| Missing Software |
| Can't find your network software? |
| Ethernet Fails |
| What to do when AppleTalk won't stay on Ethernet or you can't see your Mac on the network |
| Network Speed |
| Ways to increase network speed (add another hamster?) |
| Network Insecurity |
| Improving your network security |
| More Network Help |
| Other Internet sources of help |
When
you have problems with your Mac network, it's important to know that there
are a number of on-line resources available to help you out, since I'm hardly
the exclusive source of network info.All resources mentioned on this page are free, although some services also offer paid assistance (which I assume would lead to prompter, more polished answers, although I haven't tried them myself).
Web Resources
There are a number of web sites with tech support message forums, even Apple.com. These sites usually let anyone with a user account post messages, then other users (or staff from the site) post responses. Sometimes you'll see answers in just a few minutes, but several hours or a day is more common.
MacFixit forums (http://www.macfixitforums.com/php/wwwthreads.php)
Apple.com Tech Exchange forums (http://support.info.apple.com/te/te.taf)
Dealmac.com Mac forums (http://dealchat.com/mac/index.html)
Press3.com forums (http://www.press3.com/forums/)
Newsgroups
There are many Macintosh-related newsgroups, several of which can offer help to people having Mac network problems. Here are some of them, along with a content description. To search an archive of past newsgroup posts (in case someone had the same question), see the Google.com Groups search.
alt.sys.mac.newuser-help - General help for new Mac users
comp.sys.mac.misc - General questions about the Mac
comp.sys.mac.comm - Communications-related questions
comp.sys.mac.system - System-related questions (i.e., AppleTalk)
comp.sys.mac.hardware.misc - General hardware questions
Note that anyone can post to a newsgroup. The above groups are all of the "assistance" nature, so you can find help but may have to wade through a number of messages to do so. You may want to request that followup messages also send you an email, to make the answer easier to find.