Janzos Solutions Blog

The Apple Mac operating system provides an interesting feature that allows you to share your Mac internet connection via the AirPort.  For example, you can have your Mac Mini or other Mac computer hooked up to your DSL or Cable Modem via the cable connection, and then share that connection via the wireless AirPort as a wireless router.  Then any computer with a wireless connection can access the internet just as if you had a stand alone wireless router.  This saves the need to purchase a wireless router, or wireless access point and router combination.  There is one major hurdle however if you try to access the wireless network using a windows system.

The internet sharing feature of the Mac OS was very impressive, that is until you try to connect a Windows machine to the wireless shared internet connection.  If you do not enable WEP security on the Mac shared AirPort connection, then you are good to go.  Everything works perfectly to connect your Windows machine to the wireless network.  This is not ideal however, since anyone within the wireless network range can then use your network and steel bandwidth.  It is highly recommended that you enable the WEP security.  This is where the problem starts however.  Once WEP security is enabled and you enter your password, the Windows machine can no longer connect, even though you enter the same WEP password on the Windows machine.  The secret setting to getting this to work is that you have to enable the network authentication type as "shared."  Depending on your wireless network hardware, there will be various software configuration tools.  Browse through the settings and make sure the Network Authentication is set to "shared."  Once you enable this, and enter your WEP security password, the Windows system will connect and you will be good to go.

A great article with detailed instructions on how to configure your Mac internet share and enable your Windows PC to connect ca be found at "How to connect windows computer to Mac wireless internet share".

Hopefully this has saved you considerable time and frustration.

I used to be a PC guy, always was.  That is until I got a Mac Mini a little over a year ago.  It's not so much the hardware or looks of the Mac machines I like, but it's instead the stability of the software/Operating System and ease of use.  The operating system itself won me over in a matter of days.  I enjoyed working on the Mac so much, I bought an Aluminum MacBook Pro 15.4" for software development and digital image work.

The Mac OS X operating system is so intuitive and straight forward that you waste no time searching around for what you want to do.  The doc and System preferences are right there for you, and they contain everything you need to navigate the OS.

Here are just a few simple facts which make working on Mac's so much more pleasurable than PC's.

1. Neither my Mac Mini or MacBook Pro have ever crashed.  The Mac Mini is over a year old, the MacBook Pro is a few months old.  I do not shut them down at night, they are either in standby or sleep mode.
2. Have not experienced any viruses or malware attacks.  I regularly had problems with this on Windows PC's, even after fresh OS installs.
3. Everything is simplified in an intuitive file structure for you.  There is no need to move files around, change directories, etc.  Things end up where you think they should.  Edit or upload a photo, it automatically puts it under your user name and Pictures directory.  Likewise with a document.  Create or edit a document in any software application, and it saves it the natural location under your user name and documents directory.
4. Updates are quick and painless.  They download automatically in the background, and the OS provides notifications that updates are ready.  You can choose to ignore and update later, or update immediately.  Most require a reboot of the machine, which again happens automatically if you do not do it within a specific amount of time.  I have never had an update go wrong.  Unfortunately I can not say that for my many Windows machines.
5. The computer goes to sleep when you close the lid.  Try that with your windows machine.  Sure, it may go to sleep a few times, but then you will run into the issue where it won't wake up.  Then sometimes it will fail to go to sleep.  Not on the Mac, it will go to sleep every time you request it to,  either via closing the laptop or pressing the sleep button.
6. If you really have to run windows applications, you can use virtual machine software, such as Parallels.  This software allows you to run the full OS inside a window in your Mac OS.  You will be able to run any native windows application on your Mac, and still be protected by the underlying Mac OS.

I could go on and on, but I thought I would highlight just a few of the items which make Macs so enjoyable to compute on.  Never again will I opt to purchase a PC.

Social Networking has become very popular over the past few years.  Sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter are generating thousands of hits daily and attracting new users at a record pace.  The two most popular social networking sites are Facebook and Twitter.  So how do you decide which one to go for if you are just starting out?  Below are some strengths for each to help you decide.

Facebook is a more complex social networking site that allows you to share your current status, images, videos and interesting web links.  This portal is focused on sharing your life with friends and family via Facebook friends.  A person can not see your profile, pictures or status unless they request to be your friend and you accept their request.  You can alter your Facebook settings and allow anyone to see your information, or you can hide your status and information from anyone.  The site has a longer learning curve for those new to social networking sites, but it is very feature rich and a great way to share details of your life with your family and friends.

Twitter on the other hand is all about your status, and what you are currently doing.  You have a main page where you can type your status, and anyone that is currently following you will get real time status updates.  You search and find other Tweets to follow.  Likewise, others can add you to their list so they can follow any updates you post.  Twitter is a very simplistic site, and it does what it's supposed to do well.  If you are looking to communicate your status quickly and often, and follow other peoples status regularly, then Twitter is the site for you.

If you are still having a hard time deciding, you could sign up for both Facebook and Twitter, and then install the Twitter Facebook application on your Facebook site.  This syncs up your Twitter status and automatically updates your Facebook status with the same message.  This way you can get the best of both sites.  If you want to provide quick updates, log into Twitter and update your status.  If you want to share links, photos, videos or other things with friends, you can utilize your Facebook site.

Hopefully this gives you some insight into the strengths of Facebook and Twitter, and allows you to make an informed decision on which one is best for your situation.