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Nmap for Mac OS X Explores Networks, Scans Ports, and More

Mar 26, 2013 - 9 Comments
nmap for Mac OS X

Nmap is a powerful command line network discovery utility that lets you review network inventory, host response and uptime, and perform security auditing through port scans, OS and firewall detection, and more. Though it’s free (and open source) and ships along with many versions of linux, it doesn’t come standard with Mac OS X installations, … Read More

Perform Network Scanning & Analysis from iOS with Fing

Feb 26, 2013 - 5 Comments
Network scan from iOS with Fing

If you’ve ever wished there was a good network scanning utility for iOS you’ll be glad to find Fing. Fing is a free and powerful app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch that provides detailed network discovery and analysis tools right on your iDevice.

How to Renew a DHCP Lease in Mac OS X

Feb 11, 2013 - 3 Comments
Network preferences in Mac OS X

DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, and is commonly used to configure network devices so they can communicate with one another. Typically you’ll have a DHCP server (like a wireless router), and client machines on the local network (like a Mac, iPhone, PC, etc) that pull a dynamically assigned local IP address from that … Read More

How to Edit the Hosts File in Mac OS X with Terminal

Aug 7, 2012 - 51 Comments
Terminal in macOS

Need to edit or modify the hosts file on a Mac? This guide will show you exactly how to edit the hosts file in Mac OS. You’ll find hosts in Mac OS X is stored at /private/etc/hosts but it can also be accessed at the more traditional location of /etc/hosts. That said, if you’re looking … Read More

How to Set Manual DHCP and Static IP Address on iPad or iPhone

May 19, 2012 - 19 Comments
Speed up iPhone networking with new DNS

Certain Wi-Fi networks require clients to use static IP addresses or manual DHCP information in order for a device to connect properly to that network. Adjusting the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to use a static IP address or manual DHCP settings is easy in iOS, here’s how you can do it with any version … Read More

Automatically Connect to a Network Drive on Mac OS X Start Up & Login

May 4, 2012 - 29 Comments
Network Drive Icon

It can be helpful to configure Mac OS X to automatically mount shared network drives, this is particularly true for those of us who regularly connect to a network drive for file sharing or backups.

Generate and Set a Random Valid MAC Address from the Command Line in OS X

May 2, 2012 - 5 Comments
Generate and set random MAC address in OS X

We’ve shown you how to generate MAC addresses randomly and then how to go about changing a MAC address in OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion, but why have those be two separate actions? Using the command line, you can combine the two events into a single action to generate a valid MAC … Read More

Use Apple ID to Share Files in Mac OS X Without Creating New User Accounts for Networking

Apr 25, 2012 - 6 Comments
Share Files on a Mac without creating a new user account with Apple ID

Modern versions of OS X allow you to share files securely with another individual without creating a new user account for them. Instead, authentication gets handled by the individuals Apple ID, and a separate password is set to allow that Apple ID to share files and folders on your Mac. This can be preferable to … Read More

Find & Scan Wireless Networks from the Command Line in Mac OS X

Feb 28, 2012 - 12 Comments
Terminal in macOS

A long hidden airport command line utility buried deep in Mac OS X can be used to scan for and find available wireless networks. This powerful tool is very helpful for network admins and systems administrators, but it’s handy for the average user to help discover nearby wi-fi routers as well.

Find a MAC Address in Mac OS X

Feb 28, 2012 - 8 Comments
Find MAC address Mac OS X

A MAC address is a unique identifier that is assigned to each physical network interface on a computer. Different than a computers IP address, MAC addresses are frequently used for network access control and to monitor network connectivity, and they can be spoofed for virtualization needs or to circumvent some network limitations. If you need … Read More

Monitor Network Connections in Mac OS X with Private Eye

Oct 28, 2011 - 7 Comments
Private Eye open connections

Private Eye is a free real-time network monitor app for Mac OS X that is extremely easy to use. Upon launching the app, you’ll start to see all open network connections by application and process, and you can then filter connections by app, monitor all open connections, or watch only incoming or outgoing transfer. Connections … Read More

Share Files from Mac OS X to Windows PC’s Easily

Sep 8, 2011 - 41 Comments
Enable Windows File Sharing in Mac OS X

If you have a mixed network of Mac and Windows PC’s, chances are good that you’ll be wanting to move files between the two operating systems. The easiest way to share files from Mac OS X to Windows is to enable Samba support for a given user account on the Mac. This tutorial will how … Read More

Display a List of Open Network Connections on the Mac OS X Desktop

Jul 11, 2011 - 10 Comments
Display open network connections on Mac OS X desktop

Using GeekTool and lsof, you can display an automatically updated list of open network connections directly on a Mac OS X desktop. This is tip is a “safe” alternative to the previously mentioned open_ports utility. The problem with installing and using open_ports is that it is a third party script running as root, and for … Read More

Watch All Open Network Connections in Mac OS X with Open_Ports

Jul 9, 2011 - 20 Comments
Show open network connections on the Mac OS X Desktop

You can watch all open network connections for both incoming and outgoing transfers using a free command line utility called open_ports.sh. Open_Ports is much more useful than using lsof to list open internet connectionsbecause it provides extensive network information in a very easy to read format, including what program or process is opening the connection, … Read More

Backup Time Machine to Non-Native Drives & Network Attached Storage

Feb 28, 2011 - 6 Comments

Using the command line in OS X, you can enable a hidden feature in Time Machine that allows you to backup your Mac to a non-native volume, including Networked Attached Storage devices, network volumes, or even a Windows PC. This is generally best for advanced Mac users, as it must be enabled through a defaults … Read More

How to Set a Static IP Address on a Mac

Dec 17, 2010 - 8 Comments

If you want to set your Mac to always have the same IP address (also known as a static IP address), you can easily configure this to be set in the Network settings of OS X. This can be valid for both wi-fi networks and wired ethernet networks, and it can also be set under … Read More

Map a Network Drive on a Mac

Sep 20, 2010 - 48 Comments

If you frequently access a file server from a Mac it’s pretty helpful to map the network drive to your desktop. There’s two ways to do this, one method is just mapped for one time use and will reset after a reboot, and another method is a more permanent route that allows the mapped network … Read More

“Another device on the network is using your computer’s IP address” Mac Error Fix

Sep 19, 2010 - 37 Comments

This is a rather strange error message which you may see in Mac OS X, you’ll get the notification “Another device on the network is using your computer’s IP address” and then you’ll lose internet access with the dialog box telling you to try connecting again later. No thanks, we need internet access now! So … Read More

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