Product Description

Apple's .Mac service (pronounced dot Mac) offers everything Mac OS X users have come to expect: an attractive, intuitive interface and a wealth of features with all the underlying power you'll ever need. .Mac includes web mail, an online contact management system, storage space, a fully customizable web site of your own, and much more. On your first tour of this suite of subscriber-based services, you'll be delighted by how easy and convenient .Mac is to use. But you'll soon discover that there's a lot more to .Mac than meets the eye! Inside .Mac will help you get the most out of Apple's new Internet services. This handy, quick reference offers a clear overview of the entire .Mac package and many of its not-so-obvious features. You'll learn how to set up and manage your account quickly and without fuss. Each .Mac service is discussed in an objective, no-frills fashion that'll show you how to use--and what to expect from--iDisk, web mail, your personal web site, and everything else that .Mac offers. The book covers: Setting up your .Mac account: a guided tour to getting started with .Mac, Using your iDisk: a detailed look at using iDisk, its directories, the iDisk utility and more, Mac Software: a look at what's included in the software directory, including Virex anti-virus software, the Backup utility, Mac Slides Publisher, and third-party software, . Mac Email: everything you need to know, on configuring your settings to adding additional email accounts, Building a HomePage: an overview of HomePage options that covers uploading files, publishing iPhoto libraries, protecting your site, and publishing and announcing your site, Synchronizing Your Mac with .Mac: learn how to set up and sync your Address Book, iCal Calendars, and more using iSync. From enthusiastic new users to hardcore Mac geeks, anyone who uses .Mac will want to get the most from their subscription service. Inside .Mac is the only book that shows you how. There's no better way take control than with this handy guide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #915828 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-17
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From the Publisher
This handy, quick reference offers a clear overview of the entire .Mac package and many of its not-so-obvious features. You'll learn how to set up and manage your account quickly and without fuss. Each .Mac service is discussed in an objective, no-frills fashion that'll show you how to use--and what to expect from--iDisk, web mail, your personal web site, and everything else that .Mac offers.

About the Author
Chuck Toporek cut his teeth on a Mac II system when he got his first job in publishing in 1988, and has been using them ever since. Chuck is a senior editor in charge of the Mac OS X/Apple Developer Connection (ADC) series for O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. He is also the author/editor of the Mac OS X Panther Pocket Guide, co-author of Mac OS X in a Nutshell, and author of the upcoming title, Inside .Mac.

Excerpted from Inside .Mac by Chuck Toporek. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
CHAPTER 5 - Using Virex

Viruses are the bane of the Internet. They typically get started by some punk who has nothing better to do with their time than to waste everybody else’s. When a virus gets onto your system, they can create a living Hell for you, particularly if the virus is a worm that exploits your mailbox. Fortunately, Macs seem to be safe from most viruses, but every now and then, one will slip through, and when one does, you need to be prepared to deal with it.

.Mac members have access to Virex anti-virus software from McAfee Software. Once installed, you can use Virex to periodically scan your system for viruses; it can also be used to scan email attachments and as a command-line utility from the Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities).

At the time of this writing, Virex hasn’t been localized to support languages other than English and Japanese.

Finding and Installing Virex
If you purchased the boxed set for your .Mac membership, you can find a package for installing Virex on the CD. However, if you registered your .Mac membership online, you can download the Virex package from the Mac.com web site by clicking on the Virex shield icon on the .Mac site’s sidebar.

The Virex Download page is where you can download the latest version of Virex and updates to the virus data files (described later).

The version of Virex we’ll be working with in this chapter is Virex 7.2, which was released in February 2003. A fix, Virex 7.2.1, was released in April 2003, which corrected some problems that affected people who run the Fink package utility. If you are still running Virex 7.1 or an earlier version, you should download and install Virex 7.2.1 from the Mac.com site.

If a newer version of Virex is available, you should download that version and check the book’s web site for an update of the information.

When Virex is installed (in /Applications/Virex 7), the .VirexLogin process is added to your Startup Items preferences pane (System Preferences - Accounts - yourAccount - Startup Items). This process causes Virex to launch automatically when you start up and log in to your Mac.

When you log in, Virex launches automatically and checks the files in your Home directory for viruses. If you don’t want Virex to perform this task when you log in, you can change this setting in Virex’s preferences or by removing the .VirexLogin process from the Login Items panel.

Running Virex
The first time you run Virex 7.2, you will instantly be prompted to enter an administrator’s password to invoke eUpdate.

eUpdate is a small script that automatically looks for updates to Virex 7.2’s virus definition files, or DAT files. If you enter your password and click OK, eUpdate looks in the /Software/.Updates/Anti-Virus Updates directory on your iDisk and compares the DAT file Virex is currently running against any DAT files it finds on your iDisk. If the DAT file on your iDisk is more recent, the update will download and install on your Mac before Virex runs. When the eUpdate has downloaded, Virex 7.2’s Results
window will look similar to that shown in Figure 5-3.

By default, Virex is configured to scan the files in your Home directory (/Users/username). To scan for viruses, simply click on the Scan button and Virex will search through all of the files in your Home directory on its quest for infected files.

Another way to scan files is to drag one or more files (or folders) onto the Scan button from the Finder. If you drag a folder onto the Scan button, the contents of any folders within will also be scanned for viruses.

One fairly standard Mac keyboard shortcut that isn’t available in Virex is a Cancel command, typically c-. (Command-period). If you’ve started to scan a file or directory and decide that you want to cancel that operation, you will need to click on the Stop button. However, if you are scanning files using the vscanx command-line utility (see the later section, "Virus Scanning from the Terminal"), either Control-C or c-. can be used to cancel a scanning operation.