my last computer dilemma thread....

urbanaries

After at least 6 threads I can think of in the last year lamenting my crappy ol' Vaio laptop.....

I ended up doing what many predicted...back to the dark side, with a 24" iMac.:barb

So now brace for my re-learning curve...when I left I was still using OS9!

This display is truly breathtaking. Thanks for all the great advice in my long quest for pixel nirvana... :devbobo

Oh and it's my 2 year SmugMug anniversary week. Happy anniversary to me!

cmason

Awesome, you are going to enjoy that screen. Frankly, when I pulled it out of the box and put in on my desk, it was embarrassing how big it was. You get used to it...but your neck is sore having to move your head from side to side

Lightroom and 24" monitors were made for each other!

urbanaries

cmason wrote:

Awesome, you are going to enjoy that screen. Frankly, when I pulled it out of the box and put in on my desk, it was embarrassing how big it was. You get used to it...but your neck is sore having to move your head from side to side

Lightroom and 24" monitors were made for each other!

Hey, you can say "I told you so" and it would be ok by me!!!

Trust me, there can't be any worse neck pain than being hunched over a laptop over the last 3 years and 20,000+ edited photos in Lr.

It's funny, the guy at the Apple store was actually steering me toward the 20 b/c he said the same thing you did...that it will look way bigger at home. I said GOOD! No regrets here!!!! Well, except my empty bank account....it's all good though.

pathfinder

Welcome back to the world of Apple, Lynn.

I will be glad to try to answer any questions regarding OS X or LR2 if I can.

I think you will be much happier with all that screen real estate. It really helps with LR2!

urbanaries

pathfinder wrote:

Welcome back to the world of Apple, Lynn.

I will be glad to try to answer any questions regarding OS X or LR2 if I can.

I think you will be much happier with all that screen real estate. It really helps with LR2!

Thanks, PF! I had expected to have some (user) errors thus far, but I'm running smoothly! First line of order was installing identical versions of Lr 1.4.1 on the imac to mirror my old PC, and now importing entire catalog from the external hard drive...which I'm still shocked it recognized without me reformatting the entire thing. Anyhoo, once I get to ground zero I'll be upgrading to LR2...can't wait!

Moogle Pepper

Oooh!! Congratulations on getting the iMac!!

urbanaries

Moogle Pepper wrote:

Oooh!! Congratulations on getting the iMac!!

Thanks, Moogle! I'm getting too old to stay up until 2am on a work night playing with new toys....:D

Moogle Pepper

I actually want to get an iMac as well! I stayed up too long when I got my macbook pro.. haha! So I know that feeling too!

DavidTO

Congrats, Lynn!

Just let us know if you need any help.

urbanaries

DavidTO wrote:

Congrats, Lynn!

Just let us know if you need any help.

Thanks, David. Having fun working thru the unsolicited Mac advice thread

Moogle Pepper

urbanaries wrote:

Thanks, David. Having fun working thru the unsolicited Mac advice thread

Good luck on that...

I tried that when researching about the macbook pro!! It... was both immense and overwhelming!!

Trasmc

Congrats on the purchase Lynne! You'll love it. Upgrade the RAM if you haven't already (cheap at Frye's, and easy to install). I went with the 20" late last year after a long hiatus from Mac and wonder why I ever left!

Scott

urbanaries

Trasmc wrote:

Congrats on the purchase Lynne! You'll love it. Upgrade the RAM if you haven't already (cheap at Frye's, and easy to install). I went with the 20" late last year after a long hiatus from Mac and wonder why I ever left!

Scott

Thanks, Scott!

I calibrated with my Huey yesterday and I think it did a really good job. My eyes have died and gone to heaven!!!!

My only major issue with the iMac is my internet connection. Was/is lightning fast on my Vaio (Comcast cable internet, Belkin wireless router) but is extremely choppy/slow on the iMac, so I don't think it's an internet or router-side issue.

For example, I can't upload a Blurb book because it keeps getting "out of sequence chunks" and/or kicks off the internet entirely. Never had that issue before. Also, when I launch FF, it takes about 4-5 refreshes for a page to actually load, while Airport is "scanning."

Can anyone direct me to some trouble shooting for the Airport?

DavidTO

Lynn,

I don't have anything specific to offer, other than a google search. You could post in the mac advice thread, it might get seen by some of the network gurus there.

BradfordBenn

urbanaries wrote:

Can anyone direct me to some trouble shooting for the Airport?

This might be late to the party, but on the Belkin router can you change its channel? Most Wireless Router come set to use Channel 6, and most people don't change them so you get lots of intermodulation if there are bunches around you. Changing to Channel 1 or Channel 11 should help with that. I know it does work for me when I travel with my wireless stuff for work.

cmason

Seen a bunch of folks with problems like yours but no answers. I have mine connected to a wire, so that I can get full bandwidth to my router, so I have never used the wireless on the iMac.

I have seen others suggest disabling IPV6 support helps, and I do have mine off.

So, go to System Preferences, choose Network. Select Airport. Select Advanced. Select TCP/IP at the top, then where it says "Configure IPV6, select "Off".

Also, though likely not related to your issue, you may want to try setting your DNS. Sometimes it helps in speeding your internet, though it won't help in keeping your connection live. I use and recommend OpenDNS and recommend you set your DNS to that, preferably in your router, but I suggest for now try it on your iMac, see if it improves things.

If you want to give OpenDNS a go, Select 'DNS' at the top, and click "+" and enter 208.67.222.222, hit "+" again, and enter 208.67.220.220. You can delete whatever entry was in there before (may want to write it down if it wasnt your router, to use again if needed).

DavidTO

Lynn,

After a bit of digging around, it appears that the issue is related to 10.5.2. Which version of the OS are you running? Running software update may help.

The other thing to do is to delete the location(s) in your network prefs and start from scratch.

urbanaries

I realllly appreciate you guys attempting to answer my vague question. If it was OS9 wired connection I could have figured it out! I tried running network diagnostics last night and now I have no connectivity, so it's not just a low performance issue, it's now a no performance state.

The TCP/IP suggestions are very helpful. I will try that and the software update tonight and report back. I am pretty sure I'm running 10.5.2, David.

Thanks, guys, I know this is an annoying type of question but I was truly at a loss, without contacting fellow Mac users!

urbanaries

PC laptop connected fine until after I tried to get on with the iMac. Then I'd run the Comcast network wizard, It would have me restart my router, work ok for a few minutes, then never seemed to acquire a network address and connection would putz out. When I'd get it to work on one computer it would kick the other off. I've verified I have all the right router settings for my ISP. I added the MAC addresses of both computers to the Belkin router interface, and disabled WEP entirely.

So, I tried during this time to download the 600MB OS 10.5.5. update and after about 12 router restarts, got 80% of it downloaded before giving up. I just downloaded the update here on my work PC (took all of 2 minutes) and plan on burning it to disc and using that to update the Mac. Will I be able to run the update from the disc? Seems like I could but then again, I clearly need help anticipating issues.

DavidTO

urbanaries wrote:

PC laptop connected fine until after I tried to get on with the iMac. Then I'd run the Comcast network wizard, It would have me restart my router, work ok for a few minutes, then never seemed to acquire a network address and connection would putz out. When I'd get it to work on one computer it would kick the other off. I've verified I have all the right router settings for my ISP. I added the MAC addresses of both computers to the Belkin router interface, and disabled WEP entirely.

So, I tried during this time to download the 600MB OS 10.5.5. update and after about 12 router restarts, got 80% of it downloaded before giving up. I just downloaded the update here on my work PC (took all of 2 minutes) and plan on burning it to disc and using that to update the Mac. Will I be able to run the update from the disc? Seems like I could but then again, I clearly need help anticipating issues.

Drag it to your hard drive, and run from there, I would think. Although it should work off the CD, I dunno.

urbanaries

DavidTO wrote:

Drag it to your hard drive, and run from there, I would think. Although it should work off the CD, I dunno.

Ok, just making sure I'm not missing something glaring. We'll find out! Thanks David!

cmason

urbanaries wrote:

PC laptop connected fine until after I tried to get on with the iMac. Then I'd run the Comcast network wizard, It would have me restart my router, work ok for a few minutes, then never seemed to acquire a network address and connection would putz out. When I'd get it to work on one computer it would kick the other off. I've verified I have all the right router settings for my ISP. I added the MAC addresses of both computers to the Belkin router interface, and disabled WEP entirely.

Lynn: this issue and the one you mentioned before all sounds like IP address collision. I bet your laptop and your iMac are getting the same IP Address from your router somehow.

If in setting up your iMac you copied the network settings from your PC, and it included an IP address, vs DHCP, then this is your problem. One suggestion is to assign a diff IP to both your iMac and PC, instead of using DHCP.

So, for example, if your Router is set for IP address 192.168.15.1, assign 192.168.15.101 to the iMac, and 192.168.15.102 to the PC.

At least that will eliminate this possibility from the mix. If it does nothing, you can return to DHCP.

urbanaries

cmason wrote:

Lynn: this issue and the one you mentioned before all sounds like IP address collision. I bet your laptop and your iMac are getting the same IP Address from your router somehow.

If in setting up your iMac you copied the network settings from your PC, and it included an IP address, vs DHCP, then this is your problem. One suggestion is to assign a diff IP to both your iMac and PC, instead of using DHCP.

So, for example, if your Router is set for IP address 192.168.15.1, assign 192.168.15.101 to the iMac, and 192.168.15.102 to the PC.

At least that will eliminate this possibility from the mix. If it does nothing, you can return to DHCP.

Thank you for responding! I think you are on to something. The brilliant (and frustrating) thing about iMacs is that it did the entire set up itself, so I couldn't really see what it was doing to connect to the router initially...it just asked for the WEP password and it appeared to work fine that first (lovely) day.

Forgive me for asking but do I assign the IP address on the router side computers, or from the computer side?

cmason

urbanaries wrote:

Thank you for responding! I think you are on to something. The brilliant (and frustrating) thing about iMacs is that it did the entire set up itself, so I couldn't really see what it was doing to connect to the router initially...it just asked for the WEP password and it appeared to work fine that first (lovely) day.

Forgive me for asking but do I assign the IP address on the router side computers, or from the computer side?

You can do it from the computer side. So give this a go: on the iMac, open System Preferences. Click Network then make sure you have the right connection on the left hand side (Airport?) Then select the "Configure' drop down, and select "Manually".

Keep everything but "IP Address" the same, dont change any thing else. But for IP Address, copy the first 3 groups of numbers from the 'Router' section. then put in "101" in the fourth group. ( in this case, if your Router is "192.168.15.1", then enter "192.168.15.101" in the IP address. Reboot the Mac and see if things improve. If they don't then , simply go back into your network confige, and change it back to 'DHCP".

urbanaries

cmason wrote:

You can do it from the computer side. So give this a go: on the iMac, open System Preferences. Click Network then make sure you have the right connection on the left hand side (Airport?) Then select the "Configure' drop down, and select "Manually".

Keep everything but "IP Address" the same, dont change any thing else. But for IP Address, copy the first 3 groups of numbers from the 'Router' section. then put in "101" in the fourth group. ( in this case, if your Router is "192.168.15.1", then enter "192.168.15.101" in the IP address. Reboot the Mac and see if things improve. If they don't then , simply go back into your network confige, and change it back to 'DHCP".

You're the greatest! thanks for your patient instructions...really appreciate it! I owe you! Wish me luck.

urbanaries

This is why IT issues frustrate me so much. I downloaded the update, saved it to my flash drive, get home, run the install app, and it says about my Macintosh HD:

You cannot install Mac OS X Update on this volume. This volume does not meet the requirements for this update.

I knew it!

I thought Macs were just supposed to work.:cry

DavidTO

urbanaries wrote:

This is why IT issues frustrate me so much. I downloaded the update, saved it to my flash drive, get home, run the install app, and it says about my Macintosh HD:

You cannot install Mac OS X Update on this volume. This volume does not meet the requirements for this update.

I knew it!

I thought Macs were just supposed to work.:cry

The updater you downloaded could have been for 10.5.4 to 10.5.5, and you have 10.5.2, or something similar. I guess I should have thought of that: you want the combo updater. Normally you wouldn't have to worry about that, since you'd be downloading it through the built-in software update. This is a special case. Sorry. I think you'll get sorted out with the IP thing cmason suggested? If not, go here. Note the system requirements include 10.5.1 - 10.5.4.

cmason

Doesn't Software Update do this automagically for you?

I have never downloaded an update before, I just run Software Update, and it takes care of whatever I needed.

DavidTO

cmason wrote:

Doesn't Software Update do this automagically for you?

I have never downloaded an update before, I just run Software Update, and it takes care of whatever I needed.

Yabbut she was downloading from a work PC, not her iMac.

cmason

DavidTO wrote:

Yabbut she was downloading from a work PC, not her iMac.

ah yes, right, there is the little networking issue, d'oh!

urbanaries

cmason wrote:

Doesn't Software Update do this automagically for you?

I have never downloaded an update before, I just run Software Update, and it takes care of whatever I needed.

Cruel joke! Tried to do the "cheery automagically Apple Software update" last night, thanks for rubbing it in!

Ok, finally home again and can try the IP fix. Wish me luck.

I love Catch-22s.:D :crazy :poke