What is the best way to know if a Mac is compromised?

Recently, my mom got an email from Walmart that had said it had tracking information on something she had ordered. Now she had been doing a lot of holiday shopping and couldn't remember if she had shipped anything from Walmart. She clicked the link in the email and it took her to this site that looked like it belonged to a law firm, but had no navigation to anything.
Now, I already think this sounds bad, but my computer knowledge barely extends to Macs. Does anyone here have a good way to tell if her Mac has been compromised? Also, if it does turn out she's being monitored what is the best way to go about fixing it?

I use them mainly to make sure that something I send out does not cause a problem for a Windows user - though I prefer ClamXav. I've had it running on one mac or another for over six years and have never had a problem with it corrupting anything though, even the earlier versions. Both it and Sophos have caught a few parasites, but mainly with regards to exe and zipped files. Sophos, I'm newer to, and I am interested by your comment about it slowing the computer down - I will look into that for myself.
I download Windows software for friends, or for peecees that I'm fixing for others. If I do a search for software or drivers on a peecee, I get slammed with site after site of spam, ****, or anything else that can try to pretend it is a valid file. If I do on a Mac, I don't have hours of my time wasted trying to sift through garbage.

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What's the best way to completely wipe my Mac?

I'm selling my 17" iMac G5 as I've just replaced it with a shiny new 24" Intel iMac [droool!]. Anyway, I want to know what software or what's the best way to wipe/clear my Mac and start from scratch so the person buying it doesn't have all my rubbish on there - plus can't retrieve any of my private files.
What have you guys done in the past in situations like this? I know you can do a clean install off the original installations CD's but will this be enough to get ride of all preferene files and folders etc etc?

Hi
The easiest way is to put a new installation of your OS onto the Mac.
Insert your Install disk 1 into to the drive and then Restart, and hold down the C key to take you to the installation windows.
Select your language, the start up Volume and choose Erase and Install.
At the point your registration process starts, abandon the registration, quit and eject the disk and switch of the computer.
This will allow the new user a freshly installed system, whereby they can complete the registration process themselves. Make sure you hand on the disks.
If you want to be extra thorough, you can, booted from your Install disk use Disk Utility to Zero All Data, before doing the Erase and Install described above, and if you want to be paranoid thorough, you can choose to overwrite the disk with several passes before doing the installation described first. Note this latter process can take from several hours to several days depending on the selection and the size of your internal hard drive.
regards roam

What is the best way to 'clean up" a Mac that has been going for about 2 years. I reset safari frequently but need to be sure stuff I don't want is gone.

What is the best way to 'clean up" a Mac that has been going for about 2 years. I reset safari frequently but need to be sure stuff I don't want is gone.

I'd gather by your "reset Safari" and "clean up" you mean by sites you rather not have your mom see.
Hidden Flash cookies are stored in "Macromedia" Folders on your computer, can delete using the free Easy Find first, but need to reinstall Flash again here
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11076/easyfind
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
OnyX run All the cleaning and maintenance steps followed by a reboot, followed by a Disk Utility erase free space.
http://www.titanium.free.fr/
CCleaner is in beta for OS X, can combine the cleaning and secure erase in the same steps if properly configured.
http://www.piriform.com/mac/ccleaner
Every web site knows your apx location.
http://www.whatsmyip.org/more/
To be sure to have a clean machine, a
Restoring OS X - 10.6 "fresh install method"
Restoring OS X - 10.7 - wipe and install
is the only way as you only bring files back to the machine that you know what they are, everything else is removed.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201

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HDMI cable. Works great no problems so far.

What is the best way to clean up your mac and make it faster and run to an optimum level?

Hi Everyone, Hope all is well
Iv been running my mac pro for a long time now, its a Mac pro, 2x 2.26 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon. 12 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 Ram
Over time now it has become slower, at the moment its still running fine but im sure over time it has probabally collected unwanted data etc. i just dont want it to become a problem as its only going to be used more and more... i now notice that some of the regular programs which i open do take a little while longer to open and i sometimes see that little round Mac loading the sign (the round multicolor wheel).., is there a way to clean the mac up? so that it can run more smoothly and just a better over all feel.,,, the machine is still running beautifully but its time i give it more care and revive it a little more..
What are the best ways to do this, i dont trust any of these non apple based products which claim they can clean ur Mac etc.
Any solutaion and advice that u guys can give would be great and i would be very thankful
Thanks in advance

For immediate speed improvements, upgrade to a Solid State Drive and upgrade your conventional hard drives to new ones, because the newer ones are faster at reading and writing than the ones from 5 years ago.
By Re-installing your OS onto a solid state drive, the system will boot much faster, and your programs will launch much faster.
I use a small SSD (only 60GB) which contains only OS X and all my apps. All of my personal files are on the large mechanical hard drive. If you still use the drive that shipped with the Mac, then it might be a good idea to replace it.
Depending on what kind of work you do, then additional RAM will help. Swapping CPUs should only be done if you are really in need of the improvements they would bring.
You appear to have the 2009 dual-CPU Mac Pro, which is the most challenging model to swap CPUs into.

What's the best way to know whether an application is running for the first time? (C#)

I seen suggestions like making a registry entry, or making an entry in the application specific settings file. But what's the best practice? I want to do some custom tasks if that is a first run.
Also, I am deploying my application using per machine MSI installer. So un-installation not deleting the user specific config files that's get created under AppData.
Thanks Prasad

Hello,
Whenever possible I prefer to avoid the registry. The following works once per user where we see if a specific folder exists or not, if it does not then do first time initialization work then set a setting in the project which causes a user config file to
be written to the location for storing user settings per user.
You first need to create a setting in the project, in this case I did
var config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.PerUserRoamingAndLocal);
string configPath = config.FilePath.Replace("\\user.config", "");
if (System.IO.Directory.Exists(configPath) )
Console.WriteLine("This is not the first time");
else
// Do one time setup here
Properties.Settings.Default.FirstTimeValue = "1";
Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
Console.WriteLine("This was the first time");
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help, this will help others who are looking for solutions to the same or similar problem.

What is the best way to downgrade Firefox on Mac OS X?

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Just a note: if you Option-drag the thumbnail to the Desktop you'll get the original file. Regular dragging will get you the preview version or the edited version if it's been edited in Photos.

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Hello,
I am using my Mac Mini for storing and playing music using iTunes.
In terms of audio quality, what would be the best option for connecting the Mac Mini to my external HiFi system?
1) Using an optical cable?
2) Using a analog cable?
3) Using a USB connected DAC? (maybe the best option but surely the most expensive)
If the option 3 is only the good one, would suggest a DAC product?
Thx for your help
Best Regards,
-- Jean-Baptiste

The optical output is capable of doing 5.1 surround sound (as well as 2.1 or basic stereo) and is therefore more than capable of fully supporting lossless audio formats like AIFF, WAV, FLAC, Apple Lossless as well as all DVD audio formats. The optical (TOS-Link) interface is not capable of fully supporting the higher end audio standards supported by Blu-Ray discs.
For full Blu-Ray support you would have to use a HDMI interface.
So with regards to purely CD sourced material and even potentially DVD-A (DVD Audio discs), and SACD (Super Audio CD) it should be fine.
Some anally retentive audio fanatics will say that potentially some of the signal can be lost over a TOS-Link optical connection and they would insist on having an audio interface to act as a dedicated DAC (Digital Audio Convertor) with direct links to the speakers. I would say ordinary humans will be more than happy with a lossless audio format being sent over an optical link which will definately be superior to AAC over a copper wired link.

What is the best way to back up separate macs?

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Thank you!

Time Machine is your best and simplest option. Look at this definitive web site which should address all of your questions:
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
If things are still unclear, post back.
Ciao.

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I have two macintosh computers in my house and I use one as the master for our family calendar in ical. I want both calendars in sync, with the second mac as the "copy"-no new data is added here.
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What's the best way to clone to another Mac with the same system id so I do not have to re-authorize plugins/programs?

I was told in a different thread that cloning is my answer for my problem. Once learning that, I checked around and saw people suggesting Super Duper over the Disk Utility option, saying that I will not have to re-authorize my programs. That it's the easiest way to clone one computer to the next without the hassle of having to reauthorizing all my programs and plugins. Is this true?

Clones are clones. SuperDuper does nothing special that Disk Utility does not do.
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
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Restoring the clone simply involves switching the Source and Destination.

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I have the same question: what is the best way to sync documents between mac devices?
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Just to be clear: to "transfer" documents is not really the same as to "synchronize". I will add to the question here with my thoughts. Please excuse me if the om only wants to transfer documents.
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I would love to find a software that automatically detects what the last modified files were and it will update ONLY that on the other devices (no matter what kind of files they are).
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

The best way to know if you a data in a table

hello
I have a doubt what 's the best way to know if you have a value in a table .For example I have a table called Vehicle , that have two rows id and name . Well I want to know before do somthing if the vehicle with mane '11111', exist or not .
Nowadays i do this operation with a : select count ( id ) into num from vehicle;
This is the best way ???
THANKS

Hello
Well here's an alternative that may help in your situation. The idea is that you put all of your values that you will be testing for the existence of, in a collection. Then use INTERSECT to find out which of those are already present in the table.
It may well turn out to be completely useless, but I'm trying to avoid working on what I am supposed to be working on, and I thought I'd try it out ;-)
CREATE TABLE dt_test_vehicle(veh_name     VARCHAR2(20));
INSERT INTO dt_test_vehicle values('1111');
INSERT INTO dt_test_vehicle values('2222');
INSERT INTO dt_test_vehicle values('4444');
INSERT INTO dt_test_vehicle values('5555');
INSERT INTO dt_test_vehicle values('6666');
CREATE TYPE dt_tt_varchar2 IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(20)
set serveroutput on
DECLARE
     ltt_Params     dt_tt_varchar2;
     ltt_Result     dt_tt_varchar2;
BEGIN
     ltt_Params := dt_tt_varchar2();
     ltt_Params.EXTEND(4);
     ltt_Params(1) := '1111';
     ltt_Params(2) := '2222';
     ltt_Params(3) := '3333';
     ltt_Params(4) := '4444';
     SELECT
          veh_name
     BULK COLLECT INTO
          ltt_Result
     FROM
          (SELECT
               veh_name
          FROM
               dt_test_vehicle
          INTERSECT
          SELECT
               column_value
          FROM
               TABLE(CAST(ltt_Params AS dt_tt_varchar2))
     IF ltt_Result.COUNT > 0 THEN
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               dbms_output.put_line(ltt_Result(li_Idx));
          END LOOP;
     ELSE
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END;Delete rows from the test table to see the changing results. The main reason I was thinking of this way of doing it was so you could handle your messages in one hit rather than having to have a separate exception for each parameter you are testing.
HTH
David
Sorry, I just re-read your post, and you need to know if these parameters are NOT there, in which case you should give an error. In that case, you could change the INTERSECT for MINUS. If you have anything in the resulting collection, these are the parameters that are missing from the table.
Message was edited by:
david_tyler

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What is the best way to know if a Mac is compromised?

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