[discofly]

Hi all,

I recently bought a mac mini and have a few questions... It has OS X. I'm used to a PC - so please bear with me! I am a pretty intelligent lad - but just trying to get to grips with the mac...

1) Do I need an anti-virus program?
2) I plug into my mac via ethernet for broadband - it has a hardware firewall built in - but do I need anything else?
3) The inbuilt Safari browser - is that the standard? What do other people use?

I may have more as I get to grips with it, but I'm just trying to figure out the main differences between mac and PC.

Thanks all.

[esXXI]

1) No, there are no viruses for OS X.

2) You should be okay, you can enable OS X's firewall by opening System Preferences and going to Sharing.

3) Pretty much.

[rickey939]

Welcome to the 'NN.

[CaptainHaddock]

1 & 2) ditto what esXXI wrote.

3) Safari is a great browser and is more refined than any others on the Mac. After you've used it for a while, you could also try out the speedy Camino (a Mozilla-based browser) or the feature-rich Omniweb.

[sray]

Welcome to the Mac. I converted from a PC about three years ago. Haven't looked back.

Originally Posted by discofly

1) Do I need an anti-virus program?

Not really. There are very few or no viruses for the Mac, and even the proof of concept virii that exist in labs need to get the root password to do any system damage. However, without a anti-virus program, you can easily forward an infected email message to your friends using PCs and they can get infected. While you can't get infected, you can become a passive carrier. So, it's probably a good idea to have one -- that being said, I haven't used a anti-virus program on a mac, ever.

Originally Posted by discofly

2) I plug into my mac via ethernet for broadband - it has a hardware firewall built in - but do I need anything else?

You can configure the software firewall, which I recommend that you turn on, from Apple Logo on the Menu Bar -> System Preferences -> Sharing -> Firewall tab. This is a good security practice and it has no effect on performance.

Originally Posted by discofly

3) The inbuilt Safari browser - is that the standard? What do other people use?

Yes, Safari is very good and my browser of preference. A lot of my colleagues at work who have converted to the Mac from a PC use Firefox as they feel more comfortable in a known environment. Try both and see which you like better.

[discofly]

Many thanks all. I want to learn about the 'industry standard' software on macs...

I'm finding them very intuitive and simpel to use... I'm used to Install/ Uninstalling, viruses, etc etc and all the things that PCs have with them...

[OreoCookie]

If you want to try alternative browsers, there is Camino (just google it up) which uses the Mozilla engine (Gecko), Firefox, Opera, basically all the choices you have on Windows. There is an Internet Explorer for the Mac, but it doesn't use the same engine as the Windows version. Plus it's rather old and won't see any updates anymore.

As far as other standard software is concerned, take a look at the sticky thread in the Applications forum here, you'll find more than enough choices. My guess is that you'll find just what you need.

[ghporter]

I agree with the above. There are no active Mac OS viruses in the wild right now, and as long as you don't fall for the "free pron" and such gimics in the spam you receive, you should even avoid passing anything on to your still Windows using acquaintances. Your broadband system with a hardware firewall, even if it's only a NAT firewall, is great protection-but enable the OS X software firewall too (think seatbelt and airbags here). Safari is "the standard" browser in the Mac world, but you may find that there are sites you can't browse properly with it-some sites are coded for IE for Windows and just don't play nice. I use Firefox myself (it helps with going back and forth between a PC and a Mac).

And Oreo's advice about apps is the way to go. Take it from a fairly recent switcher-as long as you aren't afraid to mess up your computer (kind of hard to do with OS X!), you can play with all the apps on it and see what does what you want. Enjoy!

[bergy]

Hi Everybody ...

Isn't the firewall on by default? .....

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by bergy

Hi Everybody ...

Isn't the firewall on by default? .....

No.

[Watson]

In addition to the firewall being turned off by default, so are many of the services (such as the Apache webserver, ssh remote login, etc.) which could possibly make your computer a target, if they were turned on. The power to do great things with the client version of OS X is hidden under the hood... it's there when a user realizes that they need it, but until they turn it on, they don't have to worry about the security angle.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Watson

In addition to the firewall being turned off by default, so are many of the services (such as the Apache webserver, ssh remote login, etc.) which could possibly make your computer a target, if they were turned on. The power to do great things with the client version of OS X is hidden under the hood... it's there when a user realizes that they need it, but until they turn it on, they don't have to worry too much about the security angle.

Corrected for emphasis. It's important to protect yourself from the outside world's threats, even if your computer isn't on the big "hit list" like a Windows computer would be. Turning on the firewall is a good thing. Hiding your computer(s) behind a NAT firewall (which makes your WAN IP address look like a black hole) is also a good thing. When and if you decide to run a web server or other service, you can open the appropriate ports.

[far200]

here, try this site for some answers to questions you may have.....

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...+starter+guide