Section 50. Connect to Your iDisk

50. Connect to Your iDisk

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

45 Sign Up for .Mac

SEE ALSO

51 Keep Your iDisk in Sync

52 Share Your iDisk Public Folder with Others

iDisk is like any other network serveryou must connect to it before you can access what's inside it. Fortunately, iDisk is integrated into .Mac, so you don't have to waste time logging in and entering passwords when you want to connect. To connect to your iDiskafter your .Mac member information is entered into the .Mac Preferences pane of the System Preferences click the iDisk icon in the Finder sidebar.

1.	Open .Mac Preferences Open the System Preferences application using the Apple menu. Click the .Mac icon to open the . Mac Preferences pane. Click the .Mac tab if it's not already selected. 50. Connect to Your iDisk
2.	Enter Your .Mac Member Name and Password You might have entered your .Mac information already, during the initial setup of the system. If you haven't, however, enter your member name and password into the boxes provided. NOTE If you haven't yet signed up for a .Mac account, the Sign Up button provides a convenient link to the site where you can do so. See 45 Sign Up for .Mac for more information. Close the System Preferences window when you're done entering your .Mac name and password. This action saves the account information you've entered.
3.	Open a Finder Window After you enter your .Mac information, the next time you open a Finder window, you'll see an iDisk icon at the top of the Finder's Sidebar.
4.	Navigate Your iDisk Click the iDisk icon to open its contents in the right pane of the Finder window. Switch to the view mode you like and navigate the various folders that are available. You can add documents, folders, and other items to any of the folders in your iDisk by simply dragging them from the Desktop or from another Finder window into the window showing your iDisk contents. Dragging items to your iDisk copies the items to the remote iDisk space (just as with any network server) and makes the files available for use in your .Mac web pages and slideshows. If you want to make files available for other .Mac users to access, drop those files into your iDisk Public folder. NOTE To delete individual files or folders from your iDisk, navigate into the iDisk (using the Finder) until you find the files you want to delete; then drag them to the Trash. The items are immediately deleted from the iDisk server. You can access your iDisk from as many different Macs as you wish, or even from non-Mac computers. If you want certain documents, applications, or other files to be available to you no matter what computer you're using, iDisk is the perfect solutionit's like having a copy of the same disk attached to every one of your computers. (This is especially true if you turn on local .Mac synchronization, as discussed in 51 Keep Your iDisk in Sync .)
5.	Examine Your Used Space There are two ways to see how much of your allotted iDisk space is used up. The quickest is to simply click the iDisk icon in the Finder, or navigate to any folder in your iDisk; the readout at the bottom of the Finder window shows how much space is available. To see a more detailed readoutone that shows you how much space is allocated to your .Mac account, as well as how much space has been usedopen the .Mac Preferences pane of the System Preferences application and click the iDisk tab. Your iDisk storage is displayed graphically, showing you the overall capacity and how much is currently used. If you decide you need more iDisk space, click the Buy More button. You can increase the amount of iDisk space you have from the basic 250MB (at no extra cost) to as much as 1GB for $350 per year. You can also adjust how much of your 250MB is allocated to email and to your iDisk, using the Account section of the .Mac web page (http://www.mac.com).
6.	Connect to Another User 's iDisk If you have another .Mac user's member name and password, you can connect to her iDiskher own personal storage space on Apple's central servers, not her own Macand browse its files just as you would your own. To do this, open the Go menu in the Finder and choose the iDisk option. From the submenu that opens, select Other User's iDisk . A Connect To iDisk dialog box appears; enter the .Mac user's member name and password, and click Connect . The user's iDisk appears in the Sidebar of the Finder window as well as on your Desktop, labeled with the user's .Mac member name. NOTE Sharing your entire iDisk is advisable only if you completely trust the other person and her ability to control her own computing securityafter all, you're giving away your .Mac password, which means giving away access to your entire .Mac account. Generally this feature is intended for people who have more than one .Mac account, or manage more than one .Mac account in a household or business. The best way to share files using iDisk is to put them in your iDisk's Public folder, and then allow others to access that folder (which does not require an access password unless you set one). See 52 Share Your iDisk Public Folder with Others . You can connect to your iDisk using any of several different operating systems, including Windows, by using the downloadable iDisk Utility (if you're using Windows XP or Mac OS X 10.1 or 10.2). See 52 Share Your iDisk Public Folder with Others for details on how to do this. To access your entire iDisk (or that of any other .Mac member) from another operating system, use the URL http://idisk.mac.com/< membername > (where <membername> is the user's .Mac member name) when specifying the server location. Many applications that are aware of .Mac accountssuch as Address Book allow you to connect directly to a .Mac user's iDisk. In the user's Address Book card, click the identifier (such as work or home ) next to the @mac.com email address and select Open iDisk from the menu that pops up.