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General discussion

"Network settings changed by another program" won't go away

by acad2kman May 16, 2009 11:38AM PDT

I have a Mac Mini Intel chip model about 1.5 years old with 10.5.1 Tiger OS. At home I use wired ethernet - router - DSL and have no problems exchanging files with another Mac and two other PC's on my network. I installed Parallels, but never activated or used it so far. I also installed open DNS to experiment with Internet control without using a filter program.
I now have brought my Mac on the road with me and had no problem connecting with wired internet in my first hotel location.
I opened the system settings and when clicking on the Network icon, got a dialog box that in the background shows Parallels running and no connection via the built in Airport wireless. A popdown menu with the message "Your network connections have been changed by another program" appeared and no matter how many times I clicked the OK button it won't go away and let me reconfigure any network settings.
Leaving it in the background, I was able to use the Mac and even the wired internet connection worked fine.
The system refused to shut down normally because the dialog box won't close and go to the next step. Had to force shutdown by holding down the power button.
Now when trying to use the Airport in another location without wired internet and the same condition is still present. Now HAVE to fix it. Clicking the Airport icon on the menubar at the top in the Finder opens the submenu to allow me to turn ON the Airport, but their network doesn't appear. When opening the network icon from the system settings, we are back stuck with the popdown message that won't get out of the way.
Turning OFF Open DNS so it doesn't load on startup had no effect. There is an icon on the top menubar that shows when it is running, and I have the utility installed that shows all threads and how much processor power they are using. Nothing showing there.

HELP

Discussion is locked

7 Posts
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Step #1
by mrmacfixit Forum moderator May 16, 2009 10:56PM PDT

Uninstall Parallels, using the uninstaller if there is one, and all the Windows files that go with it.

Run Repair Permissions from the Disk Utility. (After the uninstall)

If this fails to correct the problem, try an Archive and Install using the Mac Mini Restore disks that came with the computer.

Let us know how you get on

P

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Problem solved and I don't know exactly why . . .
by acad2kman May 16, 2009 11:45PM PDT

Thanks MrMacFixIt for your input.

I actually clicked the button and in an effort worthy of the "button clicking Olympics" managed to click one of the dialog box buttons in the Network Status box below the drop down message box and hit one while the drop down message box was still up that allowed me to change some of the settings and page thru the various Network settings dialog tabs.

The hotel I am in has a very flaky wireless access point. I spent an hour on the phone with the tech support guy and eventually ended up going thru the hotel with the manager and resetting their servers and power cycling their access point wireless routers.

Got online with Airport and now with one click of the formerly recalcitrant button, it goes away and behaves. I still see Parallels running in the background and now it shows the Airport connection as well.

Thanks to all but still puzzled as to exactly what happened in all that clicking. Regardless, now I love my Mac Mini more than ever, it does everything I ask it to and more. Now time to upgrade to Leopard and use Parallels to run AutoCad on my MacMini . . .

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Glad you got it fixed, but,
by mrmacfixit Forum moderator May 17, 2009 9:53AM PDT

unless you have some burning desire to have Windows running all the time, turn it off. It's only sucking cycles that should be yours.

Also, if you can possibly avoid it, do not let Windows access the Internet.

P

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Thanks for the advice, MrMacFixIt
by acad2kman May 17, 2009 11:57AM PDT

Will do what you suggested, and I was unaware that it was sucking processor cycles - would that be "systemUIserver" ?? I do see this on the processor monitor at 2-8% of processor utilization but didn't realize that it was Parallels. How can I "turn OFF" Parallels without UnInstalling it? How would you manage that if you DID NEED to use it on occasion - I expect to be running AutoCad and Win XP on this box sometime. May buy a new Mac Mini for the better video card, first, though.

Also, is your advice to NOT let Windows access the Internet simply because of all of the security issues that Windows has relative to virus and spyware activity? What is your position on virus and spyware software protection on your Macs? I ran Symantec virus protection way back on my Mac II in the 1980's but have not on this OSX Mac Mini. Have had no problems in the past 1.5 years.

I do run up to date virus and spyware protection on all my PC's and have almost no problems there - avoiding foolish computing choices like installing stealthware, etc.

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AV for Mac OS X
by mrmacfixit Forum moderator May 18, 2009 1:04AM PDT

Yes, my advice to not let Windows access the internet is based on the security issues with Windows.
If you do allow this to happen, then you will need to be running the necessary AV software on whatever flavor of Windows you are running.

Right now I do not run AV software on any of my Mac's. There are no virus's out there that work successfully on OS X. That's not to say that there will not be some in the future. If you feel the need to run AV, then I would suggest ClamXAV. It's free and is not a resource hog like Symantec and Macaffee(SP).

If Parallels is not being actively used, it should not be "running". Where are you seeing an indication that it is running?

P

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Java flaw leaves OSX vulnerable
by acad2kman May 21, 2009 12:05AM PDT
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Disable JAVA
by mrmacfixit Forum moderator May 21, 2009 2:38AM PDT

Uncheck Enable Java in the preferences of whatever web browser you are using.

This is not to be confused with JavaScript. That's a different thing.

AV software would not stop this vulnerability

P

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