Published on
September 7, 2006 in
Apple.
I just wanted to thank the service department at the North Sydney store of Computers Now for being so damn GOOD.
The battery in my MacBook Pro decided to die today:
It wasn't recognised by the computer, and didn't charge.
I first went to an unnamed store, where I was quoted a 2-week turnaround time for a technician to diagnose and fix the problem with the computer (even though I demonstrated it was a battery problem by swapping in another, which charged). Losing the entire computer would be like a stake in the heart at the moment, so I declined and walked out the store.
I decided to try up the road at Computers Now in North Sydney, as I had good experiences with them in the past. I explained the problem, and that I had a hunch the battery was at fault. The woman at the service desk took the computer (and battery) out the back, and returned a few minutes later, confirming the battery was faulty (I saw them swap it out for another), and that they'd order a replacement from Apple for me. I was in and out of the store in under 5 minutes, and I got to keep my computer. Now that's customer service!
Published on
July 18, 2006 in
Apple.
I'm in the process of setting up a MacOS X Server box at the office, which will serve as a router/firewall/VPN/etc. I hit a roadblock yesterday when trying to configure NAT (Network Address Translation) for our ADSL connection. It turns out that Apple's Server Admin tool does not allow you to share a PPPoE (DSL) internet connection. Utter stupidity!
To top things off, while the knowledge base article explains this limitation, it fails to explain why this is the case:
You cannot configure network address translation (NAT) in Mac OS X Server when the primary Internet connection uses PPPoE, because the PPPoE network interface will not appear in the “External network interface†pop-up menu in Server Admin (located at Computers & Services > NAT > Settings).
Real helpful. ("Captain Obvious to the rescue!")
This is the recommended solution:
To work around this issue, you need a DSL modem that negotiates the PPPoE authentication itself, rather than configuring the server to do so.
…
The ability of a modem to operate in this manner is sometimes known as "half-bridge mode" or "DHCP spoofing."
Although MacOS X (and Server) supports PPPoE connections, we can't share them because the configuration software doesn't support it, and as a result we should go out and spend more money on hardware. Right…
Thankfully, some smart cookies have figured out that you can just override the settings.
Apple: Rather than shifting the blame and putting the onus on the administrator, why don't you fix the Server Admin tool to support what is already supported by the underlying software?
Published on
June 26, 2006 in
Apple.
A while after I last reported about the battery problems I was having, I took the battery to NextByte in the city and shipped the battery off to the service centre. 3 days later, it was back in my hands and I'm happy to say it now works perfectly! No sudden discharges and the computer sleeps properly when there's no power left.
