, I was also told a great security tip by a UNIX expert.
when you create your very first account.. call it admin or something, and make it an account that you will never log in from. once it's done and you're logged in, go straight to accounts in system prefs and create a new one, this time call it whatever you want your 'real' user account to be called. make it an admin level account as well. then, I think you can set it up so that you automatically log in to this account, or if not, every time you start your machine, just always log in to this second account as your user account. the reason for this is that the first user account created in a mac OSX system always has a known UNIX ID. so, even though macs do not announce their presence on networks as obviously as PCs do, any hacker that might be doing a random search for a system in a network might know this UNIX ID and will be able to find your system, if it is logged in to this first account. so, if you've created it, but it's dormant cos you never log into it, you will have an extra level of security for your system. plus, you have the additional advantage of having a spare user account already created that you can log into, in case your system ever becomes corrupted and you need to be able to access the machine. this happens.. it has happened to me twice since I've been using OSX.
I found this bit of information recently. I have just recieved a new macbookpro and would like to set up the above user acct. has anybody done this? can anyone provide a step by step instruction for doing it or provide a link that better explains it?
thank you for any help.
tws
when you create your very first account.. call it admin or something, and make it an account that you will never log in from. once it's done and you're logged in, go straight to accounts in system prefs and create a new one, this time call it whatever you want your 'real' user account to be called. make it an admin level account as well. then, I think you can set it up so that you automatically log in to this account, or if not, every time you start your machine, just always log in to this second account as your user account. the reason for this is that the first user account created in a mac OSX system always has a known UNIX ID. so, even though macs do not announce their presence on networks as obviously as PCs do, any hacker that might be doing a random search for a system in a network might know this UNIX ID and will be able to find your system, if it is logged in to this first account. so, if you've created it, but it's dormant cos you never log into it, you will have an extra level of security for your system. plus, you have the additional advantage of having a spare user account already created that you can log into, in case your system ever becomes corrupted and you need to be able to access the machine. this happens.. it has happened to me twice since I've been using OSX.
I found this bit of information recently. I have just recieved a new macbookpro and would like to set up the above user acct. has anybody done this? can anyone provide a step by step instruction for doing it or provide a link that better explains it?
thank you for any help.
tws
