FLMUG (aka MUGOO) » Tips

A quick way to speed up Web surfing on all your computers

Mike Sullivan — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:01:29 +0000

This month’s tip from Mac-Aide.com: Use Public DNS for Faster Web Surfing

I have noticed, while helping several Mac-using friends here in Florida, that their Web surfing experience is less than optimal. It’s not that the “wire speed” they are getting from their Internet Service Provider is slow — most of us here in Central Florida have at least 10Mbps download speeds through the local providers. In fact, I’ve found that the culprit is slow Domain Name Server (DNS) response from their ISP.

DNS is part of the behind-the-scenes ‘plumbing’ of the Internet. DNS is what makes it possible for your computer to connect to other sites on the Internet using easy-to-remember names like Yahoo.com or Google.com. Without DNS, you would need to remember and type in long Internet Protocol addresses for each site, like 70.121.3.82 (my computer’s current IP address on the Internet). Instead, a special computer at your ISP called the Domain Name Server ‘translates’ the easy-to-remember names like google.com or flmug.org into the IP addresses that are actually used get you to the Web sites you want to view.

A slow DNS server at your ISP can slow down your whole Web experience. Since most Web pages today place dozens or hundreds of requests to various servers around the Internet, a delay of even a few hundreths of a second per request in DNS response can add up to several seconds of delay on every page you visit. What I’ve found is that the local ISPs do not have fast, reliable and responsive DNS servers to quickly and efficiently send their customer’s traffic where it needs to go.

In every case I’ve seen so far, a quick, easy and free change in the DNS settings of their home Internet router fixes the problem. Switching the router from using the ISPs default DNS service to a faster, more efficient public DNS gives an immediate and noticeable improvement in browsing performance. Pages load faster, and the whole online experience seems, and is, snappier.

Making this change is something you can do yourself in just a few minutes, or I can do it for you just as quickly. There’s nothing to download, no software to install or maintain, nothing to buy, nothing to subscribe to or register for. And it’s free!

To read more about DNS and why you should consider switching to a public DNS, check out these two excellent suppliers of public DNS:

I customarily configure the networks of all my clients to use OpenDNS, and I use it myself on my home networks. I’ve never had a problem and the browsing speed I get using my local ISP is noticeably faster with OpenDNS than when using the DNS the ISP provides by default.

Since I first wrote this column for subscribers to my Mac-Aide Tip-of-the-Month newsletter, the famous New York Times technology columnist David Pogue praised OpenDNS in his blog this week. Read his excellent take on why this is a no-brainer upgrade for all Internet users at his blog here.

Give it a try if you’re up to it, or let’s work on it together. It should make a big difference in your online experience, no matter which ISP you have. And remember, it’s FREE!

This tip from Mike Sullivan at Mac-Aide.com, a Mac expert offering training and consulting for Apple users in the Kissimmee/Orlando, FL area.

A Nice Screen Sharing Option

Walt Sellers — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:56:45 +0000

Are you a frequent user of a VNC client application like “Chicken of the VNC” or “Apple Remote Desktop”? Is the complexity of getting and keeping VNC service more than you’d like? Then this tip may be for you.

Mac OS X 10.6 has a nice folder of applications hidden away in the System folder (/System/Library/”Core Services”/). Among other nice things therein, is the application “Screen Sharing”.

This application’s main interface is a bit spartan; it only asks for the address of the desired computer. There is no list of computers, such as in Apple Remote Desktop or Chicken of the VNC. But unlike Chicken of the VNC, you can login to the remote computer with a MacOS user name and password. You don’t have to have a specific VNC password.

Screen Sharing does a better job of showing the remote screen than VNC in my opinion. Unlike Chicken, it will reduce the size of the Remote screen so all of it fits in your monitor. Also, it will show you the pointer as it appears on the remote screen (important so you can see that the beachball is running or the pointer in Finder is showing that a drag will result in an alias or copy.) Also important, if your a working with a user who is at the remote computer, you can see them move the pointer on their end. (It is nice to see it when someone is pointing to something with the mouse while talking to you on the phone.) Another cool feature: it can move the system clipboard between the local and remote computer, so you can copy-and-paste between the computers.

I’m not sure if this was available in Mac OS X 10.5, but I’ve recently found this in 10.6. It may be that this is being used behind the scenes when you use the screen sharing option in iChat.

To use this, the remote machine will need to have “Screen Sharing” or “Remote Management” enabled in System Preferences -> Sharing.

Enjoy

Tip for Address Book: Finding Groups for Contact

Walt Sellers — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:20:33 +0000

Here’s one I found today. You may have already known this.

If you looking at a contact’s card in Address Book, hold down just the Option key. All the groups that hold that contact will hilight.

If you are using your groups to apply rules to messages in the Mail app, this can help you find out why messages are triggering the wrong rules.

Six unexpected uses for tooltips – Macworld

scott — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:56:12 +0000

Great article at Macworld: http://www.macworld.com/article/146323/2010/02/tooltips.html?lsrc=rss_main

Safari Tips

scott — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:16:14 +0000

Good Safari tips from Terry White of MacGroup – Detroit here.