Scott L. Barber
New versions of the Mac OS install Location Manager by default. It's
a very powerful, very helpful program - but can also cause no end of
problems if you don't understand it. And unless you move your computer
or have more than one internet connection, you don't need it on desktop
machines.
The following is taken from correspondence with Scott Barber.
Letter to Scott
I have a Revision B iMac 233 with Mac OS 8.5.1 - and I have had lots
of modem trouble. Instead of "Dialing..." dialog, I get "Connecting,"
and this leads nowhere. I can't seem to isolate why anything is
different when it works or when it doesn't.
I've installed all of the iMac updates on the Apple tech page and
have seen no improvement.
Additionally, I've lost keyboard control and have had the Epson 740
printer drivers disappear.
The only software I've added is Microsoft Office 98.
Any ideas? I'm about to send it back and ask them to send me one
that works. I sincerely appreciate your help.
Scott's reply
You're describing a networking problem - one that's kind of obvious,
but not to most iMac users (iMacs are different from other Macs, and
unless you're aware that you have three active network interfaces on
the machine, it's easy to get lost.)
You're definitely going to have to throw away your TCP/IP and
AppleTalk preferences files. Additionally you might want to trash
AppleShare Prep (in Preferences as well).
Basically, you're network is losing it's mind. It thinks it's
connected to the internet via an Ethernet connection, so it isn't
looking for a modem or PPP setup. The Epson printer is confused,
thinking it's also on the ethernet, and the driver software isn't
noticing the USB at all. If this has crashed your USB setup, you'll
have to zap the PRAM as well, since your keyboard and mouse are on the
USB as well.
You don't need a replacement, just a network exorcism. Every network
device is pointing to the wrong thing. Since you've lost your keyboard,
you'll have to scrounge through the manual to find a way of resetting
the motherboard without keyboard access - or boot without extensions,
so that you can get the keyboard access you need.
Let me start over.
In this order, do the following
- On starting the machine from a complete shutdown (power off), hold
down the Apple, option, P, and R, keys. Keep holding these keys down
until you hear the chimes at least three times. Note: I mean right at
the very moment you turn the power on, before you see the lighted gray
screen. If you start booting up with this key combination down,
you're hosed and will have to turn the power off.
- After all of these chimes (remember, at least three AFTER you've
held the keys down), release the keys and hold down the shift key until
the machine starts booting and you see "Extensions disabled"
appear on the bootup screen.
- At this point, you're running lean and mean. Go into your System
Folder: Preferences folder. Drag the following to the trash: TCP/IP
Preferences, AppleTalk Preferences, AppleShare Prep, Finder
Preferences, Display Preferences, Monitors & Sound Preferences
Folder (the whole folder), Sound Preferences, ASLM Preferences. This
should reset most of the machine to factory specs.
- Reboot again, and before the reboot sequence (gray screen) hold
down the Option and Apple key until you get to the Finder. You'll get a
prompt asking if you wish to rebuild the desktop. You do.
- Now, after all this crap, shut down the machine (power off).
Reboot, and set up your networking again -- in both AppleShare and
TCP/IP control panels. Additionally, go into Modem and Remote Access
control panels and set up the other crap as well (modem type, how you
want to dial - all that).
This is a three hour ordeal, and you may not feel comfortable
redoing all the networking stuff. I remember there's an Apple Internet
access script - a helper script for this on the first level of the hard
drive - you might want to go through all this with the presetup scripts
if you're not familiar with TCP/IP and such.
Reply to Scott
I performed the exorcism last night per your instructions. Before I
did it, I could not get the modem to "dialing..." instead I just got
the "connecting..." box.
After performing the full set of steps, It worked great! Then
tonight I started it up again and the modem is back to "connecting...".
I did a full shut down and then started it again and tried
"connecting..." was the result. So I opened the Open Remote Access
control panel from the control strip and left Internet Explorer
running. I selected CONNECT, and I heard the dial tone, it dialed the
number, and then hung up (the phone connection, not the computer).
I canceled, and clicked CONNECT again, I heard the dial tone, saw
the message "dialing..." and it worked. One other detail - when I get
the message "connecting..." I never hear a dial tone. My printer works
fine now, as does my keyboard and mouse. What's next?
Scott's reply
OK, this is definitely a problem in Remote Access now. You have to
start playing a few games.
First, it sounds like you have Location Manager installed.
Location Manager is a quick idiot box method of allowing a PowerBook
(or desktop Mac) to be changed from one location (i.e. business) to
another. I'll give the example.
I have a PowerBook G3 that I use for several clients. When
diagnosing problems at client offices, it's very easy for me to connect
to their client network with a 10Base-T ethernet cable and use Timbuktu
to control all of the machines, including their server, from my laptop
to run diagnostics and find problems.
Additionally, when at Client A, they have a LaserWriter Select 360
printer. I create a Location called "Client A" in the location manager,
set up my machine for their network settings (TCP/IP and such), and
their 360 printer. It only takes a second to select the Client A
configuration, and my PowerBook automatically changes all of it's
network and printer settings for use with their network. It basically
sets my TCP/IP settings to 10.9.9.9 to be a machine on their network,
and sets my default printer to the 360 automatically.
When at client B, though, they have a LocalTalk network and a
Personal LaserWriter NT. When I choose the Client B configuration, it
automatically switches AppleTalk from Ethernet to Printer port, TCP/IP
to AppleIP on a 65280 network, and sets up the Personal LaserWriter NT
as my default printer.
So Location Manager is a cool little thing, right? But it messes up
a lot. So it's important to do the following:
- Go to Remote Access, and choose Configuration from the File
menu.
- Duplicate your current configuration, name it HOME, and make it
active.
- Look at the Remote Access configuration...make sure your name and
password is right, and check the Options button and confirm that
everything is set up perfectly there...
- Go to Modem, do the same (do the HOME configuration thing as
well)
- Go to TCP/IP, do the same
- Go to AppleTalk, do the same
Test your internet connection. Make sure it dials up properly and
logs off properly. Do this a few times to make sure everything is
working.
Now go to the Location Manager. Open it from the file menu. Make a
new location. Name it home.
This takes all the settings you currently have set up, and makes
them "hard" settings. We only have a few HARD settings that we NEED to
be hard set (namely everything above), and you have to choose a few
boxes in the Location Manager window to accomplish this.
Choose the following boxes only, making sure that HOME is chosen in
the "Edit Location" pulldown menu.
- AppleTalk & TCP/IP
- Internet Set
- Remote Access
Now set your current location (the top pulldown menu), to HOME.
Last step: shut down the machine.
If you get a prompt asking you if you want to change your location
manager settings - do update them!
Reboot the machine. Check out the internet connection. If it works,
go to your Location Manager control panel and see that your current
location is set to HOME. If it is, then you're almost done.
This step is not called the last, because there's a preventative
measure that will help you in the future.
Open the Location Manager again. Choose Duplicate Location from the
File menu. Duplicate the HOME menu and call it "HOME BACKUP NEVER USE".
This will secure your HOME configuration for the rest of time.
If you have a problem with HOME again - where it won't dial in or
something's broke - you open the Location Manager, delete the Home
profile outright, make a duplicate of "HOME BACKUP NEVER USE," and
rename it HOME. Then you select HOME as your current location, watch a
few things change on your screen, and go on with your life, secure in
the knowledge that you just saved yourself from hours of work.
Also - and this is very important....
If, while using the HOME configuration, if anything ever changes
your TCP/IP, Modem, AppleTalk, or Remote Access settings, you will know
because at shutdown or restart you will see a prompt on your screen.
It's the same prompt asking you if you want to update your Location
Manager settings. You always say "DO NOT UPDATE" - unless you
specifically went in and changed some setting permanently (like you
bought a new modem, or changed service providers, or someone sent you a
new DNS for TCP/IP -- something drastic).
If you choose to update, you make PERMANENT changes to the location
manager HOME profile, and run the risk of having to go to your HOME
BACKUP to recover your connection.
EXTRA INFORMATION BECAUSE I'M A BORING LONGWINDED GUY
The reason you have the Location Manager is because the iMac is
basically a PowerBook G3 motherboard. There are plenty of Macintosh
sites that will confirm this - I'm not giving you a line of crap here.
This means that no matter what version of the OS you ever install, it
will probably not detect it as an iMac, but instead a PowerBook.
Additionally, it will probably cause all kinds of PowerBook specific
software to be installed from the system software - things like
Trackpad controllers, screen dimmers, SCSI PowerBook control panels -
things designed for portable computers - even though the iMac isn't
really as portable as a PowerBook is. Keep this information in mind
when you run into software problems - you're going to have all of the
bugs and problems with this machine that PowerBook users have endured
for years.
Laptops are not as reliable or stable as desktop machines, because
of their portability. Nothing can be set in stone, most of the
motherboard is shortcutted and slower than a desktop motherboard, and
special patches constantly come up for PowerBooks that never affect
desktops as system programmers and software designers make changes in
their software to support these weird motherboards with their weird
chips. Because you have an iMac, and perceive it as a desktop machine,
you might be astonished at all the problems you'll have compared to
your standard desktop Macintosh. This isn't a sign of a bad Macintosh -
even though everything you've been trained by Apple to believe is that
the errors you're getting are from bad hardware - it's laptop design,
and errors in software support, that create the problems. Never guess
hardware until all software is eliminated from the loop.
An easy test to see if it's hardware is to boot from the original CD
that came with the PowerBook or iMac. If it boots, then your problem is
software related. If it doesn't boot, 80% of the time it's because you
hit the "c" key too late, or have the wrong combination of booting.
But if while booting from the boot CD, the machine locks up and
crashes, and does this repeatedly three or four times in a row - then
you have a hardware problem. Laptop/iMac boot CDs are designed to
enable all the specific hardware on the machine that could be damaged,
and if there is a lockup during the extensions booting of the CD, you
have some piece of hardware that's loose, a bad drive hooked up,
something wrong with your USB connectors or hub, something's wrong with
hardware.
So throw all of your desktop experience in the trash when dealing
with the Laptop/iMac. You're not crazy - it's the software in the
machine.
Addendum:
On desktop machines I always throw away the Location Manager, but on
laptops it's a requirement. Likewise, I would rather tell you to use
the Location Manager to do all these things on the iMac instead of
throwing it away. The reason is that programs designed to detect
PowerBooks often change settings without prompting you about them on
Laptops when they'd normally prompt you on a desktop - having an easy
fix such as "Don't Update" or copying HOME backup to HOME is a real
convenience.
Scott L. Barber, serker@serker.com
CEO, SERKER Worldwide, a division of ContComm, Inc.
Providing Networking and Telecommunication solutions since 1984
Secure internet solutions through bulk encryption
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