How to set your DNS search list in OSX

Here's how to set your DNS search path in OSX, which is something you'll want to do if you're getting redirected to eBay when you try to go to Google, or are experiencing other odd behaviour from your browser.

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Open Network settings.
3. Your active network connection should be selected on the left. Select it if it is not. Click the "Advanced" button towards the bottom right hand corner.
4. Select the DNS tab.
5. On the right hand side is a column "Search Domains." It will probably already have your domain name listed, but it will be "greyed" out so that you can't remove it. That's OK. Click the "+" sign at the bottom of the column, and type the domain name again.
6. You should now have the domain name listed twice. One will be grey, the other black. This is good, believe it or not. :-)
7. Click OK.
8. Click Apply.

Here's a screen capture that steps through it.


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Cisco VPN Software Breaks When Upgrading to Leopard

I recently upgraded my MacBook to OS X 10.5 ("Leopard"). By and large it's been a pretty painless experience except for the fact that the work issued Cisco VPN client often starts up with an error. The error says, in part "Unable to communicate with the VPN subsystem."

Googling around the suggested fix is to restart the Cisco kernel extension. The following terminal command takes care of things nicely:

$ sudo /System/Library/StartupItems/CiscoVPN/CiscoVPN restart

I'm running version 4.9.01 by the way.

What the hell, here's a video of it if the command line is not where your heart truly lies.


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