Mac OS X Leopard - ARCAism

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CHAPTER 4 SYSTEM PREFERENCES
The Guest account can be configured in various ways. Selecting “Allow guests to log into
this computer” will allow guests to log in and use your computer as a sandbox of sorts. They will
have access to most applications—however, all settings and files they create will be wiped out
when they log off. “Allow guests to connect to shared folders” will allow guests to access any
shared folders on your system over the network. It’s important to note that guests never need a
password, so by allowing a guest access, you are essentially allowing anyone access to your system.
Date & Time
The Date & Time preference pane contains the system’s date and time settings. These setting are
broken up across three tabs: Date & Time, Time Zone, and Clock.
The Date & Time tab (Figure 4-43) simply allows you to either manually set the date and
time of your system, or have it set automatically using one of Apple’s timeservers. There are actually
very few situations where you wouldn’t want to set the time automatically (e.g., you have no
Internet connection and thus the timeservers aren’t available, or you want to fool your system
into thinking the time is different than it actually is). If you choose to have the time set automatically,
just select the closest Apple timeserver while connected to the Internet.
Figure 4-43. The Date & Time tab of the Date & Time preference pane
NOTE There are other timeservers available besides the Apple timeservers that are listed. In
fact, many organizations have their own timeserver on their network. You can utilize any available
timeserver by entering its network address in the timeserver text field.
The Time Zone tab (Figure 4-44) allows you to select what time zone you are in. You can do
this by entering or selecting a city from the Closest City drop-down menu/text field, or by clicking
your location on the minimap. It’s important to accurately set your time zone, even if you are
manually entering your date and time information—otherwise, you may get incorrect time information.