Networking and Network Applications

Macs are the easiest personal computers to set up for all kinds of networking: using the Internet, sharing files across a local network, and even sharing files with Windows computers. The new Network Setup Assistant makes this even easier, by asking you a few simple questions about your connection and creating your network configuration automatically. (See Chapter 10.)

One of the most visible improvements in this area is the Network icon that appears in the Finder window sidebar: click this icon to see all available network servers, and then click one to connect. This network browsing displays all AppleShare, Unix, and Windows servers that you can access.

Apple has also greatly enhanced its network applications. The star of Panther in this respect is iChat AV, Apple’s instant messaging tool that lets you chat with your friends using text, audio, or video.

In addition, using Rendezvous chats, as shown in this illustration, you can chat with anyone on your local network and even send files to them easily.

iChat lets you chat with people anywhere in the world using text chats, of course, but also using audio; and if you have a fast enough Internet connection and an appropriate video camera, it allows you to have video chats as well.

Apple’s Safari web browser, introduced in early 2003, has been upgraded in Panther. In a short time, Safari has become the best browser available for Mac OS X: not only is it easy to use, but it’s also the fastest browser you can find for Mac. Other applications, such as Apple’s Mail, use Safari’s HTML rendering engine when displaying HTML messages, so Safari’s improvements help across the board.

If you have a .Mac account (see Chapter 11), you’ll appreciate the tighter integration between Mac OS X and your iDisk. Your iDisk displays in the Finder window sidebar, and you can have Panther create a local mirror copy of it that automatically syncs with Apple’s .Mac servers. This ensures that files you put into your local iDisk get copied transparently to your remote iDisk, so you’ll never have to worry about copying them manually again.

Finally, iSync lets you synchronize your Safari bookmarks, Address Book contacts and iCal calendars, and to-do items to your .Mac account. If you have more than one Mac, such as one at work and another at home, or a desktop and portable Mac, you can make sure that all this important data remains up-to-date on both computers.