If you are like me, you take advantage of free WiFi hotspots where ever you can find them. Unfortunately it is possible for thieves to also be on that WiFi hotspot.
Before I show you one way to surf securely when using an open wireless network on a Mac, here are some steps that can help to keep you safe:
1. Turn your software firewall on. This goes for Mac or PC.
2. If you have access to a VPN (Virtual Private Network), use it when connecting on any open wireless network!
3. If you plan on checking your web based email make sure that you are connected over an SSL connection before entering your user credentials.
4. Check with the hotspot owner to make sure you know the name of their legitimate SSID.
5. Beware of fake SSID names such as “Free Public WiFi”.
If you’ve had issues with your Mac hanging after it has been a sleep, and you have an external drive connected to it, join the club. The problem for me was that I had my Energy Saver preferences set to place the external hard drive to sleep whenever possible. I now use a simple workflow that has corrected the problem on my iMac.
I have the checkbox that reads “Put the hard disk(s) to sleep whenever possible” unchecked. I also have the “Computer sleep” settings pointing to “Never”. This way my drive is always available. If I know I’m finished using my iMac and I’m not going to be using it, and I want to change the settings so that it will go to sleep, then I unmount/eject my external hard drive and turn it off. This way my iMac can comfortably go to sleep and wake up without losing the connection to the external drive. After the iMac is awake, I reconnect the external drive and it automatically mounts the drive. I then turn the “Computer sleep” mode to “Never” again.
It is a little bit of a hassle, but since I’ve adopted this workflow with my 1.5 Terra-byte Firewire drive, I’ve had no issues. Do you have any better or different solutions? Post them in the comments.
Music fans rejoice, today Google is rolling out a new music search feature that allows you to discover music through an audio preview feature. Type in the name or part of a name from a song and Google will find it and offer you an audio preview.
They have partnered with MySpace, Lala, Pandora, iMeem and Rhapsody to license these musical previews. With Google’s search algorithms combined with their new content partners, searching for music online just got a whole lot easier. They plan to roll out this feature across the U.S. in the next couple of days. Try it out, and let me know what you think.
If you are like me, you take advantage of free WiFi hotspots where ever you can find them. Unfortunately it is possible for thieves to also be on that WiFi hotspot.
If you’ve had issues with your Mac hanging after it has been a sleep, and you have an external drive connected to it, join the club. The problem for me was that I had my Energy Saver preferences set to place the external hard drive to sleep whenever possible. I now use a simple workflow that has corrected the problem on my iMac. 
