[spooney]

I am currently considering buying an iBook, as my current PC is getting a little long in the tooth, and an iBook seems to suit my needs perfectly. However, I have a few questions regarding the networking capabilities of OS X.

1) At my parents home, I connect to the internet through a standard 10/100 cabled network, with the internet connection shared using ICS in Windows XP. Will the iBook be able to access the internet through this setup?

2) At university, there are many wireless hotspots. In order to gain full access to the network you need to login to a VPN with a username and password. Does OS X support VPNs in this way?

3) Is it easy to switch between different networking setups? I would be regularly moving the iBook between the wireless network setup in my house (which accesses the internet through the default gateway as usual), and uni, where I need to login to the VPN, and also use a proxy server to access the internet. Does OS X make switching between these setups easy, or are there any programs which allow me to do that?

Thanks,
James.

[SWFan]

Originally posted by spooney:
1) At my parents home, I connect to the internet through a standard 10/100 cabled network, with the internet connection shared using ICS in Windows XP. Will the iBook be able to access the internet through this setup?

Yes, OS X and the iBook will work under this setup. In fact, you'll find networking much easier in OS X than Windows XP and earlier, especially since OS X is pretty much plug-n-play for networking, not requiring the multiple reboots Windows tortures you with whenever you switch or make network changes.

2) At university, there are many wireless hotspots. In order to gain full access to the network you need to login to a VPN with a username and password. Does OS X support VPNs in this way?

Yes, OS X has a VPN client built-in to it that supports both L2TP over IPSec and PPTP. I've used it without any problems on a Windows VPN server using PPTP. The VPN client is accessed through Applications-->Internet Connect.

3) Is it easy to switch between different networking setups? I would be regularly moving the iBook between the wireless network setup in my house (which accesses the internet through the default gateway as usual), and uni, where I need to login to the VPN, and also use a proxy server to access the internet. Does OS X make switching between these setups easy, or are there any programs which allow me to do that?

Yes, it is very easy to switch, much easier than Windows. If you're used to Windows networking then you'll wonder what drugs MS has been doing after using OS X's networking. Not only is OS X smart enough to generally figure out what network to connect to on its own, it also allows you to setup an unlimited number of "locations" each with its own unique settings for each type of connection (modem, Ethernet, wireless, etc.). You usually only need to use the locations feature when you access two networks with manual settings on the same port. Such as a fixed IP address on Ethernet at one location, and DHCP at the other location on Ethernet.

And the beauty compared to Windows, 99.99% of the time you don't need to reboot when switching network settings. I would have said 100% of the time because OS X will never prompt you to reboot like Windows, but there seems to be this 0.01% of the time where it doesn't pickup on the network connection. Happened once to me in three years.

In regards to the proxy server, you would need to go into Safari or whatever web browser and turn that feature on and off. Another way to do it is create various user accounts on your iBook, one for a proxy location, one without. Then you don't have to worry about switching the proxy setting.

[indigoimac]

Originally posted by SWFan:
Yes, OS X and the iBook will work under this setup. In fact, you'll find networking much easier in OS X than Windows XP and earlier, especially since OS X is pretty much plug-n-play for networking, not requiring the multiple reboots Windows tortures you with whenever you switch or make network changes.



Yes, OS X has a VPN client built-in to it that supports both L2TP over IPSec and PPTP. I've used it without any problems on a Windows VPN server using PPTP. The VPN client is accessed through Applications-->Internet Connect.



Yes, it is very easy to switch, much easier than Windows. If you're used to Windows networking then you'll wonder what drugs MS has been doing after using OS X's networking. Not only is OS X smart enough to generally figure out what network to connect to on its own, it also allows you to setup an unlimited number of "locations" each with its own unique settings for each type of connection (modem, Ethernet, wireless, etc.). You usually only need to use the locations feature when you access two networks with manual settings on the same port. Such as a fixed IP address on Ethernet at one location, and DHCP at the other location on Ethernet.

And the beauty compared to Windows, 99.99% of the time you don't need to reboot when switching network settings. I would have said 100% of the time because OS X will never prompt you to reboot like Windows, but there seems to be this 0.01% of the time where it doesn't pickup on the network connection. Happened once to me in three years.

In regards to the proxy server, you would need to go into Safari or whatever web browser and turn that feature on and off. Another way to do it is create various user accounts on your iBook, one for a proxy location, one without. Then you don't have to worry about switching the proxy setting.

darn u beat me

[spooney]

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like the iBook should be perfect for me! Now just to save the money...

[ghporter]

Don't forget that as a student, you get discounted prices straight from Apple. And the cost of an iBook has come down since we got ours a year ago-and it comes with more stuff standard.

Ok, I'm through gushing. But you can't go wrong with an iBook for school...and everything else.