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MacBook not so popular with the ignorant?

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NotFound

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 30, 2006
792
0
So, I'm sitting in my Computer/Business class today and finishing up a paper due for my English class. I print and log off the school network and put aside my keyboard and mouse to the exact same dell optiplex that everyone else is using in here. I take my macbook out of my bag, start it up, and begin working on a keynote for a different class. My instructor comes by and asks me about my new notebook and I tell her about it and my switch from Windows to Mac at home.

Now, I don't know where she was taught this, but I'd like to meet the professor who told her this.

She tells me that I can't use my macbook over the schools WiFi network because it's a Mac and it might disrupt the connection to the other computers and cause the network to fail... :confused:

Is this an April fools joke?

I chuckle a little bit and keep on working, but she was serious! And she didn't just make me turn AirPort off- she made me put it away!!! :mad:

Truth be told- the ignorant hath no appreciation for quality technology.

As I type this I am forced to be using the Dell. :(
 
Tell her politely that she's been misinformed and you'll continue to use your platform of choice as you're not breaking any university policies or regulations. You don't have to take that kind of crap.
 
Yegads!

If that's the case, why would anyone install a windows network anywhere? Macs bring windows networks down? Ridiculous. If it was really true, why didn't the school install a proprietary, windows-only network?

OTOH, maybe she just didn't want you doing your English homework in her class...
 
That's terrible. You gotta stand up for your self/Mac. I would have asked her to prove it, and continued working.

I recently used my MacBook in my school's lab full of Gateways.. fortunately no one complained but I knew people were scared of my Mac's power ;)
 
I can't believe the people on here who think that millions of Windows users will jump ship if Apple release OS X for the pc.

Most people don't even know that Apple computers exist and lots of the ones that do are ignorant about how useful they are.
 
This was a computer/business class?? :rolleyes: I don't understand where people get their information. Maybe you could blow her away by showing her you can run windows on your mac, then ask her if doing so would still bring down the network. :p :D
 
Any wifi equipped computer can do this if the mode you have the wifi in is what's labelled as 'infrastructure'.

ie. you can set up two machines with wifi to communicate to each other without any access points nearby.

Maybe she was confusing that with a previous experience of a mac in that mode.
 
Ha, this would go very well with the stupidest questions from PC users thread.

Seriously though, that's terrible. Tell her you'll bet your grade (or something else) if your Mac does indeed bring the network down. If by some amazing coincidence it does, tell her to go to the IT/Network guys and ask them to find proof that it was your fault. :p
 
yeah i would just talk to her after class and just be straight up and honest to her. Being smart and mean won't accomplish anything.

maybe you can find a link online to show her or something.
 
Our university does not believe that Macs can bring the network down, however, we are forced to turn our software update feature off to connect to wifi (if it detects it as being on, we get a 2 hour ban from wifi). I don't know how they enforce this, but another student has told me its because software update is torrent based.
 
andrewxps said:
So, I'm sitting in my Computer/Business class today and finishing up a paper due for my English class. I print and log off the school network and put aside my keyboard and mouse to the exact same dell optiplex that everyone else is using in here. I take my macbook out of my bag, start it up, and begin working on a keynote for a different class. My instructor comes by and asks me about my new notebook and I tell her about it and my switch from Windows to Mac at home.

Now, I don't know where she was taught this, but I'd like to meet the professor who told her this.

She tells me that I can't use my macbook over the schools WiFi network because it's a Mac and it might disrupt the connection to the other computers and cause the network to fail... :confused:

Is this an April fools joke?

I chuckle a little bit and keep on working, but she was serious! And she didn't just make me turn AirPort off- she made me put it away!!! :mad:

Truth be told- the ignorant hath no appreciation for quality technology.

As I type this I am forced to be using the Dell. :(
Click to expand...
I'm sure that the wireless cards and authentication protocols are so alien and unstandardized. What keeps the professor from letting you use the MacBook anyways?


richard4339 said:
Our university does not believe that Macs can bring the network down, however, we are forced to turn our software update feature off to connect to wifi (if it detects it as being on, we get a 2 hour ban from wifi). I don't know how they enforce this, but another student has told me its because software update is torrent based.
Click to expand...
Akami more then likely but not torrent.
 
I really didn't know if that was true or not, but as much as they talk about Apple seeding things, I figured it was a modified torrent, but close enough for my univerisity to hate it.
 
richard4339 said:
I really didn't know if that was true or not, but as much as they talk about Apple seeding things, I figured it was a modified torrent, but close enough for my univerisity to hate it.
Click to expand...

It definitely is not torrent-based, but they probably just don't want people using all the wireless bandwidth downloading and installing patches (think 10.4 -> 10.4.8 combo update).

Also, it could be a security issue. Someone on the network could theoretically spoof the address of the update server, fake the signature of the update, and then install malicious software onto your computer... although I doubt thats what the network admins are thinking about.
 
They're not entirely Incorrect

I've had this happen twice with my mb. once with a cousin and once with a gf.

they didn't have wifi, so i plugged in my airport express while i was there. somehow it reset their modem and they couldn't get their pc online afterwards. one was down for several days while she called customer support ($) and the other was down a couple days before he could figure out what my airport had done to his modem settings.

so now, if someone doesn't have wifi already, i just don't try to go online for anything. expecially since i don't know how to fix or setup anything about a pc.
apple just seems to go in and do things (simple for me, but a headache for pc owners.

but anyone that already has wifi, i can jump in fine and leave no problems behind.

i don't know what i do but i am so good at doing it so badly.
 
Macs in general are not popular, especially with the less technically informed/inclined.

90% of people are blown away when they see me running windows natively. Bootcamp is how old now?
 
crazzyeddie said:
It definitely is not torrent-based, but they probably just don't want people using all the wireless bandwidth downloading and installing patches (think 10.4 -> 10.4.8 combo update).

Also, it could be a security issue. Someone on the network could theoretically spoof the address of the update server, fake the signature of the update, and then install malicious software onto your computer... although I doubt thats what the network admins are thinking about.
Click to expand...

It makes sense. All I know is that the day my university announced "Anyone doing anything with torrents will receive a 2 hour network ban" is when it started for all of the Mac owners... *sigh*
 
I am amazed at the policies of Universities that I read about on this site.

I work for a major university and we support Macs, Windows, and Linux for everyone.

Now some departments have their own more restrictive standards, but university wide, everything reasonable is still supported.
 
slu said:
I am amazed at the policies of Universities that I read about on this site.

I work for a major university and we support Macs, Windows, and Linux for everyone.

Now some departments have their own more restrictive standards, but university wide, everything reasonable is still supported.
Click to expand...

You'd be surprised what I hear at my university. I once called our tech support desk for assistance with the network when using my Mac when I first bought it. They told me no one knew how to use Macs, and that the university only supported "standard hardware." I promptly pointed out that the MBP is listed as supported hardware on the IT webpage, as well as in the computer store where they try to sell us the hardware. She then hung up on me.
 
My University caters to Macs...they have a "Custom Apple Store" inside!

And i dont have to install the VPN Client (Cisco Clean Access) to access the internet, nor do I have to use an anti-virus program that PCs have to install.
 
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