disable captive network assistant
If you use coffee shop wifi services or others that require internet login, you’ve probably noticed in both Lion and Mountain Lion that OS X will produce a pop-up Safari window asking you to login. This can be annoying for several reasons:
1. The window floats on top and gets in the way if you’re trying to do something else
2. The window doesn’t keep cookies or allow plug-ins like 1Password, so you have to enter the login details manually every time
3. Sometimes the pop-up window will simply produce an error message that it can’t connect to the network. You either have to dismiss it manually or wait for it to go (it’ll normally auto-close after about 30 seconds)
If you find this behaviour annoying and want to stop it, there’s a very simple solution (and one that’s also easy to undo if you want to reverse it). Here’s what you do.
1. First go to
[Hard Disk] > System > Library > CoreServices > Captive Network Assistant.app
Click on the app once, and hit ‘return’ on your keyboard. This will make the name editable.
2. Hit the ‘left arrow’ key once to move the cursor to the beginning of the name and to unselect the text.
3. Type an ‘X’ (actually any letter will do, but I like ‘X’ so I can easily find the app later at the bottom of the list even if I forgot its exact name).
4. Hit ‘return’ on the keyboard. At this point, OS X will ask you to provide an Admin password as only Admin users are allowed to mess with files in the System directory. Type in your password and hit ‘OK’.
The name should now read ‘XCaptive Network Assistant.app’.
And that’s it! Captive Network Assistant will never run again unless you decide to change its name back to what it was (to do so, just repeat the procedure above and remove the ‘X’). Of course, you can still login to your internet or coffee shop wifi services by opening a normal browser window. The bonus is now your browser can fill the login details from cookies (if enabled) or your password manager.
🙂
featured picture: illuminated jellyfish by weaverglenn
problems with wifi, Safari and Mountain Lion
If you’ve upgraded to Mountain Lion and traded swift wifi and fast Safari for a flakey internet connection and sluggish browser, you are not alone. Widespread reports of problems with wifi, Safari and Mountain Lion have been mounting ever since July 25th. However, unlike the lengthy debacle with similar wifi problems experienced after the Lion upgrade last year, a lot of users are finding their problems can be solved by using one or more of the tips below.
1. Create a new location and renew the DHCP lease
OS X Daily have a step-by-step procedure here
http://osxdaily.com/2012/08/02/fix-os-x-mountain-lion-wireless-connection-problems/
that is proving hugely successful. Don’t forget to follow their second step about changing the MTU value while you’re at it.
2. Reset default system preferences
If that didn’t do it for you, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and enter Terminal! Open the Terminal.app from
/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
and paste this command
rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist
then press ‘return’.
You will need to restart your mac to see if this has had any beneficial effect, so do that now.
3. Do PRAM & SMC resets
If you’re still suffering problems, it’s time for a couple of system resets. To do the SMC reset you will need to see what kind of mac you have, as the procedure is different for some models. Take a look here and follow the instructions for your model.
Before powering up after the SMC reset, also take the trouble to do a PRAM reset. To do that:
i. Ensure the machine is powered off.
ii. Locate the following keys on your keyboard in preparation for Step 4:
‘command’ – ‘option’ – ‘P’ – ‘R’
iii. Press the ‘power on’ button.
iv. Immediately – and before the grey screen appears – hold down ‘command-option-P-R’ all together.
v. Keep them held down until you’ve heard the start-up chime twice. After you release them you should hear it again, and hopefully your Mac will boot up without wifi/Safari issues.
4. Check Wifi connection
And if that doesn’t work? Time to check your wifi connection. See how strong your signal-to-noise ratio is. You need something in the order of 25 or higher. To find out whether you signal is strong enough, hold down the ‘option’ key and click on the wifi icon in the menu bar. Choose Open Wifi Diagnostics from the menu.
When you see the welcome screen, ignore the ‘Continue’ button and instead press ‘command-N’ on your keyboard.
Click wifi scan in the task bar and scroll to the right where you will see two numbers, ‘signal’ and ‘noise’. Ignore the minus ‘-‘ signs, and subtract the signal number from the ‘noise’ number. Anything over 25 is a good enough signal, below that and the signal is too weak for a reliable connection. Over 40 is excellent (in the example below, you can see the SNR is 34, a pretty good signal for a home router located on the next floor).
If your SNR is lower than 25 you need to either move the computer closer to the router or find a better connection. If the ‘Noise’ shows a very low figure (equals more noise), you can try changing the channel on your router. Look at the other routers in the list and if they are using the same channel as yours, switch your router to something else between 1 and 11.
5. Reinstall OS X
If all else fails…some users are reporting that simply reinstalling OS X is solving the problem for them. Reinstalling doesn’t touch your Apps or user data, but its always wise to make sure you have a backup before undertaking such an operation.
To reinstall, restart the computer while also holding down ‘command-R’ on the keyboard. From the Utilities window that opens up, choose ‘Reinstall OS X’.
Still having problems? Let us know in the comments below.
🙂
featured picture: Internet by ~vagraine
can’t preview movies in Finder?
One of the features I really love in OS X is the ability to preview anything by selecting the file in finder and pressing the spacebar – formally called ‘Quick Look’ – without actually having to open the full app. This is great for both music and movies.
However, if you uninstalled Perian or Flip4Mac or haven’t updated them recently, you will find that a lot of movie files – like .avi, for example – which are not fully supported in QuickTime won’t preview. The answer is to get the latest versions of these two plug-ins:
Perian 1.2.3
http://perian.org
Flip4Mac
http://flip4mac.en.softonic.com/mac
(hit the green download button (free), ignore the one trying to sell you a paid version).
You should then be able to see any movie using Quick Look.
🙂
Related Posts
QuickTime won’t play my video
will Mountain Lion work on my old mac?
If you’re wondering whether your machine can be upgraded to run OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, you can check the full list of supported models below.
To find out which model of mac you’ve got, hold down the option key on your keyboard and select
> About This Mac
Check the ‘Model Identifier’ against this list:
MacBookPro4,1
Macmini5,3
Macmini5,2
Macmini5,1
MacBookPro5,1
MacPro4,1
MacBookPro5,2
iMac8,1
MacBookPro5,4
MacBookAir4,2
iMac11,1
iMac11,2
iMac11,3
MacBookPro8,2
MacBookPro3,1
MacPro5,1
iMac9,1
Macmini3,1
MacBookPro6,1
iMac12,2
iMac12,1
MacBook5,1
MacBook5,2
iMac10,1
MacBookPro7,1
MacBookAir4,1
MacBookPro5,3
MacBookPro6,2
MacBookPro5,5
MacBookAir3,1
MacBookAir3,2
Macmini4,1
Xserve3,1
MacBookAir2,1
MacBookPro8,1
MacBook7,1
MacBookPro8,3
iMac7,1
MacBook6,1
MacPro3,1
Of course, just because your machine’s listed, it doesn’t mean it will necessary meet all the specifications, so be sure to check the tech specs too.
🙂
no sound or volume after upgrading
A problem that seems to be affecting quite a few users after the Mountain Lion upgrade is loss of sound in iTunes, QuickTime and other apps. Some people are reporting that the Volume control is greyed out or won’t move.
The resolution here is to quit and resart the coreaudio process. To do so:
1. Open Activity Monitor.app (Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.app)
2. Select ‘All Processes’ from the drop down menu next to the search bar (called ‘Filter:’) and type in ‘coreaudio’.
3. Select the process name and click the ‘Quit Process’ button at the top. Chose ‘Quit’ or ‘Force Quit’ from the resulting dialogue box.
The coreaudio process will automatically restart itself (if you look closely at the PID number in Activity Monitor you’ll notice it changes after you hit ‘Quit’) and your sound problems should be solved. However, if you find that this procedure only partially solves the problem or doesn’t work for you, also try this:
4. Open Terminal.app (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and copy/paste this command into the Terminal window
rm /Library/Preferences/com.apple.soundpref.plist
then press ‘return’ on your keyboard.
5. Restart your mac and test.
6. Still not working? Check your audio configuration here:
/Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup.app.
Make sure the window has the title Audio Devices, and click ‘Built in Output’ in the sidebar. Are any of the boxes under ‘Mute’ in the main panel checked? If so, uncheck them. Is the format set to 44100.0hz? If not, change it so that it is.
Hope this helps!
🙂
Mountain Lion’s hidden wallpapers
If you’ve been enjoying Mountain Lion’s beautiful new Screensaver images, like National Geographic, Aerial and Cosmos, you might like to have some of those images as wallpapers for your Desktops in Mission Control.
First, from a Finder window, navigate all the way to here:
[Macintosh HD] > System > Library > Frameworks > Screensaver.framework > Versions > A > Resources > Default Collections
Select the four folders inside and then press ‘command’ and ‘c’ on the keyboard. Navigate to your Pictures folder from any Finder window’s sidebar and press ‘command’ and ‘v’ to copy the folders and images.
You can now add them to your collection of available Desktop pictures by clicking the Desktop tab in
> System Preferences… > Desktop & Screensaver
and clicking the plus ‘+’ button in the box underneath the list of folders on the left. From the window that pops up, choose ‘Pictures > National Geographic-1’and hit ‘Choose’.
Repeat for any of the others (Aerial, Cosmos, Nature Patterns) that you want to add. 🙂
Related Posts
get ready for Mountain Lion
With the last seven days of July upon us, the suspense is just killing some people waiting for the release of Apple’s latest version of OS X, 10.8 Mountain Lion. While rumours abound for just about every conceivable day left being the ‘official’ release date (with the 25th being the most popular, it seems), the sensible are making sure they’re prepared. So here’s a few things to do both before and on the big day:
1. Check the tech specs
Check out the tech specs for Mountain Lion and the list of supported machines to make sure you can run it on your current system. If you are upgrading from Snow Leopard, you should also check out will my old apps work with Lion?.
2. Run Software Update
Make sure you have the latest version of everything by running
> Software Update
before you upgrade. This will help to cut down any compatibility problems when installing Mountain Lion.
3. Backup your current install
Without a doubt the biggest cause of trouble and frustration with every OS release is among users who didn’t backup their systems before trying to install the new one. Like Lion, Mountain Lion will be delivered as a download from the App Store, and while this method is certainly convenient, corrupted downloads are not uncommon. Moreover, even when the install proceeds as expected, you want to be able to get back to your previous system if you find things are not to your liking. An OS installation is like performing major surgery on your computer and the chances of complications are always a significant risk. As the old boy scout saying goes ‘Be Prepared’. Backup, backup, backup.
4. Remove everything from your Login Items.
For Lion users, that’s
> System Preferences…> Users & Groups | Login Items
If you’re upgrading from Snow Leopard 10.6.8, go to
> System Preferences…> Accounts | Login Items
There’s a couple of reasons for doing this, but mainly it’s to ensure that you can log in without difficulty. Login Items are one of the main causes of OS problems at the best of times, but with a major upgrade like this, you don’t want any incompatible software choking the system from booting up. See Steps 8 & 9 below about re-activating your Login Items after the installation.
5. Uninstall AV software & other utilities
If you have Sophos, VirusBarrier, iAntiVirus, F-Secure, or similar uninstall these prior to upgrading. After upgrading, if you must use them, look for updates. Uninstall MacKeeper, Little Snitch, LogMeIn or any other 3rd party utility that runs prior to user login.
6. Be prepared for slow download times
Apple’s servers will be hotter than a forest fire on release day, so you can expect download times to be pretty poor. At the very least, connect your computer to your router via ethernet cable rather than wifi – that’ll at least help push things along a bit faster at your end. If you can do it from the office or somewhere else that has a lot more bandwidth than the usual home connection, do so.
7. Save the installer
After the download completes the installer will run automatically. Do NOT click ‘Install’, but instead quit it. Then go to your Applications folder and copy the ‘Install OS X Mountain Lion .app’ and save it to your Downloads folder or somewhere else. Then you can run the installer in your Applications folder.
The reason for doing this is that when you install Mountain Lion the Install app in your Applications folder will self-delete. If the install shouldn’t work for some reason the first time round, you won’t have to go through the whole tiresome wait of a download from the App store again if you save a copy to your Downloads folder.
8. Update 3rd-party apps
Assuming Mountain Lion boots up just fine, the first thing you’re going to want to do (after having a nose around, of course!) is update your 3rd party apps. Start off by opening the App store to see if any that you’ve sourced from there have updates waiting for you. After that, start up all the main apps that you normally use and use their ‘Check for Updates’ option (usually in the Apps main menu), or contact the developers through their websites. If you use Parallels 7, you will need to update that before trying to run your virtual machines.
9. Test your Login Items apps
In particular, you’re going to want to test out the apps that you want to put back in your Login Items, before you put them back in there. Run each app and play around with the system for a couple of hours before deciding to put it back in your Login Items list. If you notice any weird behaviour with Finder, the Dock or Desktop backgrounds, problems with wifi or graphics, chances are one or more of your 3rd party apps needs updating to work with Mountain Lion. If there is no update yet, stop using that app till one becomes available or find an alternative. In general, it’s always best to keep Login Items down to a bare minimum. Running apps at login is a sure fire way to slow down boot up times.
10. Check back with Applehelpwriter.com
As always, I’ll be here with tips on how to get the most out of OS X and how to solve some common problems. See you then!🙂
creating secure folders and files
With FileVault 2 having a number of drawbacks, a common question I’m seeing is how best to secure data on Lion and Mountain Lion without using FV2.
There’s a number of tricks on offer, from making transparent folders, excluding folders from Spotlight, or using Terminal to make them invisible or hidden.
However, all of these methods suffer from one inevitable drawback: anyone who knows their way around Terminal can open, read, copy or delete your folders as if you had never employed any of the above tricks at all. Well, not many people know their way around Terminal you say? But everyone knows their way around Google, and learning how to find files via the Terminal is information easily found, even on Applehelpwriter! In short, all those methods listed above are really a waste of time if it’s security that you’re after.
Fortunately, there is a simple answer to securing localised files or folders, and that’s to make a local encrypted disk image with Disk Utility and then move your data into it. To do so, follow this procedure:
1. Open Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app)
2. Click near the bottom of the sidebar in empty space to make sure none of the disks in the sidebar are selected.
3. Click the New Image icon in the task bar.
4. Give the image a name and choose a location to store it. Storing it in the User Library is not a bad idea. Give it a boring name like ‘old system’, ‘old data’ or something like that, but don’t hit ‘Create’ just yet.
5. At the bottom of the dialogue box is a field for encryption. Click on the option button and choose either 128-bit or 256-bit (the second choice is the strongest but also slower. 128-bit is still so strong that almost no-one save the CIA will be able to crack it!)
6. Create a password that you’re not going to forget. Do NOT use the same password that you use for your Admin account or for anything else for maximum security. Uncheck the ‘save in my keychain’ option.
Warning!
Warning!
if you forget the password don't waste time seeking help trying to break it. The system is designed to be uncrackable. If you forget the password, your data is lost for good.
PRO TIP: For that reason, you might like to use a password manager like ‘1Password‘ for this and all your other passwords. The main reason people forget passwords is infrequency of use. With 1Password you use a single password to unlock all your other passwords and to have them entered automatically into web pages and other fields.
7. Set up the rest of the options as in the screenshot below.
8. When you’re ready, press ‘Create’ to make the disk image.
9. Once the image has been created, copy the files you want to protect into the disk image window, just like you would a hard disk or other connected device. Now, whenever you want to access your protected data, just click on the disk image and enter the password and your data is ready to be used.
10. Test mounting and ejecting the disk image a few time. Open a few files and save your changes. After you’re sure everything is working as expected, delete the files from the original location that you copied them from. Also, don’t forget to eject the disk image in Finder’s sidebar each time when you’re done using it to prevent anyone else accessing your protected files.
🙂
Camtasia 2 reviewed
I’ve been a long time user of TechSmith’s Camtasia screen capture software, primarily for two reasons: ease of use combined with a rich set of editing features. Camtasia for Mac 2 strengthens this product in a number of significant ways although there are still some usability issues that need addressing, as well as room for further improvements in the feature set. In this review, I’ll walk you through what Camtasia has to offer as well as indicate the kind of uses where it excels as an aid to the technical communicator. Read the review…
applehelpwriter.com 