9/05/2013

[macsupport] Digest Number 9738

14 New Messages

Digest #9738
1a
1b
Re: Setting up a VPN on my laptop by "James Robertson" jamesrob328i
1c
Re: Setting up a VPN on my laptop by "Otto Nikolaus" nikyzf
1d
Re: Setting up a VPN on my laptop by "David Brostoff" dcbrostoff
2.1
Re: .exe files by "Jim Hamm" jimhamm90
2.2
Re: .exe files by "HAL9000" jrswebhome
2.3
Re: .exe files by "Jim Saklad" jimdoc01
2.4
Re: .exe files by "HAL9000" jrswebhome
2.5
Re: .exe files by "Randy B. Singer" randybrucesinger
2.6
Re: .exe files by "Otto Nikolaus" nikyzf
2.7
Re: .exe files by "Julian Thomas"
3a
problem making a pdf by "Louise Stewart" pudgybulldog
3b
Re: problem making a pdf by "David Brostoff" dcbrostoff
3c
Re: problem making a pdf by "Denver Dan" denverdan22180

Messages

Wed Sep 4, 2013 5:59 am (PDT) . Posted by:

"Bob Cook" cookrd1

Jim,

First, just use TeamViewer in the auto remote access mode. This will get
you the security you need without having to set up a VPN. Downside is your
home computer/internet must be on all the time.

Or, just tether to your phone if you can.

Recommendations on VPN - if you are going to pay for one, suggest you get
one based in a country that doesn't require records be kept AND that uses
shared access (lots of people have same internet IP address). If your
needs are not quite so high, Hide My Ass or proXPN are good choices, and if
you use the offer code for proXPN from Twit and go with the annual plan,
cost is only $5/month as long as you keep the service.
BTW, some (maybe many?) sites don't implement SSL correctly, so you are
correct in not trusting any public WIFI that isn't using WPA2 Enterprise.

-Bob
Another cycling fan/TourEasy

On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 12:05 AM, James Robertson <jamesrob@sonic.net> wrote:

> **
>
>
> All my paranoia about email spam has me thinking about what else is risky
> when I'm out and about with my laptop. Much of this is work related (making
> patient rounds in dialysis centers, for example). In each of those
> instances, my access it via SSL with not just the session but also PW and
> username encrypted (because I'm accessing secure networks, typically WPA2
> or WPA2 Enterprise).
>
> However, I travel a fair amount for business and pleasure, and it's been
> my habit to do quite a bit of work on my laptop during downtime in hotels,
> in airport terminals, etc. It never really occurred to me before that my
> web browsing and email were hopping from my MacBook Pro to the WiFi hotspot
> "in the clear." I think I should do something about this, and I guess that
> something is a VPN. My understanding is that I could use my Mac Pro at home
> as a VPN server if I were willing to spend quite a bit of time configuring
> that, but that doing so likely would dramatically slow down the Mac Pro's
> performance for other computing purposes.
>
> I guess the alternatives are variously priced subscription-based services
> such as "Private WiFi" or "StrongVPN." My understanding is that these
> services encrypt everything travelling from my computer to their servers,
> so that someone sitting next to me at Starbucks cannot steal my activity.
> However, that doesn't keep my "stuff" encrypted all the way to its
> destination. What keeps my "stuff" safe from prying eyes at the hopes
> between the VPN provider and the final target IP address? Is that something
> I can or should worry about?
>
> And, of course, does anyone have recommendations regarding
> subscription-basee VPN services>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>

Wed Sep 4, 2013 7:10 am (PDT) . Posted by:

"James Robertson" jamesrob328i


On Sep 4, 2013, at 5:59 AM, Bob Cook <cookrd1@discoveryowners.com> wrote:

> First, just use TeamViewer in the auto remote access mode. This will get you the security you need without having to set up a VPN. Downside is your home computer/internet must be on all the time.
>
> Or, just tether to your phone if you can.
>
> Recommendations on VPN - if you are going to pay for one, suggest you get one based in a country that doesn't require records be kept AND that uses shared access (lots of people have same internet IP address). If your needs are not quite so high, Hide My Ass or proXPN are good choices, and if you use the offer code for proXPN from Twit and go with the annual plan, cost is only $5/month as long as you keep the service.
> BTW, some (maybe many?) sites don't implement SSL correctly, so you are correct in not trusting any public WIFI that isn't using WPA2 Enterprise.

Thanks for responding. I'm hoping this topic is of general interest (how many of us DON'T sometimes sit, sip and surf at Starbucks or Peet's?). The questions that follow aren't in any way intended to be dismissive of your suggestions, but to help me understand what actually happens if I follow one of them. I won't get technical (because I can't); I'll focus on user experience.

Let's say I'm at Starbucks or SFO or anywhere else that my public WiFi access is "open" to sniffing by the miscreant sitting across from me with his own laptop. I THINK what I'd be doing with TeamViewer is logging on to my Mac at home and using IT to do my browsing, email reading/composing, etc., so that the traffic of my personal data to/from the internet goes via my home computer, then back to my eyes via TeamViewer&#39;s encrypted tunnel between my home computer and my laptop. One problem with that is that if the purpose of obtaining internet access is to "grab" my inbox contents into my IMAP and Exchange accounts for offline reading, what I'll actually be doing is filling the instances of those inboxes on my HOME computer, not my laptop. (I think also I'd need to make certain my email client isn't running on my laptop when I connect to my home computer via TeamViewer, else the laptop might take advantage of the simultaneous unsecured connection to the Internet to synchronize mail (or does establishing a TeamViewer remote access connection prevent other internet access at the same time?).

Another problem (I'm assuming that what I'm doing with TeamViewer is akin to opening a "Back To My Mac" screensharing connection or log in connection): when I do screensharing from my 15" laptop to my multi-monitor setup at home, each time I have to spend some setup time picking which monitor to look at, set screen aspect ratio, etc. When I do it from work to home or the other direction, I'm using fat pipes at both ends, so the user experience once I get the displays arranged isn't bad, but if I'm doing it over public WiFi surrounded by all the other laptop owners waiting for their OWN chance to be crammed into 34B for the next five hours, the maximum available throughput to each individual is DREADFUL. Adding the overhead of making my laptop primarily a remote control for my home Mac, then trying to stuff what my home Mac is trying to do for me through that SFO WiFi shared access would be even MORE painful (again, lots of assumptions on my part about what's actually happening here).

I've actually considered your second suggestion and I'm getting ready to try it. My son is renting an apartment locally, and we've recently had ATT LTE data service turned on. A few months ago I purchased an ATT "Unite" MiFi hotspot that turned out not to be useful where I work remotely (LTE isn't available there yet, and the latency was painful). I've loaned my son the MiFi device, and with it his whole family get quite usable internet access for their desktops and laptops (they're on the honor system about not streaming or downloading HD movies, to control my costs). I plan to borrow back the MiFi device for my next two trips to test
(1) can I save money and avoid the security concerns by making IT the WiFi access point for my and my wife's laptops?
(2) will using it avoid all the issues I mentioned above?

As far as not trusting Public WiFi that doesn't use WPA2 Enterprise: aren't they pretty much ALL guilty of that?

Finally, your response to my concerns about the REAL security of VPN providers addressed concerns much more sophisticated than what I was actually asking. My use of a VPN to date involves logging on to enterprise health care servers, where I get an end-to-end tunneled connection in both directions. My understanding of what the subscription-based VPN providers really offer is encrypted traffic only from me to their servers, which also permits me to "tell the world" I'm somewhere else by showing the world that my IP address is atop Mt Everest or in Adack, AK--actually I doubt I'll find a VPN provider with servers in one of those locations :-)

My question related to the issue of the accessibility of my "stuff" to bad guys as it travels from the VPN provider's servers to its real destination, be that my ISP's mail servers, my bank, my iCloud servers, or whatever. My feeble understanding of the way the internet "works" is that this part of the data journey is much lower risk, because the ONE place where everything could be traveling in a continuous stream of readable data is the very first hop from my computer to the first router, and THAT's where the risk lies with open unencrypted WiFi. Am I right there?

Again, thanks so much for answering. I'm learning quite a bit here!

--
Jim Robertson
__o
_-\<,_
(*)/ (*)
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
My other car is an S-Works Roubaix

Wed Sep 4, 2013 7:11 am (PDT) . Posted by:

"Otto Nikolaus" nikyzf

You might also want to look at Tunnel Bear.
<https://www.tunnelbear.com>

Otto

On 4 September 2013 13:59, Bob Cook <cookrd1@discoveryowners.com> wrote:

>
>
> Jim,
>
> First, just use TeamViewer in the auto remote access mode. This will get
> you the security you need without having to set up a VPN. Downside is your
> home computer/internet must be on all the time.
>
> Or, just tether to your phone if you can.
>
> Recommendations on VPN - if you are going to pay for one, suggest you get
> one based in a country that doesn't require records be kept AND that uses
> shared access (lots of people have same internet IP address). If your
> needs are not quite so high, Hide My Ass or proXPN are good choices, and if
> you use the offer code for proXPN from Twit and go with the annual plan,
> cost is only $5/month as long as you keep the service.
> BTW, some (maybe many?) sites don't implement SSL correctly, so you are
> correct in not trusting any public WIFI that isn't using WPA2 Enterprise.
>

Wed Sep 4, 2013 10:53 am (PDT) . Posted by:

"David Brostoff" dcbrostoff

On Sep 3, 2013, at 21:05 , James Robertson <jamesrob@sonic.net> wrote:

> And, of course, does anyone have recommendations regarding subscription-basee VPN services>

I use PublicVPN when I travel. (Otherwise I don't use my computer to access public WiFi.) It was recommended in a Take Control book, along with WiTopia. The advantage of Public VPN is that you can buy it by the month, so it's great if you only travel sporadically, as I do.

David

Wed Sep 4, 2013 12:39 pm (PDT) . Posted by:

"Jim Hamm" jimhamm90

You might take a look at this video....Jim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip77o8T3QtY

On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 9:21 PM, Earle Jones <earle.jones@comcast.net> wrote:

> **
>
>
> *
> Hi!
>
> I realize that files with the extension .exe are Windows executable files
> and can't be opened with Mac programs.
>
> I tried using "File Juicer" to see whether I could extract some useful
> text and possibly some jpegs.
>
> I got a few pictures, but no useful text at all – just a bunch of
> gibberish.
>
> Are there any ways to get useful data from .exe files with a Mac?
>
> Thanks!
>
> earle
> *
> ____________________
> Earle Jones 
> 501 Portola Road #8008
> Portola Valley CA 94028
> Home: 650-424-4362
> Cell: 650-269-0035
> earle.jones@comcast.net
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>

Wed Sep 4, 2013 2:37 pm (PDT) . Posted by:

"HAL9000" jrswebhome

My mind just got blowed up. How long has this been out there. All the PC apps I've wanted to run in the past. Incredible. Running in X11.

Interesting, Mein Herr. But will it revive das Vaterland? :)

--- In macsupportcentral@yahoogroups.com, Jim Hamm <machamm@...> wrote:
>
> You might take a look at this video....Jim
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip77o8T3QtY
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 9:21 PM, Earle Jones <earle.jones@...> wrote:
>
> > **
> >
> >
> > *
> > Hi!
> >
> > I realize that files with the extension .exe are Windows executable files
> > and can't be opened with Mac programs.
> >
> > I tried using "File Juicer" to see whether I could extract some useful
> > text and possibly some jpegs.
> >
> > I got a few pictures, but no useful text at all â€" just a bunch of
> > gibberish.
> >
> > Are there any ways to get useful data from .exe files with a Mac?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > earle
> > *
> > ____________________
> > Earle Jones 
> > 501 Portola Road #8008
> > Portola Valley CA 94028
> > Home: 650-424-4362
> > Cell: 650-269-0035
> > earle.jones@...
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
>

Wed Sep 4, 2013 2:46 pm (PDT) . Posted by:

"Jim Saklad" jimdoc01

> My mind just got blowed up. How long has this been out there. All the PC apps I've wanted to run in the past. Incredible. Running in X11.

One way or another you've been able to run Windows files on a Mac for about 15 years.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Saklad mailto:jimdoc@icloud.com

Wed Sep 4, 2013 3:04 pm (PDT) . Posted by:

"HAL9000" jrswebhome

Yes, but all the stuff you had to deal with, even a virtual disk? I tried it once and trashed it after a couple of days. This looks tiny and simple.

--- In macsupportcentral@yahoogroups.com, Jim Saklad <jimdoc@...> wrote:
>
> > My mind just got blowed up. How long has this been out there. All the PC apps I've wanted to run in the past. Incredible. Running in X11.
>
> One way or another you've been able to run Windows files on a Mac for about 15 years.
>
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Jim Saklad mailto:jimdoc@...
>

Wed Sep 4, 2013 4:07 pm (PDT) . Posted by:

"Randy B. Singer" randybrucesinger


On Sep 4, 2013, at 2:37 PM, HAL9000 wrote:

> My mind just got blowed up. How long has this been out there. All the PC apps I've wanted to run in the past. Incredible. Running in X11.
>
> Interesting, Mein Herr. But will it revive das Vaterland? :)
>
> --- In macsupportcentral@yahoogroups.com, Jim Hamm <machamm@...> wrote:
> >
> > You might take a look at this video....Jim
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip77o8T3QtY

WineBottler is based on the open source Wine project.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/darwine/

Also based on Wine, but much more advanced, is the commercial product:

CrossOver ($60)
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/

These products are not a panacea. Even CrossOver is rarely able to run Windows programs perfectly. In fact, I've only ever known fewer than a handful of people who had a need to run Windows programs on their Mac and have been satisfied with CrossOver.

If you regularly need to run Windows programs, and need them to run perfectly, on your Mac, the way to go is to purchase either Parallels or Fusion.

___________________________________________
Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
___________________________________________

Wed Sep 4, 2013 4:40 pm (PDT) . Posted by:

"Otto Nikolaus" nikyzf

On 5 September 2013 00:07, Randy B. Singer <randy@macattorney.com> wrote:

>
> WineBottler is based on the open source Wine project.
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/darwine/
>
> Also based on Wine, but much more advanced, is the commercial product:
>
> CrossOver ($60)
> http://www.codeweavers.com/products/
>
> These products are not a panacea. Even CrossOver is rarely able to run
> Windows programs perfectly. In fact, I've only ever known fewer than a
> handful of people who had a need to run Windows programs on their Mac and
> have been satisfied with CrossOver.
>
> If you regularly need to run Windows programs, and need them to run
> perfectly, on your Mac, the way to go is to purchase either Parallels or
> Fusion.
>

Or Bootcamp (free but dual-boot so you run either OS X or Windows/other OS,
not both at the same time). I don't know if it's still true but when the
first Intel Macs appeared, Windows ran faster on Macs under Bootcamp than
they did on equivalent "PCs" of the time.

There's also Virtual Box. Free, but probably not as good as Parallels or
Fusion.

Anyway, good to see that Wine has evolved, but I have to ask why it's using
X11 instead of running natively under OS X.

Otto

Wed Sep 4, 2013 6:21 pm (PDT) . Posted by:

"Julian Thomas"


On 4Sep 2013, at 7:07 PM, "Randy B. Singer" <randy@macattorney.com> wrote:

> If you regularly need to run Windows programs, and need them to run perfectly, on your Mac, the way to go is to purchase either Parallels or Fusion.

Virtual box is a 3rd option - being free, it's tempting to try it first.

I have a W7 virtual machine on my iMac - only program that wouldn't run was the auto run program from a diagnostic X-ray CD with images. It would crash the VM, although it worked OK on XP native and W7 native.

--
jt@jt-mj.net http://jt-mj.net
Murphy's Anachronism: disk failures occur immediately before backing up.

Wed Sep 4, 2013 4:50 pm (PDT) . Posted by:

"Louise Stewart" pudgybulldog

On my old G4, I was using Quark 7.5 and each time I tried to make a pdf of the documents, Quark crashed. I got an error message saying it had to quit and was sorry or something like that and asked me to send a bug report, and I did so twice.

I REALLY need to make these pdfs to send to someone.

This is my G4 info:
Machine Name: Power Mac G4
Machine Model: PowerMac3,3
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.9)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 400 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.2.8f1

Most of the time I use my Mac Mini but I haven't bought a Mini version of Quark. One well-informed Mac person told me this version of Quark would work on the Mini but online I read that it might but would be quirky. Should I try to install Quark on the Mini and see? But would that make a difference in its producing a pdf? I use Quark on the G4 fairly often and make pdfs nearly every time I use it.

Here's the Mini info:
OS 10.7.5 (11G63b)
Mac mini -- Mid 2011
2GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 3000 288 MB

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini5,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.3 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Boot ROM Version: MM51.0077.B10
SMC Version (system): 1.76f0

Louise

Wed Sep 4, 2013 5:03 pm (PDT) . Posted by:

"David Brostoff" dcbrostoff

On Sep 4, 2013, at 16:50 , Louise Stewart <veggie236@earthlink.net> wrote:

> On my old G4, I was using Quark 7.5 and each time I tried to make a pdf of the documents, Quark crashed. I got an error message saying it had to quit and was sorry or something like that and asked me to send a bug report, and I did so twice.
>
> I REALLY need to make these pdfs to send to someone.

If I remember correctly, there are a couple of different ways you can make a PDF in Quark. How are you doing it?

David

Wed Sep 4, 2013 5:17 pm (PDT) . Posted by:

"Denver Dan" denverdan22180

Howdy.

Some time ago Quark changed to a non Adobe 3rd party PDF making
technology. It's sort of generically called Jaws.

Sometimes Jaws doesn't work properly and files are left in a Jaws
folder that should be automatically deleted after a PDF is made and
saved.

And sometimes there may be an issue with a missing font found in the
document to be exported as a PDF. It may be missing from Quark's batch
of fonts or not activated by your Suitcase program or by Apple's Font
Book program.

Deleting the contents of the Jaws folder usually fixes the problem

I'm not sure where the Jaws folder is located in your QuarkXPress
version 7.5. I'm using Quark 9.3 and it's in the User's Library
folder but in version 7.5 it may be in the main Quark folder in
Applications.

Anything you delete from Jaws will be recreated the next time you make
a PDF.

BTW, you can still make a PDF file in Quark the old fashioned way by
exporting it as an EPS file first and then Using Adobe's Distiller to
make the PDF.

Denver Dan

On Wed, 04 Sep 2013 19:50:16 -0400, Louise Stewart wrote:
> On my old G4, I was using Quark 7.5 and each time I tried to make a
> pdf of the documents, Quark crashed. I got an error message saying it
> had to quit and was sorry or something like that and asked me to send
> a bug report, and I did so twice.
>
> I REALLY need to make these pdfs to send to someone.
>
> This is my G4 info:
> Machine Name: Power Mac G4
> Machine Model:
> PowerMac3,3
> CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.9)
> Number Of CPUs: 1
> CPU Speed: 400 MHz
> L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
> Memory: 2 GB
> Bus Speed: 100 MHz
> Boot ROM Version: 4.2.8f1
>
> Most of the time I use my Mac Mini but I haven't bought a Mini
> version of Quark. One well-informed Mac person told me this version
> of Quark would work on the Mini but online I read that it might but
> would be quirky. Should I try to install Quark on the Mini and see?
> But would that make a difference in its producing a pdf? I use Quark
> on the G4 fairly often and make pdfs nearly every time I use it.
>
> Here's the Mini info:
> OS 10.7.5 (11G63b)
> Mac mini -- Mid 2011
> 2GB 1333 MHz DDR3
> Intel HD Graphics 3000 288 MB
>
> Model Name: Mac mini
> Model Identifier: Macmini5,1
> Processor Name: Intel Core i5
> Processor Speed: 2.3 GHz
> Number of Processors: 1
> Total Number of Cores: 2
> L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
> L3 Cache: 3 MB
> Memory: 2 GB
> Boot ROM Version: MM51.0077.B10
> SMC Version (system): 1.76f0
>
> Louise