Computer Help

[Michael Palmer]

Bought an Apple Macbook. Great photo editing. Having issues.

I can't open the help topics in the help menu. Get a notice that the topics are not available. Make sure you're connected to internet. If you are try again later...for four months.

I can open and read the topics at the apple store or at a wifi hot spot in town. Not at home. I've been online with Apple for hours...had to pay them for the service. To tell me there's nothing wrong.

I went on line with Hughesnet. Cost $100 for 1 time help. There's nothing wrong with my connection.

The nice man from Packistan Sent me to a US tech. He checked everything...nada. Suggested the problem might be due to my satellite connection. There's a delay in satellite transmission, and that may cause the program to say it's not available. Really?? $100/month for slow high speed that won't allow me to read help topics. Another $100 to find out they haven't a clue?

Anyone know anything?

[beemandan]

Bought an Apple Macbook.

What were you thinking?!

[toekneepea]

I'm a P/T Freelance Photographer, and can offer Photoshop help if you need it. I could probably figure out other photo-editing programs as well. I do graphic design at MIT and can likewise trouble shoot InDesign and Illustrator... PM me and I can offer a quick tutorial if you'd like.

The Help directory for most software is online, and if you have a slow connection (not Cable, or FIOS) you would most likely get those "Connection" errors. If I wander too far from my WiFi router at my house with my laptop, and I get them too.

Tony P.

[Rader Sidetrack]

I have no experience diagnosing Mac specific issues, but, you can learn a lot by using another computer alongside the Mac, temporarily.

If the second computer has similar issues, the problem is likely in your network (router, modem, hardware firewall, etc)

If the second computer works as you expect, then the problem is with the Mac.

My guess, based on you say the Mac works as you expect elsewhere, is that the problem is in your network. Do you have any hardware that is part of your network infrastructure that is not provided by Hughes?

And what else doesn't work, aside from Mac Help?

[Michael Palmer]

I disconnected the router and connected the computer to the modem. No change

[beeman2009]

Bought an Apple Macbook. Great photo editing. Having issues.

I can't open the help topics in the help menu. Get a notice that the topics are not available. Make sure you're connected to internet. If you are try again later...for four months.

I can open and read the topics at the apple store or at a wifi hot spot in town. Not at home. I've been online with Apple for hours...had to pay them for the service. To tell me there's nothing wrong.

I went on line with Hughesnet. Cost $100 for 1 time help. There's nothing wrong with my connection.

The nice man from Packistan Sent me to a US tech. He checked everything...nada. Suggested the problem might be due to my satellite connection. There's a delay in satellite transmission, and that may cause the program to say it's not available. Really?? $100/month for slow high speed that won't allow me to read help topics. Another $100 to find out they haven't a clue?

Anyone know anything?

Sounds just like hughes. I've had them for 12 years, nothing other than dial up available, had a similar problem once, turns out my satelite needed repositioning. They charged me $125.00 to come out, loosen 4 bolts and move my dish 1/2". This is a possiblity. Do you have any issues with other computers? Do you run a wireless network? Any other Macs on the network. Could be a hardware conflict. Start at square 1 and work from there.
Wish you the best.

[Belewsboy]

When things get a little goofy on my MacBook Pro, the first thing I do is Repair Permissions...its easy and free.
Go to Applications ------> Utilities -----> Disk Utility.
Click on the Repair Permissions tab, select your hard drive and let her go. Takes about 5 minutes. This will straighten out a lot of quirky, unexplained things that happen.

[Michael Palmer]

After two days on the phone...one day on hold one day on phone...turns out to be Hughesnet. Because of either the lag time in getting a signal, or the periodic stoppage in transmission of data from the satellite, or both, the computer sees the content as unavailable. The technician can't use his favorite repair software with hughes for the same reason.

Cost me another hundred bucks, paid to Hughesnet, to find out Hughesnet doesn't work completely if you have a macbook.

[NowThen]

We're out in the sticks and lived with dial-up / DirecWay (HughesNet) for almost 18 years. In all that time, one would think that the technology would improve to the point that latency and dropped packets would be minimized. In our case, it seemed that with each upgrade, a solid and consistent connection became even more hit-and-miss.

Qwest / CenturyLink recently upgraded their infrastructure in our neck of the woods to include DSL internet over their phone lines. We had been bugging them for years to get this done. We hopped on the bandwagon as soon as we could. I actually laughed out loud several times on the day that it was turned on - it was that fast. We will have been using DSL for almost a year now and have had almost no issues. It's cheaper than satellite and incredibly stable.

Keep after your phone company. We sent Qwest emails several times a year. We would give our 'phone guy' a hard time whenever we saw him working in the area. He actually stopped by the house one day to let us know that DSL was on its way.

[BMAC]

Cost me another hundred bucks, paid to Hughesnet, to find out Hughesnet doesn't work completely if you have a macbook.

Good reason to never use Hughesnet. I never heard anything good about them and I would rather have dial up.

[deknow]

There are some issues with some routers and Macs.....we've had Macs that will keep trying to connect and keepsndisconnecting.... same with Ramona's tablet. For various reasons, I did not want to change the router settings...so I added another router that physically plugs into and set up a separate wireless network.
The other thing that worked was to use a range extender genie that the computer can physically plug into.
Cant say if any of this is relevant to your issues.

Deknow

[No-sage]

You might also try looking for the applications help through a browser instead of through the application help tab. This way you can try different browsers and maybe find a path that works.