Sunday, September 25, 2011

at&t’s Global Text Plan; Good For The Comments Left Only.

at&t’s price gouging is only interesting for the comments left after the article…

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Airport Network Not Recognizing A Time Capsule Hard Drive.

Symptom:
The Airport Network is not finding a Time Capsule Disk.


Possible Cause:
The base station is misconfigured, or corrupt.


Possible Cure:
Reset the Base Station, Softly:
Reset the Base Station, Brutally.


Reconfigure the darn thing.



1.) To reset the Base Station [either way], follow Apple’s instructions Here.  [<- Click]
A good article describing the location of the reset button for your model, how to perform a soft or hard reset, and what the ramifications of the said reset would be.


2.) Assuming the above didn’t work; Please deposit twenty-five cents for the next half-hour.

IF; The base station is the only wireless access point:
The Airport Utility located in  /Applications/Utilities  may ask you to restore your previous base station settings. Click ‘Restore’ to automatically re-enter those settings; after the base station reboots, try the wireless connection again. If all else fails, reconfigure the base station from scratch.


IF; The base station is part of a network (multiple router / gateways):
Consider these potential issues;


• A newer “dual-band” base station has two ‘networks', one for older [WiFi B, and WiFi G (faster) access], and a separate one for newer [WiFi N (even faster, and with greater distance potential) access].
If older (non-N) devices aren’t a consideration, then the router / gateway placement isn’t a problem. However, if older devices which can only connect to older (B, or G) networks are present, they can slow the entire network down to B or G speeds.

The more networks present, especially for B and G networks [neighbours, and possibly other devices such as wireless phones, or microwaves], the greater the chance of conflict [11 channels or frequencies available; N networks have 149], resulting in slower speeds, and / or connectivity issues.

 The environment plays a part in the distance of a network; distances are quoted as "line-of-sight" [unobstructed]; variations such as buildings [their construction; vent work location, steel surroundings, wiring placement], and airwave congestion may restrict the access to a network.

Current Comcast / Xfinity ‘Dory’ gateways [SMCD3GNV] cannot have their wireless network deactivated and, as such, always occupy a frequency.


That being read, you may need to consider the placement of the routers / gateways to compliment one another without conflict.

Do you wish to extend the network, like a Wireless Distribution System (WDS)? Several links to help configuring exist for different configurations:
[with Thanks to ddavel]

Airport Utility Help


Designing Airport Networks (Manual)

Advanced help
TechyV website
Various other issues examine here.

Sluggish Mac OS X Lion (10.7) Issue

Symptom
Mac sluggish [spinning color wheel, slow overall performance] after Lion (Mac OSX 10.7) installation.


Possible Cause:
A problem with or an incomplete OSX installation.


Possible Cure:
Please, as always, backup your hard drive before preforming the following.


1.) Close all applications, Reboot the computer; hold down the shift key after the reboot (bong) sound.   [Enters Macintosh Safe Boot]

2.) Run ‘Disk Utility’ located in the  /Applications/Utilities  folder.

3.) Select the “First Aid” tab in the top of the center window:


4.) Click on the 'child'  primary [boot] hard drive usually called “Macintosh HD” as seen in the above screenshot.

5.) Click “Verify Permissions”.
After completion, and if issues are found, Click “Repair Permissions

6.) Next, click on the Main Volume (parent to the primary hard drive) as seen in the next screenshot below:



7.) Again, select the “First Aid” tab in the top of the center window, then click “Verify Disk”; and if errors are found, click “Repair Disk”.

8.) Reboot the computer, hopefully, the issues should be resolved.*



* If upon rebooting you are prompted the complete the Lion installation, do so as directed.



Sunday, September 11, 2011

Mac OS X (10.7) Lion WiFi Not Connecting:

Symptom:
Airport shows connected to a network, the computer has an IP address, but has no connectivity.

Possible cure:
Open 'System Preferences’.

Click ‘Network’.
    -If the padlock icon (lower left of window) is locked, click it to enter your password.

Click ‘Location: ‘ and select ‘Edit Locations’.

Click the little plus sign to add a new location to the list.
    -name the location (for example: Default).

Insure the new location is selected (currently in use).





























Optional: You can further set the connection priority by clicking the gear icon, and setting the service order.



The issue should be resolved.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Avatron Air Display driver issue under Mac OSX: Lion.


As mentioned at the bottom of the Avatron site

The Air Display host software runs well on Lion, but has this limitation: the built-in video driver on certain 2008 and 2009 Macs is incompatible with third-party video drivers. You can still install the Air Display host software, but until Apple fixes the issue, the Air Display drivers will disable themselves on Lion on these specific machines.
Affected machines include:
  • 13" MacBook (aluminum late 2008, early, mid, and late 2009)
  • 13" MacBook Air (late 2008, mid 2009)
  • 13" MacBook Pro (mid 2009)
  • 15" MacBook Pro (late 2008, 2.53 GHz mid 2009, mid 2009)
  • 17" MacBook Pro (early and mid 2009).
  • 20" iMac (early or mid 2009)
  • 24" iMac (early 2009)
  • 21.5" iMac (late 2009)
  • Mac mini (early or late 2009, Server late 2009)
  • Mac mini Mac OS X Server (late 2009)
Apple is aware of the bug. We are hopeful that they will release a fix soon.