• Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X: Flushing the DNS Cache Resolver

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal So you need to empty your cache resolver, but you fire up your handylookupd but you’re getting a command not found error. What to do… Try dscacheutil, which let’s you do so very much more than lookupd. For example, using the -cachedump allows you to dump an overview of the cache contents. -cachedump has a slew of flags to get pretty granular with the output such as -entries and -buckets. -configurationallows you to access detailed information about your search policy. -statistics allows you to view detailed information on statistics of calls. Examples of using these commands: Emtpy the DNS Cache Resolver: dscacheutil -flushcache Dump cache with user entries: dscacheutil -cachedump -entries user Lookup all the users on a…

  • Mac OS X

    Mac OS X 10.5: Disable Glass Shelf in Dock

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal For early Leopard adopters that don’t like the new look and feel of the dock, here’s a command to disable that Glass shelf look in your dock: defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES killall Dock If you would like to revert the setting: defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO killall Dock click on the code and choose run to activate or deactivate this setting

  • Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X Server 10.5: Mail Skins

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal The default “skin” of the WebMail server (SquirrelMail) in OS X server leaves a lot to be desired to some. So we thought that we would post some of the more popular skins/themes (or collections of themes) that we’ve been using so you can check them out: http://www.squirrelmail.org/themes.php http://www.nutsmail.com http://www.roundcube.net http://sourceforge.net/projects/squirreloutlook Happy skinning!

  • Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X Server 10.5: Customizing the iChat Server Welcome Message

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal Customizing the welcome message to new users of your iChat server is a fairly simple task. For this, we’ll look into the jabber configuration because jabber is the Open Source package that iChat Server is built on. When you first setup jabber the /etc/jabber directory will be created. Inside this folder will be a file called jabber.xml. If you open the jabber xml file and look for the “welcome” tag then anything between the "welcome" and"/welcome" will be the information that is shown in a welcome screen when a new user signs onto the iChat server. Before you edit the /etc/jaber/jabber.xml file make sure to back it…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X Server 10.5: Auto-populating iChat Buddy Lists

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal If you want to enable the auto-population of buddy lists for users of your iChat server, use the following command: serveradmin settings jabber:enableAutoBuddy = no If you have a lot of users and this causes performance issues, consider disabling this feature again by using the following command: serveradmin settings jabber:enableAutoBuddy = yes

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Mac OS X Server 10.5: Managed Preferences Update

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal If you’re familiar with Managed Preferences in Tiger then you’re basically already familiar with Managed Preferences in Leopard Server. But there are some great new features that Apple has provided us with by popular demand. These include the following: Applications There are now more features to the Applications Managed Preference. You can allow or disallow applications by selecting them individually or a folder. This means that you can allow access to applications located in the /Applications folder but disallow all applications located in the /Applications/Utilities folder. There are also now controls for allowing specific widgets and disabling Front Row. Finder There are new options…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X Server 10.5: Advanced Mode

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal So you selected Advanced Setup during the wizard while you were installing Mac OS X Server and now you’re looking at this new Server Admin screen that you’ve never seen before. You see the server name but there are no services in the list. This is because Apple has gone the extra step to make Server Admin less confusing and more user friendly than ever before. When you click on the Settings icon at the top of the Server Admin screen you will see the tab for Services. Here, you can enable or disable any service by checking its box and clicking on the…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X 10.5: The New Terminal

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal Apple has been slowly winning over a lot of traditional Unix and Linux converts. This new breed of switcher is after a cool shell environment. In Leopard, Apple has upgraded Terminal.app to provide a whole slew of new features that are sure to continue winning new converts. Let’s just take a look at a few of them: Secure Keyboard Entry – Prevent other applications from detecting keystrokes used in terminal. Enable this using the Terminal menu. Tabbed Interface – I always have 3 shell windows open. That’s how I roll. But with the new tabbed interface (which you can access using the Command-T keystroke) I find…