An op kicked/banned me! What can I do?

Send a private message to the op and politely ask what you did wrong. You may or may not get unbanned right away. That is up to the op who placed the ban. If you feel you were banned unjustly contact either the channel founder or one of the SOps. They will review the log file. Please note the day and time along with your timezone (i.e. Central or GMT-4) so they can convert the time it was in your location to the the local time of the person reviewing the log.

Are there any Mac IRC bots?

The answer is: yes and no. To the best of our knowledge there is no native Mac OS X IRC bot. However the most widely known bot, and the best, is the eggdrop bot which will run on the unix underpinnings of Mac OS X. To get a bot go and read EggHelp.org.

What Mac IRC client are there? Are there any free ones?

There are two main IRC clients, Ircle and Snak. Both are $20 shareware, we support both, and the author of Snak hangs out here! Neither client is "better", you should try both before deciding which one you prefer using. For you PC converts (and mIRC lovers), Snak is a more mIRC-like client, it can be set up to handle windows like mIRC. Another upcoming client is Babbel which is written by #macintosh regular and channel op Possible. It is current in free public beta testing but please note that the price, if any, for the final version has not yet ben announced. There are a couple free GUI based clients but they seem to be buggy. There are also a lot of free unix clients that will run on OS X's unix-based underpinnings. These include: irssi, bitchx, x-chat Aqua, BitchX and others.

As mentioned above, Snak and ircle are not freeware, you must pay for them if you use them beyond the 30 day trial period. You can register them from their respective home pages and both applications come with a registration application. If you like any of the IRC clients mentioned be sure to register them if they're shareware or drop the author a quick email if it's free to encourage them to keep developing for the Mac platform. See also our IRC introduction.

What are the channel rules?

A list of the rules are available by clicking the Rules button at the top of the page, or clicking here.

Help! I'm being harassed by an channel op/IRCop/channel user.

Harassing others is not tolerated in #macintosh or on DALnet. If you are being harassed by another user try to get the attention of an op by asking for assistance on the channel. If nobody responds try sending a private message to some of the ops asking politely for help. They will ask for details and more than likely ask you to cut and paste the harassing comments into a query or DCC chat window with them. The offender will more than likely get a very stern final warning for their behavior, banned, or both. If the user is also an IRC Operator it is also recommended you send an email expressing concern to their server admin.

If the person in question is a channel op please email Ambs/clam. Please include any relevant log files. If you do not have logs please include the date and time of the incident in question, the op's nick, and your timezone preferably in GMT +/- x hours so he can match your local time with the time stamps in his logs. Please be patient. He will review your complaint as soon as possible but it may take a few days. If you don't hear anything back after a week contact him again.

Where can I find <x> piece of software?

First of all, you should look through our Frequently Recommended Software list, and then the Frequently Recommended Resources for the piece of software you're trying to find. Failing that, ask in the channel and if anybody knows, you'll probably be given a link to the publisher's homepage.

Can you send me <x> piece of software?

Chances are that we will not send you a piece of software, unless it was written or maintained by someone in the channel. The main reason for this is that the version we have may be out of date. In most cases we will give you an URL to go to, to download the latest version.

What's the latest free OS/System I can download, and where can I get a boot floppy to install it?

The latest complete free OS you can download is System 7.5.3. You can update MacOS 8.0 to 8.1, 8.5 to 8.5.1, 8.5 or 8.5.1 to 8.6, and 9.0 to 9.0.4.

System 8 and 9 are not available for free, only the updaters. Try searching eBay for cheap versions.

You can download a System 7.01 boot disk from here or System 7.5 from here and make sure you read the instructions.

What if I don't want to run MacOS on my Macintosh?

If you wish to run an alternate OS on your Mac, some alternatives are OpenBSD, Yellow Dog Linux, & LinuxPPC amound the many others. You could also run Virtual PC and emulate Windows (be warned: it's slow, a G3 500 can emulate roughly a Pentium 200).

How can I get Stuffit Expander or an operating system onto a Mac that won't boot?

DamnHippie has packaged some tools to allow you to do the following from a Windows machine:

Read the file descriptions, then go to the root directory.

Create a System 7.5 or System 8.5 bootable floppy with the repair tools. (Mac bootable)

Install FreePPP and MacTCP from a Mac bootable floppy, created under Windows 9x/NT.

Install Stuffit Lite 3.5 to allow you to unstuff files on your Mac.

Allow you to move files between your PC and Mac using floppy disks, by installing Stuffit Expander 5.1.

Same as above for System 7.0 (installs Stuffit Expander 4.01.)

Installs the Windows version of Stuffit Expander.

Create the Mac-bootable floppy disks to install System 7.0.1 or install System 7.5.

Where can I get a Mac emulator?

OS X
PearPC is an open source (free) OS X 10.3 emulator. Standard rules of purchasing OS X apply. That being said here is some info about said emulator. While the CPU emulation may be slow (1/500th or 1/15th, see above), the speed of emulated hardware is hardly impacted by the emulation; the emulated hard-drive and CDROM e.g. are very fast. Because the author has only access to a little-endian machine, PearPC will most likely only run on little-endian architectures. This shouldn't be hard to fix and the author would fix this himself if he such hardware. Equally, PearPC will probably only run on 32-bit architectures. This shouldn't be hard to fix either.

OS 9
Basilisk II is an open source (free) 68k Macintosh emulator, which requires a ROM. Do NOT ask us for ROMs, they are copyrighted material, and asking will result in a ban/kick. Check out eBay or another auction site, or Free Boxen, if you need an old Mac to extract the ROM from. Alternatively you could buy SoftMac 2000 with a PCI card full of Macintosh ROMs (a much better option).

How do I make Windows and MacOS share files?

OS X
OS X is capable of Windows filesharing (SMB) by default. To start your own SMB server go into system Preferences and click on Windows Sharing. Done. Unfortunately, setting up your SMB server to use something other than your Home or Public directory is a bit trickier. It requires manual editing of the /etc/smb.conf file. To get around (or away) from this you can use Sharepoints. This is a preference pane that loads in System Preferences and makes filesharing life much easier.

OS 9
You basically have two options: DAVE and PC MacLan. If you want to connect a Mac to an existing PC network, use DAVE. If you want to connect a Windows machine to a Mac network, use PC MacLan. If you're a home user and just have a Mac and a PC, we recommend PC MacLan, as it is far easier to use.

Can a Mac log onto an NT domain/network?

OS X
To log onto a Windows server go to the GO menu in Finder and scroll down to Connect To Server. Type in: smb://IP/sharename/ and then press the Connect button.

OS 9
Yes. You need DAVE, it allows you to log on to Windows NT domains.

Other (questions that don't fit elsewhere)

When will OS X(86) for non Macintosh PCs be out ?

Steve Jobs has said that OS X will not run on anything but a Macintosh. And though you can install windows on the Intel Macs, the chances of running OS X on your generic PC are slim at best.

What can I do with this old Macintosh?

Older Macintosh models can still be of use. They are ideal as routers, or as file servers. Failing that you could always convert it to a Macquarium ... see Low End Mac for more ideas and software. Also consider donating it to those less fortunate.

Where can I get the tech specs for a Mac? Where can I get specific troubleshooting help with an issue?

The AppleSec page has a wealth of information. Practically anything Mac related can be found here. It includes information on thousands of topics. Also try the MacFixIt forums, they contain a wealth of information as well.

Is there a way to make free long distance calls with a Mac?

The most popular way seems to be with Skype. For details visit the website.