. Apple's web-site covers all the critical bits. Anyone familiar with a PC will not find it difficult.

Good luck, not that you will need it.

1st tip: Under the Apple Menu (At left on the menu bar at the top of screen), 1st item is 'About this Mac'. Tells you everything about your Mac, including OS.
ExXB is offline  
Old 24th Jan 2016, 03:20
  #20 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Saigon SGN/VVTS
Posts: 6,625
Received 58 Likes on 42 Posts
yellowtriumph,

Your posts make me think that you are quite computer literate, so I think David Pogue's book would be ideal for you. Just get the right one for your current OS.

As ExXB said, the Apple website contains a lot of useful information. Here is a good starting point: OS X - Apple Support

One thing I have found when coaching people in making the change from Windows to Mac OS X, is that they have a "Windows mindset" - not surprising really. Once they get over that, they find that the Mac way of doing things is usually (but not always) simpler and more intuitive than the Windows way.

One example is the built-in Print to PDF functionality, in the bottom left of the Print dialog. I use this frequently.

Another example of Apple's thinking, is that if my iPhone rings, a dialog pops up on my Mac, that I can use to answer the call, using the Mac microphone and speakers.

Regarding Office for Mac. If your usage is not heavy-duty and if you are not constantly switching between Windows and Mac OS, I think you will find, once you have got used to the slightly different User Interface, that it will be adequate for your purposes.

Concerning email, I would recommend staying away from Outlook, which comes with Office and use the Mac 'Mail' app. It's not perfect, but it is well integrated with the OS and with iPhones and iPads if you have any.

PS Two add-in applications that I use and recommend are Little Snitch (https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html) and Spam Sieve (http://c-command.com/spamsieve/ ) - only works with the Mail app.

Last edited by India Four Two; 24th Jan 2016 at 03:32.
India Four Two is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.