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tether · Feb 26, 2005, 10:45 AM

think i have the right forum for this..

trying to get into my gmail account from my mac and no can do. internet expl isnt giving me the menu options as described below, and i cant seem to find the right ones.. any ideas to activate activeX? message im getting is below:

Your browser seems to be Internet Explorer, and ActiveX seems to be disabled. Gmail requires ActiveX to be enabled in order to operate.

To use Gmail, enable ActiveX controls in Internet Explorer. You can do this by going to the Tools menu, selecting Internet Options, Security tab, Internet zone, and either select the Default Level, or selecting Custom Level and scrolling down to "Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins" and selecting Enable.

Mithras · Feb 26, 2005, 11:18 AM

IE for Mac is dead. May I suggest using Safari or Firefox or Camino or OmniWeb?

CharlesS · Feb 26, 2005, 03:10 PM

While IE does suck, it's weird why GMail should require ActiveX at all. It does work in all these other browsers, which don't support ActiveX either... weird.

But anyway, yeah. Use one of the good browsers for OS X, and GMail works fine. Safari, Camino, FireFox, Shiira, or OmniWeb.

Stradlater · Feb 26, 2005, 03:21 PM

Originally posted by CharlesS:
While IE does suck, it's weird why GMail should require ActiveX at all. It does work in all these other browsers, which don't support ActiveX either... weird.

My guess is that the WinIE that is supported for GMail requires ActiveX and GMail is misreading the browser -- sees IE, ignores "Macintosh."

tether · Feb 27, 2005, 04:53 AM

so what's the solution? is there a way i can continue using IE and get into gmail, or should i use another browser. would i be able to download a browser on a 56k connection or would i need a cd? are browers generally free, and which one should i go for? - considering the fact that i don't have a lot of tech knowledge at all - so i'd want something dead easy to deal with and that would give me maximum access to as much as possible

Randman · Feb 27, 2005, 05:08 AM

Safari is from Apple. It's free. Firefox is also good. I don't think Google has done much for IE on the Mac side as far as Gmail goes since it's a dead application and Safari and FireFox are so much better (there's other choices as well, such as the purchasable OmniWeb).

Are you using the Mail application? There's multiple ways to do it, but a very simple way is to have GMail forward a copy to your Mail.app. You still have it on your Gmail account but can access (and be alerted) it from Mail.

TETENAL · Feb 27, 2005, 05:08 AM

Originally posted by tether:
so what's the solution? is there a way i can continue using IE and get into gmail, or should i use another browser. would i be able to download a browser on a 56k connection or would i need a cd? are browers generally free, and which one should i go for? - considering the fact that i don't have a lot of tech knowledge at all - so i'd want something dead easy to deal with and that would give me maximum access to as much as possible

Safari is part of Panther. You don't have to download it. It is already installed on your Mac if you own Panther.

Are you by chance still on OS 9? You could try with the latest Mozilla build that is still available for that system.

http://www.mozilla.org/download.html#os9

Even better update to Panther if you have a machine that is capable of running it. Get a Mac mini if not.

tether · Feb 27, 2005, 06:59 AM

i thought safari might be a good option since that's made by mac - i'm on osX but version 10.1.2 and on apple.com it only seems to be available for 10.2.8 and 10.3

i can't really afford to pay for an update to the os

so i'm guessing that i can't update to panther, and that a mac mini wouldnt be free (dont know what a mac mini is either)

so, i'm thinking FireFox:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

is that the one?
and am i right in thinking that i can't use safari with 10.1.2?

TETENAL · Feb 27, 2005, 07:12 AM

Originally posted by tether:
i thought safari might be a good option since that's made by mac

Safari is made by Apple the same company that made your Mac. It's not available for 10.1.

so, i'm thinking FireFox:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

is that the one?

System Requirements say Firefox still runs on 10.1. It would be a very good choice.

tether · Feb 27, 2005, 09:19 AM

thanks for your advice. i'm on firefox now.

CharlesS · Feb 27, 2005, 10:17 AM

If you're running 10.1.2, you should really consider upgrading to 10.4 when it comes out (should be by summer) even though you said you can't. 10.2 was really a huge upgrade over 10.1.x, which wasn't really all that good. 10.3 was even better. 10.4 looks like it will completely change the way we all use our computers - it will be huge. You'll be doing yourself a favor.

With that said, if you must stay with 10.1.x, at least run Software Update and get all the free downloadable updates - 10.1.2 was not the last version of 10.1.x. If you don't, you could be vulnerable to whatever security flaws were fixed by the security updates you haven't installed.