Articles by David Miller

David Miller has been supporting Macs since the mid ’90s. He has worked for large ISPs and DOE sites, and he’s currently working as a Unix systems administrator.

Turn Your Mac into a Wireless Captive Portal Server

  July 25, 2007

What does a captive portal server, also called a NAC (Network Access Control) do? It can sandbox any wireless connection until some form of authentication is provided. These servers are used in many cafes and public places that offer wireless internet. For example, when you try to connect to the wireless network at Starbucks, it will force your web browser to the same page - no matter what URL you enter.

How to Make a Mac Start Up Disk Image

  April 2, 2007

If you’re into preventative maintenance and creating backups like we are, you’ll need to create a Mac start up disk image. It’s an indispensable tool – one which could save your data and prevent a lot of headaches down the road. This how-to will show you how to make an image of one hard drive and store it on another drive. This image will be compressed and will make recovery fast and easy.

How to Backup Your Mac Using Rsync

  March 26, 2007

Do you manually back up your Mac to an external hard drive? Do you know it is very easy to make automatic backups without spending any time or money on fancy applications? We’ll show you how to do it! Rsync is a wonderful backup tool that packs a powerful punch and is easy to set up. This free application is included with nearly all Unix operating systems – including Mac OS X.

Make an Encrypted Disk Image to Secure Files

  March 16, 2007

Encryption satisfies one of the most basic, fundamental human needs: The right to privacy. By using encryption, you can be reasonably confident that your files will be protected from prying eyes. This is especially important if you work on computers that are shared with others, or if you frequent high-traffic computing environments, such as computer labs. Fortunately, the ability to encrypt files using disk images is a free feature built into every Mac running Mac OS 10.