Section 9.4. Switching Locations


9.4. Switching Locations

If you travel with a laptop, you may wind up connecting to the Internet differently in each location: Ethernet at the office, dial-up in the hotel room. Or maybe you simply visit the branch office from time to time, and you're getting tired of having to change the local access number for your ISP each time you leave home (and return home again).

Figure 9-5. The Location feature lets you switch from one "location" to another just by choosing its nameeither from the menu (top) or from this pop-up menu in System Preferences (bottom). The Automatic location just means "the standard, default one you originally set up." (Don't be fooled: Despite its name , Automatic isn't the only location that offers multihoming, which is described later in this chapter.)


The simple solution is the Location submenu. As Figure 9-5 illustrates, all you have to do is tell it where you are. Mac OS X handles the details of switching to the correct Internet connection and phone number.

9.4.1. Creating a New Location

To create a Location , which is nothing more than a set of memorized settings, open System Preferences, click Network, and choose New Location from the Location popup menu. You'll be asked to provide a name for your new location, such as Chicago Office or Dining Room Floor .

When you click OK, you return to the Network pane, which is now blank. Take this opportunity to set up the kind of Internet connection you use at the corresponding location, just as described on the first pages of this chapter. If you travel frequently, in fact, you can use Location Manager to build a long list of city locations, each of which " knows " the local phone number for your Internet access company (because you've entered it on the PPP tab).

9.4.2. Making the Switch

Once you've set up your various locations, you can switch among them using either the Location pop-up menu (in System Preferences Network) or the Location submenu, as shown in Figure 9-5. As soon as you do so, your Mac is automatically set to connect using the new phone number or whatever method you specified.


Tip: If you have a laptop, create a connection called Offline. From the Show pop-up menu, choose Network Port Configurations and turn off all the connection methods you see in the list. When you're finished, you've got yourself a laptop that will never attempt to go online. This setup will save you the occasional interruption of a program that tries to dial but takes three minutes to discover you're on Flight 751 to Miami and have no phone line available.


Switching to the Mac[c] The Missing Manual
Switching to the Mac[c] The Missing Manual
ISBN: 1449398537
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 371

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