Jun 15 2006
Apple ad hoc network
Two students using Apple computers in a coffee house with a free unsecure wireless access point to create and ad hoc network so that one can give the other copies of her ‘Office’ programs.
Just the opening phrase ‘turn off your fire wall and enable file sharing’ made my gut twist.
Setting up an ad hoc network on an Apple computer is not an inutitive task based experience.
The experienced Apple user had done this before. I watched her ’back track’ and try different things before she successfully created the network. She recognised when she did the right thing but was unable to recall (big human memory load) clear steps. There were numerous obvious usability issues, for example, when making the connection it was unclear whose credentials were needed, the local or remote PC login. Anyone familiar with the necessary technical pre-requisits to set-up an ad hoc network could probably complete this task but the steps are not clearly laid out in a user task centric format. I was able to understand and follow what the technically able Apple user was doing. I would have had trouble working it out myself.
After the Office programs were installed on the newer laptop they concientiously remembered to turn-off sharing, turn on the firewall, and drink their coffee. Phew….
I’m still a bit confused about how one Apple user can give another computer a program (in this case Office) without there being any credit sent to the company that sells that program. Why would Apple want their users to be able to ‘give’ away programs? If I owned a business writing quality software programs this would deter me from writing programs for Apple computers because I would only get money from a few sales before the users were simply sharing the program for free, leading to my business failing and my having to go home and live with mother.
2 of your thoughts on Apple ad hoc network
