A few Questions

I am hoping this is the right section for these questions but I am pretty sure it is. I am planning to leave my PC using days behind for various reason. I have a few nerdy questions that Google and other threads haven't answered thoroughly enough for me and I am hoping someone could help.

• I had to completely disable Windows Firewall (which was a pain to do) and just close unused network servers because the firewall didn't help protect my pc. It slowed down my torrents downloads (apparently to Micro$oft all torrents = Pirating/hacking) and generally completely uncustomary way of working. My question is does OS X have a completely customizable firewall? Can I disable it without drama if I don't want it?
  
  For fast torrent downloading speeds, I had to patch tcpip.sys to change the number of connections the windows allow. Is their some similar process on the OS? Is it even necessary?
  
  Related to question number one; How is the privacy? For example, Micro$oft likes to run a little scan of your computer every time you have a update (they also restart every configuration you have ever done). Does Apple keep a promise of privacy?
  
  I like to play a few games off and on, most of them have only came out on Windows. I was wondering is their anyway to play high res games with boot camp or some pay to use program?
  
  If I get a MacBook, I have a tight budget. The best way I can pay for one is a monthly payment plan. For those who have done the same, Who are the best people to set up a plan with? Best Buy, Apple themselves or someone completely different?
  

I have a few other questions but I forgot them at the moment.

Jinkies! said:

I am hoping this is the right section for these questions but I am pretty sure it is. I am planning to leave my PC using days behind for various reason. I have a few nerdy questions that Google and other threads haven't answered thoroughly enough for me and I am hoping someone could help.

• I had to completely disable Windows Firewall (which was a pain to do) and just close unused network servers because the firewall didn't help protect my pc. It slowed down my torrents downloads (apparently to Micro$oft all torrents = Pirating/hacking) and generally completely uncustomary way of working. My question is does OS X have a completely customizable firewall? Can I disable it without drama if I don't want it?
  
  For fast torrent downloading speeds, I had to patch tcpip.sys to change the number of connections the windows allow. Is their some similar process on the OS? Is it even necessary?
  
  Related to question number one; How is the privacy? For example, Micro$oft likes to run a little scan of your computer every time you have a update (they also restart every configuration you have ever done). Does Apple keep a promise of privacy?
  
  I like to play a few games off and on, most of them have only came out on Windows. I was wondering is their anyway to play high res games with boot camp or some pay to use program?
  
  If I get a MacBook, I have a tight budget. The best way I can pay for one is a monthly payment plan. For those who have done the same, Who are the best people to set up a plan with? Best Buy, Apple themselves or someone completely different?
  

I have a few other questions but I forgot them at the moment.

Click to expand...

To answer your last question Apple has been outstanding to me with their financing. I didnt have to apply for an apple credit card or anything stupid like that. I had a small problem with one of the payments but they cleared it up very quickly.

Firstly, welcome to M-Fs! This forum can be a tremendous resource to you.

Secondly, props for looking on Google before posting. 90% of the questions asked here can be answered with a simple Google search. For the other 10%, there are a lot of people around here who love to figure out the answers to the tough questions.

Thirdly, discussion of downloading of illegal software is not allowed here. It will get you banned from the site. (Just an FYI... )

All that being said, assuming whatever you are downloading is on the up and up--you will find OS X handles torrents very well. Since, Mac's are immune to Windows viruses, if you use some common sense, you'll quickly find that you prefer to use it for just about everything online.

Regarding software updates--most software including OS X checks for updates on a weekly basis. However, it seems much less intrusive than with Windows. Basically a window pops up letting you know that an update is available, but the updates are improvements to the software you have installed, not endless security updates. In most cases, the update is only downloaded after you elect to accept the update, so your machine isn't bogging down with updates while you are trying to reuse it.

Also, these updates may require a restart at times, however, there is a major difference between OS X and Windows. OS X rarely, if ever, does OS X need to be restarted "just because something isn't working right". Even if you install an update every couple weeks, that might be the only time you restart the machine. Try to run Windows for two weeks without restarting...

I'll let someone else cover the games issues, as I don't really do any gaming on my MB...

Jaygray said:

Firstly, welcome to M-Fs! This forum can be a tremendous resource to you.

Secondly, props for looking on Google before posting. 90% of the questions asked here can be answered with a simple Google search. For the other 10%, there are a lot of people around here who love to figure out the answers to the tough questions.

Thirdly, discussion of downloading of illegal software is not allowed here. It will get you banned from the site. (Just an FYI... )

.

Click to expand...

Google didn't help me much with my questions. Also, I won't be talking about downloading illegal software, don't worry. Thank you for the heads up though.

oh i just laugh now at the security stuff going on on windows haven't had any thing even remotely similar to securing your computer on windows
although i`m not so sure about this (some1 might clarify) there aren't much hackers aiming at MacOS simply because it`s just not so easy as messing around with windows ... haven't used any sort of firewall on my mac, ever

now torrents, i don't know of a nice client like uTorrent, if u find1, let me know .. i use the unix-spread Transmission for it's simplicity and it works just like anywhere else, no problem with having to watch at slow speeds

as far as gaming goes, the way to go is in fact Boot Camp ... u can run older games in say Apples Parallels or maybe VmWare (both virtual) ... and although parallels works fine, you won`t be able to play games that require hardware acceleration
boot camp solves this, you just have a dual boot, u install all necessary drivers from your MacOS cd and it`s just like u had a PC ... just played Fallout 3 there smoothly

and like Jaygray, i never need to restart my system well except for getting to windows, but that takes only about 2min