iMac New User

[MilDoc]

Came in the mail today. Still playing around with it.

Tried to connect to internet but it keeps telling me I'm not connected. Looked at the help page for my ISP and tried everything there for Macs - no dice. Oh, well. I'm changing ISPs Monday so they can figure it out when they get here.

One thing so far I DO NOT like: the mouse pointer on screen. WAY too small! I can't find anyway to change the size like I could in Windows. Any suggestions, or know of a program that can change it? [Uh, forget this one. I found the solution on Macworld]

One thing I'm not sure about yet. The keyboard. Works nice but I prefer a numeric keypad. Why Apple didn't include one is beyond me. If after using it a while I may order a different one. Any suggestion?

There were a lot of complaints on the net about the reflective screen acting like a mirror, but I don't find that a problem at all, and I LOVE the screen size (except for that darn little mouse pointer).

But so far - pretty darn nice!

[crokett]

Came in the mail today. Still playing around with it.

Tried to connect to internet but it keeps telling me I'm not connected. Looked at the help page for my ISP and tried everything there for Macs - no dice. Oh, well. I'm changing ISPs Monday so they can figure it out when they get here.

Really? You mean it wasn't as easy as that old commercial where he takes it out of the box, plugs in the keyboard, power and network cable and is good to go?

Congrats on the new toy! Hope things work out for you with it.

[tung tied]

One thing you should do is learn how to set a "Root User" password, and keep it secure. This will go a long way to prevent hackers, theft, etc. Not completely foolproof, but good.

[knobcreekman]

Congrats on coming over to the Mac side! I made the switch a few years ago and there is certainly a re-education process . I think you'll be happy with the switch. One thing you'll find out about Mac that I didn't see people comment about on your other thread is that Mac's retain their "newness" with little to no maintenance. By that I mean that my 3 year old macbook pro runs exactly like it did the day I walked out of the Apple store with it.

Don't know if you got your internet figured out yet but if you're using cable internet you'll have to reset your ip address the first time you hook youre mac up to it to get a connection and this is done by a simple power cycle, but you've probably already tried that... just thought i would throw it out there.

Enjoy your new computer!

[knotley]

One thing I'm not sure about yet. The keyboard. Works nice but I prefer a numeric keypad. Why Apple didn't include one is beyond me. If after using it a while I may order a different one. Any suggestion?

But so far - pretty darn nice!

You could have ordered a keyboard with numeric keypad as a no cost option. It is hard to find on the website but it is an option. Call Apple and ask if you can replace the keyboard. There should be no charge to change. If there is a charge, it will only add to the $23 billion that Apple has in the bank some of which will be lost in the phone and OS fight with Google!!

[cgallery]

One thing you'll find out about Mac that I didn't see people comment about on your other thread is that Mac's retain their "newness" with little to no maintenance. By that I mean that my 3 year old macbook pro runs exactly like it did the day I walked out of the Apple store with it.

This is an excellent point. I routinely get older Macs in for service/upgrades. These machines are sometimes 8+ years old. And when I boot 'em up to give 'em a workout, I think "WOW, that's not bad."

Of course, when you control everything (hardware and software), this is a little easier to do.

[MilDoc]

You could have ordered a keyboard with numeric keypad as a no cost option. It is hard to find on the website but it is an option. Call Apple and ask if you can replace the keyboard. There should be no charge to change. If there is a charge, it will only add to the $23 billion that Apple has in the bank some of which will be lost in the phone and OS fight with Google!!

Actually, I found a program called DoubleCommand that's let me use my Dell keyboard if I want. I'm used to it, so if I don't like the Apple wireless after some use, I'll make the switch.

[LinuxRandal]

Actually, I found a program called DoubleCommand that's let me use my Dell keyboard if I want. I'm used to it, so if I don't like the Apple wireless after some use, I'll make the switch.

He SHOULD be able to use any USB keyboard, but you will not have the special keys, like the power on key. It has been a few years since I have used a Mac (first Imac in KC), but do they still have USB powered ports on them? If so, he could also get a USB number pad, if they won't swap.

[Whaler]

Paul, congratulations for moving to the dark side. I did it about 10 tears ago and have no complaints.

If you want a larger cursor click on the little apple in the top left corner, open Preferences, click on Universal Access, adjust the size in Cursor Size.

[bigstick509]

Congrats on coming over to the Mac side! I made the switch a few years ago and there is certainly a re-education process . I think you'll be happy with the switch. One thing you'll find out about Mac that I didn't see people comment about on your other thread is that Mac's retain their "newness" with little to no maintenance. By that I mean that my 3 year old macbook pro runs exactly like it did the day I walked out of the Apple store with it.

Don't know if you got your internet figured out yet but if you're using cable internet you'll have to reset your ip address the first time you hook youre mac up to it to get a connection and this is done by a simple power cycle, but you've probably already tried that... just thought i would throw it out there.

Enjoy your new computer!

The re-education or learning curve can't be overemphasized. I've had my MB Pro for 3 years and during the first 6 months I intentionally did not use bootcamp to force myself to get used to the new OS. Now I use VMWare with XP installed and find myself only using Windows for Quicken and a few other minor things. The claim that OSX is more intuitive just doesn't hold true for me. I still have a few Mac OSX manuals by David Pouge laying around for reference when I can't figure out a issue.
I'm sure you will enjoy the new iMac MilDoc.

[crokett]

Don't know if you got your internet figured out yet but if you're using cable internet you'll have to reset your ip address the first time you hook youre mac up to it to get a connection and this is done by a simple power cycle,

The Mac doesn't let you click an interface and tell it to release/renew or disable then enable it? It doesn't have the equivalent to the ipconfig /release, ipconfig /renew commands? Being *nix based, I'd think it would have something like ifup and ifdown which should force it to request a new address without a reboot.

[rfisher7381]

Congrats! We purchased a MacBook about 6 months ago and an iMac 21.5" about 2 months ago. Nice machines with great performance. I'm sure you'll love it once you get used to the "Mac" way of doing things compared to Windows. Have fun.

[gsmittle]

The Mac doesn't let you click an interface and tell it to release/renew or disable then enable it? It doesn't have the equivalent to the ipconfig /release, ipconfig /renew commands? Being *nix based, I'd think it would have something like ifup and ifdown which should force it to request a new address without a reboot.

At the lower right of the Network control panel pane you'll find an "Advanced…" button. After you click it, click the DHCP button and then you'll see "Renew DHCP Lease"

You may not have AppleTalk turned on. That's in the same pane as the DHCP button.

Or you could open the Terminal and do the Unix thing.

Also, any USB numeric keypad should work. Personally, I'm not a fan of the itty-bitty aluminum keyboard. I use an older full-size Apple corded keyboard. If you dig around, you might find a Mac driver for you Dell keyboard.

g.

[crokett]

At the lower right of the Network control panel pane you'll find an "Advanced…" button. After you click it, click the DHCP button and then you'll see "Renew DHCP Lease"

thanks. I didn't really think you had to reboot the machine to renew a DHCP lease. I actually prefer the command line - old habit I guess. Usually I am at the command line to check an IP address anyway.