The only thing you  should worry about is making sure that your router
is set up properly so that you have set your own login/password and are
not using the default login/password. Use either WEP or WPA and set it
so that your router name is not broadcast which will make it just a bit
trickier for folks to even find your wireless router. If you are going
to be the only person using your Airport router I suggest that you also
set it so that it only allows a connection based on the MAC address of
your pc. In this case the MAC address has nothing to do with your using
a Mac - the MAC address is basically a unique network adress (kind of
like a serial number)that will basically tell your router that you are
who you say you are and not let anyone else connect to your router.

As far as a firewall on your Mac itself the builtin OS X firewall is all
you need. Since almost all the spyware/malware/virii/etc. you are likely
to come across is meant for the Windows crowd you really do not have to
worry about "catching" something from a website or email.

Your tech rep may be right in regards to no viruses messing up OS X but
that has not always been true for Macs. The very first computer virus I
ever had to deal with was on my Mac SE back in the late 1980's. However,
the Mac operating system then (System 6)was totally different from the
operating system now so that is really an apple/oranges sort of
comparison.

If you do need to run some Windows app at some later date you can always
worry about creating a partition for Bootcamp to do its thing then or
you could just use Parallels Desktop to run Windows in a virtual window
which would allow you to tun OS X and Windows at the same time (which is
pretty cool - Bootcamp requires booting up in one or the other operating
system).

Enjoy your new system!!

Gerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Hugh Smith
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2007 12:31 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Just two questions........The computer question?

Computer Question?

I am buying a whole new Apple Computer, Airport Router, Wireless, Server
for disk to disk storage but they tell me that the password protection
on the router/computer will act as a firewall. The technical rep pointed
out that all viruses that have tried to attack the computers have
required the Owner to actually take a confirming action and no self
actuating viruses have yet taken over or destructed any MACs.  (My own
experience for 18 years shows this has been true for me.)

But has anyone on this List with an Apple product ever really put in  
a robust firewall program on their own or gone to any encryption.   
Every other department in our company (which uses PCs)  has had
experiences with new worms, bugs, viruses, pfishing, etc. but I happily
go on.  But now with MAC daring the world to create a virus I want to
step it up.

Also, I can't see any reason to activate the partition to include the
Windows/PC side with the dual Intel processor.  If I have gone this long
with out needing PC technology is there anything there that I now should
consider.  The new records management function of Microsoft is of
interest but I have heard negative things about it.

Also, I want to useless the lap top in the field to where it needs to go
to the main office computer to get anything sensitive so if my laptop is
stolen, all I will lose is the application software not the real
information I want to keep confidential.

So for a non-techy, what should I consider from those of you using MACs?

Hugh

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