This page will keep you informed of Macintosh resources available on The World and the Web.
If you are a Visitor, come to the main World Home Page to see why you should join The World. There will be an opportunity to signup online on that page if you wish.
If you get lost on any of our pages, click the World logo at the bottom of that page.
Table of Contents
- Web based email is now available on our Main Web Page
- Got a new Mac? What else do you need?
- How to setup a Mac to dial TheWorld?
- Current Recommended Mac OS
- Want a Web Browser?
- Need an Email Program?
- Quicktime
- Need a Telephone Number? Or 10 digit dialing instructions?
- Some useful Macintosh sites on the Web
- Trouble with Your Mac?
- Building Your Home Page
- How to reach us at The World
- Legacy support for older Macs
Daily Mac NewsLetters
MacInTouch
Macintosh
Resource Page
MacFixit
Also, if you are using World on the Web, see the newsgroups preset in your copy of NewsWatcher: wstd.general, wstd.help, comp.sys.mac.comm, comp.sys.mac.system and comp.sys.mac.apps.
Got a new Mac? What else do you need?
Nothing, really. Your new Mac should have what it needs to access our services. It will come with a web browser called Safari, an email program named "Mail", and a very useful program called Terminal which will let you access the Unix shell of your World account.
Of course you're not limited to these programs. Far from it, you have many choices and alternatives. We'll even point out a few on this page. Your World account and your Mac will work well together from the start.
How to setup a Mac to dial TheWorld?
Currently it very easy to set up your Mac to dial TheWorld. Just follow this Link and scroll down to the Mac section then choose your operating system.
Upgrading your Mac to the most recent operating system it can use is the best investment you can make to get the most out of using the internet. You can check for software updates by using the built in "Software Updater". It is found in the system preferences or on the Apple pull down menu.
Mac OS 10.5, called Leopard, is the current system software available from Apple. It requires a G4, or G5 processor of at least 867 Mhz, DVD drive, and 512 MB of RAM minimum. However, to be sure check Apple's web site. (Link below).
Below you can get information on various Apple computers
compatibilities:
- Apple provides general support for Macs and Apple products and software on their web site. Get started on their Support web page.
- An interesting third party program named Mactracker is useful for
providing information on "any mac", or so they claim.
Knowing what specifications a mac has can be very helpful when you want to know just what you can do with your old mac. A program like this may just provide the information., Current versions run on OS X.
All new Macs sold in the past several years have come with Apple's web browser Safari. It will work with your World account. However, if you wish to use a different web browser you have several to choose from. Here are just a few of your possible choices.
Browsers we recommend for Mac OS X
- Firefox . It's fast and made by the people at mozilla.com. One word of caution. Firefox3 is for OS 10.4 and up. If you are using 10.3 or older then stick to Firefox 2!
- Opera. The latest version is Opera 9.64 for Mac OS 10.3 or higher. If you are using Mac OS 10.2 then you may need to get a copy of Opera Version 8 from their archives.
- Sea Monkey (formerly known as Mozilla) A combo web browser/email/html editor program for OS X.
TheWorld supports POP3 and IMAP capable mail clients. We don't require you to use any one particular email program. All Mac X systems sold in recent years come with a mail client, named "Mail", so you actually don't need to get a new email program.
If you do wish to use a different email program we can probably support it, within reason. One of our current favorites is Thunderbird, made by the same people who make Firefox.
The last Qualcomm only version of Eudora 6.2.4 for Mac OS X was released back in October of 2006. It is not being updated and we no longer recommend it. However, if you want one a copy can still be found on the Eudora web page .
WARNING it was written for Mac OS 10.4 or earlier and will not be updated. How it will fair on Mac OS 10.5 is unknown.
WARNING: If you are using Eudora 6.0 or 6.1 for Mac OS X we recommend that you upgrade to Eudora 6.2.4 or switch to a different program altogether.
QuickTime lets you stream live or on demand some of the best music and video on the Internet from NPR, the BBC, WGBH, Disney, VH1, ABC News, Rolling Stone, ESPN, Bloomberg, Virgin Radio, Warner Records and more. It's free from Apple. If you have never used QuickTime or are using an older version, we recommend that you get it now.
World is now available nation wide! You can connect to your World account from 9,000 modem numbers throughout most of the states incuding Hawaii. (Check for local listings below.) The cost is the same all over the country (you still need to pay any charges for long distance from wherever you are to the national modem - that isn't included in the account cost). This nationwide service is available to all regular World Gold and A La Carta accounts.
Go here to get the numbers and locations of the National modems in any state or area code.
Some useful Macintosh sites on the Web
under construction
under construction
You can have your own web page on The World. The World Gold Plan includes the basic fee for our Home Page Alone service. The Mac offers great ease in constructing your own Web pages. Here is a set of useful pages for teaching you the basics of Web Page Design
Send us an email or call us at (617) 783-9753
Legacy Support for Mac OS 8.1 - OS 9
Mac OS 8.1 is the oldest Mac OS we offer connection support for. We cannot promise support for older Mac operating systems. Our support for old software is only for getting connected. If you go to a web site and your software is too old to work there we can't fix it. Its time to upgrade, if you can.
If you need 10 digit dialing instructions then click here .
Upgrading the OS of an older Mac may be difficult. Before you do anything it helps to know what OS is compatible with your old Mac. For the moment Apple has certain upgrades for the older versions of Mac OS available in their software archive site, but only the free upgrades are there. The commercial releases, ones you must pay for, such as OS 8.0, 8.5 or 9.0 are not there. Any free upgrade to a particular commercial relese will require that particular commercial release to work. For example, if you try to install the upgrade to 9.1 on top of OS 8.6 it will end in tears! The 9.1 upgrade requires a version of OS 9 to work.
Here is what we think is possible:
- Mac OS 8.0 can upgraded to 8.1 for free.
- OS 8.5 or 8.51 can upgrade to Mac OS 8.6 for free. Strongly recommended .
- Mac OS 9.0 can be upgraded to 9.0.4 for free.
- Mac OS 9.0.4 can be upgraded to 9.1 for free.
- Apple's archive, where you can look for Upgrades for your old Mac OS.
There are still web browsers and email programs that can be found for older Mac OS systems. We don't claim to have found them all, our list is only a sample.
Most of these programs are very old and they have some limitations. For example, they probably cannot support current security methods. Consider yourself warned. You use them at your own risk.
Any support for these programs by their vendors will be limited or non-existent. For individual details look on their web sites.
Having give all the traditional warnings and disclaimers here is what we could find. If there is no direct link please forgive us. Many of these programs are located in other people's archive section and are only available to the public as a courtesy.
Web browsers
- iCab has browsers for Mac OS 8.5
- 9.2.2 on their download page.
- Here are the system requirements for Opera for the Mac.
Once you find the version that is right, you can find it by clicking on "site index" (near the bottom of the page) and click on Opera archives . Then just click on "Mac" and you will find the old versions.
- Netscape is no longer in development. You can still get versions
of it when you go to the Netscape Archive. Once there
click on "Releases". Netscape 7.02 was the last version for the Mac PPC
chip and Mac OS Classic (pre OS X). Everything newer is for OS X.
We recommend that if your Mac is powerful enough to run Netscape 7 instead of Netscape 6 that you do so.
- Mozilla 1.2.1 was the last Mozilla (2002) to run on Mac OS 9. Unfortunately, the old archive section on the mozilla.org website has been moved or is no longer there so we have no link or instructions for finding a copy.
- We cannot offer support for any version of Netscape 4.x. Do
not attempt to use it to access our web based email, it will not
work. This incompatibility is caused by how Netscape 4.x was written and
can't be fixed. If possible we recommend that you abandon Netscape 4.x.
Here are some choices for older Macs that people have liked in the past. Each has its own charm and limitations.
- Old versions of Eudora are still available here. (For now). Please note that the Eudora program is no longer supported or updated.
- Outlook Express 5.0.6 . It was the only version we could find that was available at the Microsoft Download Center.
Email programs to avoid:
- Outlook Express 4.01. It came with Mac OS 8.5, you are better off with OE 5.0.6 or another brand.
