Macbook Al to college 101

Afternoon Mac Mavens, I'm in need of some advise in a general way...

How to I prepare my daughter's Macbook Al for college this fall (<month now)?

I bought it for her last Christmas so she would have time to get her feet wet before leaving the ol' homestead.

Little history first: I'm totally new to Mac and am the last convert in our family (ran out of $$$$). After going through 4 years my oldest daughter was in college, she asked for a 15" Macbook Pro for her graduation present. That 4 years I spent maintaining 4 PC desktops and a laptop 24/7 with all the anti-virus, spyware, malware and firewalls that my wife and 2 daughters could care less about. Every time my daughter would come home from college for any reason, she tore down her desktop and brought it home so I could clean and sometimes re-install. Last Christmas, I bought a 24" iMac for my wife and a Macbook Al for my youngest daughter. Nobody bugs me for help any longer...I am no longer a Windows slave thanks to the Macs.

I may be paranoid, but what do I need to do to get the Macbook Al ready for the college's wired/wireless system? I know that's a very vague question, but I'm sure the knowledge in this forum knows where I'm coming from ;D

My fears are theft, virus, spyware and OS X configurations for best protection.

Don't have to worry about viruses. OS X has a great Firewall setting under System Preferences you should enable.

Find out if the dorms provide wireless service. Macbooks come with a wireless card already installed and it will detect any wireless signals nearby. You may need to buy a wireless base station and pay for internet service, but I think most dorms these days provide internet. You don't necessarily need an Apple Airport Extreme base station, but it does work really well with Macbooks.

For theft, you might look into Orbicule, which can track a stolen Macbook within a few meters. iAlertU is a cool app that arms a Macbook with a "car alarm" that you can enable and disable with an Apple remote. If anyone tries to move or touch it, the iSight camera snaps a picture of the thief and sends it to your email address, and the whole thing starts beeping and flashing. Won't stop someone from just taking out the battery, but if you can't get Orbicule right away, it's better than nothing.

Also, you can get a Kensington lock that attaches to the MB.

Virus protection is required by the University in order to connect. They provide Sophos for Mac for a $5 annual fee.

Firewall already provided is nice. Will go ahead and enable that tonight just to see how it behaves with my wireless.

The University is 100% wireless outside the residential dorms and inside they are wired with a hub provided. They do not allow routers in the dorms.

Orbicule and iAlertU will get some investigation tonight. This type of a program looks like a must. I've already told her what a hot item the new Macbooks are at a college campus. Not sure if I want the info going back to her or a paid service of some sort.

Kensington lock looks like a carry in your bag item. What type do you recommend, combo, key, etc. Not sure if a table leg would always be available.

Thanks so much Oneironaut for getting the ball rolling with some excellent suggestions.

The firewall has been enabled without a hitch. D2 (youngest daughter) selected to Allow Only Essential Services...would this be correct?

Does OS X have anything that requires an enabled incoming connection? Or, should we "set access for specific services and applications?

D2 is just like D1 (oldest daughter) in that if it's not on auto-update it remains as is

This OS X is kool...how many days to Christmas? ;D

Orbicule (Undercover 3) looks like the doctor prescribed it...it does the investigative work, not the student.

iAlertU seems like the perfect choice when your close at hand with it's alarm system. Don't have to worry about turning your head and the mac disappears.

Do you suppose they could both be run at once?

I apologize if I'm asking too many questions too fast.

Congrats on freedom!
"Only Essential Services" would be correct. If you want to micro-manage, you can set access for specific services etc, but you should be OK with the default.
If you're concerned about security (I never am, knock on wood...), I'd recommend the Kensington lock as well.
Good luck!

zacharace said:

Congrats on freedom!
"Only Essential Services" would be correct. If you want to micro-manage, you can set access for specific services etc, but you should be OK with the default.
If you're concerned about security (I never am, knock on wood...), I'd recommend the Kensington lock as well.
Good luck!

Click to expand...

I would rather stay on the safe side with my daughter doing the driving. She has no concern for security (unless it's buried in iTunes somewhere)

Would you recommend a keyed or combo lock?

Besides all the good advice you received, take a look into this insurance for the Mac: Safeware Certain home owner's policies cover things like portable computers for students away from home while others do not. Check into your policy first.

BTW, I highly recommend Orbicule.

Regards.

Orbicule runs in the background, as far as I know, so using iAlertU (which is free) shouldn't interfere. As for the lock, key or combo is up to you. If she's forgetful, she might forget the combination (in which case maybe you should keep a copy of it somewhere). Or if she's absent-minded, she might lose the key. That's something you guys will have to figure out.

Even though most security features on Macs are automatic, you might want to show her just how to deal with the Firewall, how to disable it (if she ever needs to), how to make her computer invisible to others on the network, tell her that no malware can be downloaded without her permission (entering her password before downloading begins), etc.

I know you want to make things as easy as possible, but OS X makes it very easy, and you should give her the basics about protecting your expensive investment. You wouldn't buy her a car and then not show her how to use the alarm, how to put on a Club or how to drive it safely, so you shouldn't let her use the computer until she knows how to protect it correctly.

ranmac, I just noticed this when reading through the Orbicule website for their Undercover software. Looks like they have a student discount:

http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/mac/students.html

chscag said:

Besides all the good advice you received, take a look into this insurance for the Mac: Safeware Certain home owner's policies cover things like portable computers for students away from home while others do not. Check into your policy first.

BTW, I highly recommend Orbicule.

Regards.

Click to expand...

Try to find an insurance rep when you have questions...

Seems as though my home owner's policy covers all of her goodies, minus the deduction, as long as she is in a dorm. This is good news

Nice input chscag and seconds on Orbicule makes it a front runner.

todd51 said:

ranmac, I just noticed this when reading through the Orbicule website for their Undercover software. Looks like they have a student discount:

http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/mac/students.html

Click to expand...

That's a thirds for Orbicule

Sure is handy now that she has everything in order, like her student ID and schedule.

ranmac said:

CLIP...

Kensington lock looks like a carry in your bag item. What type do you recommend, combo, key, etc. Not sure if a table leg would always be available.

Thanks so much Oneironaut for getting the ball rolling with some excellent suggestions.

Click to expand...

My company forces use of the Kensington lock. The "gotcha" is that if you loop it around a table leg, the thief just lifts the table a little and they're off with the loot. She'll need to find something with a "hole" through which you can loop the Kensington to be really secure. Otherwise, it's just window dressing. Usually the chair has lots of options, or the desk drawer pull...you get the idea.

Macbook to college 102

Absolute newbie trying to prepare my daughter's late 2008 13" Macbook for college this fall...Section 102 is backups, such as how to, with and to what and preparation.

I'm kicking myself for not reading the 1st Sticky on portable hardrive recommendations, but that's water over the **** now. I bought her a 500 GB Toshiba USB 2.0 portable HDD to carry around for backups. Her current hardrive is only 250 GB on the Macbook with 2 USB ports.

Ref: USB External Portable Hard Disk Drive by Toshiba

The HDD is formatted with Fat 32 and comes with some backup software for OS X. Should I keep it this way or change to an OS X format?

My plans are to buy a second desktop USB HDD to keep in her room out of site. Maybe copy her CD/DVD to it in case her Mac crashes...really don't wany to send the CD/DVD off to college with her

Don't have a clue were to go from here so give it to me big time

I encourage you to look into Time Machine which comes built into OS X Leopard (ignore the fact that the page linked to says Snow Leopard at the top). If you plug in the drive for the first time, Time Machine will ask if you want to use it for TM. If you choose to use TM, anytime you plug in the HD, all the changes you made to your notebook will be saved to the HD. Now, if you lose a file, you can "go back in time" so to speak to easily retrieve your files.

Perhaps a video would be best at explaining this.

jakerich said:

My company forces use of the Kensington lock. The "gotcha" is that if you loop it around a table leg, the thief just lifts the table a little and they're off with the loot. She'll need to find something with a "hole" through which you can loop the Kensington to be really secure. Otherwise, it's just window dressing. Usually the chair has lots of options, or the desk drawer pull...you get the idea.

Click to expand...

The table/desk in her room doesn't have legs, so I told her she would need to use her bed. I have my sites on a Targus model PA410S-1 that comes with a base plate that can be attached.

Ref: Targus*|*PA410S-1*–*Targus DEFCON® SCL (Serialized Cable Lock)

Along with the software mentioned above, it's in my daughter's hands

NOTE: Merged similar threads

D3v1L80Y said:

NOTE: Merged similar threads

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Sorry, I was trying to put the different questions into appropriate Titled threads.

I have numerous questions due to my inexperience and didn't want to get this too garbled.

vansmith said:

I encourage you to look into Time Machine which comes built into OS X Leopard (ignore the fact that the page linked to says Snow Leopard at the top). If you plug in the drive for the first time, Time Machine will ask if you want to use it for TM. If you choose to use TM, anytime you plug in the HD, all the changes you made to your notebook will be saved to the HD. Now, if you lose a file, you can "go back in time" so to speak to easily retrieve your files.

Perhaps a video would be best at explaining this.

Click to expand...

Nice find vansmith

I think that's what the doctor ordered for her data backups...automatic data backups. Use the Toshiba for data and a second HDD for system copies,images, etc.

How does the existing Fat 32 sound?

If you use TM, it will format the drive as HFS+ - you aren't given a choice (TM only works with HFS+ formatted drives). Aside from that, FAT32 should only be used if you absolutely need to use the drive on both Windows machines and Macs.

I think most of the guys here already have it covered, but I will say this. When I was in college, 2 years ago, "everyone" on campus was required to have anti-virus software, Mac, PC, and Linux. But what the school can't do, is prove that you actually have it on the computer, and that you are using it.

I had an iMac, and I never had any anti-virus software. They can't prove that you don't have it, and if they ever question you about it, just have your daughter tell them she just reinstalled the computer and are waiting for you (dad) to email the license code to activate it.

vansmith said:

If you use TM, it will format the drive as HFS+

Click to expand...

HFS+ must be a Mac format...

when partitioning with Mac, do you need to separate a boot partition from a data partition?

It's gotta be better than DOS and fdisk :Blushing:

Stretch said:

They can't prove that you don't have it, and if they ever question you about it, just have your daughter tell them she just reinstalled the computer and are waiting for you (dad) to email the license code to activate it.

Click to expand...

Guess that makes cents to me...
but, $5 doesn't break me either ;D

I'll let her cross that bridge with the school's tech support group, if need be.

If you want to monitor any incoming and outgoing network connections on the Mac, a program called LittleSnitch works amazingly well. I quite enjoy it myself. You can even choose to have only an icon in the menu, so that your Dock is not so cluttered.

Zeptogram said:

If you want to monitor any incoming and outgoing network connections on the Mac, a program called LittleSnitch works amazingly well. I quite enjoy it myself. You can even choose to have only an icon in the menu, so that your Dock is not so cluttered.

Click to expand...

If it's not part of iTunes, my daughter probably will fail to see the usefulness of monitoring anything.