On broadband, er, how do I close down?

luckat

I'm on broadband, thanks to Irish Broadband, but I don't know what I do now - how do I close down the computer - I mean, do I have to log out or something?

By the way, I'm using Safari (the browser) and the front page of boards.ie is a bit wonky; the list of forums at the top with drop-down menus isn't there; three are there, one on top of the other, and that's all.

flywheel

hi - you don't have to shut down or log into your broadband connection - just think of it as a network connection - when your machine is on your connection is available...

yeah that's been a problem - try using the minimalist theme (if you can get to select it from the menu!), otherwise try this link...
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/index.php?styleid=17

BrianG

luckat

Brilliant, thanks very much.

flywheel

no worries

just start / shut down you computer as you normally do - when you start up you'll have your connection back - might want to enable your firewall if you haven't already done so

BrianG

luckat

How do I enable my firewall, please? And how do I monitor in some measurable way how fast the connection is? Apart from my own viewpoint, which is that it's a bit faster than dialup in the morning, and a fair bit faster at night. No whoooshhh speeds so far.

Irish Broadband tell me that 20 people share each connection.

One more question: I'm used to the idea that you must always unplug the power from the PowerBook before you take the plug out of the wall socket, or risk having to reset the power. But is this the same with an RJ45 connection to an electrically powered modem?

Further on firewalls, etc: TitBITS had a piece this morning about Safari having a hole that allowed people access to your cookies, and this being fixable by a software update from Apple. I went to Software Update and didn't see any *specifically* Safari update; am I right in assuming that this update is within the OS X update?

flywheel

to enable the firewall:
System Preferences > Sharing > Firewall
you can enable / configure it there

how fast - IBB used to have a 'speed test' but they seem to have taken it off line - you could google for broadband speed test and the like - but you will have to take into account the network traffic between you and the server you are testing against

depends which product you have what the contention is i.e. the ratio of people to connection - which means you share it with a max of 20 people - so if everyone is downloading at the same time it will be slower

you can plug the cable in and out when you want - if you are plugging it into a different network adapter / access point (i.e. with a different MAC address) you may need to restart the IBB connection so that it registeres the adapter (new MAC address) - that is done by unplugging the power to the Power over Ethernet (PoE) box, plugging the network cable into the new adapter, waiting about 10 seconds and restoring power to the PoE box.

A Safari update can be both, either a specific Safai Update/Upgrade labelled as such, or a general Security Update. You can check the details of updates by highlighting the item and examining the comment box in the update selection screen. Security Update 2003-12-05 ver 1.0 noted:
Security Update 2003-12-05 updates Safari to prevent unathorised access to a user's cookies.

BrianG

luckat

Thanks for the help, I've done as advised.