Chapter 3
Using On Guard

Administrators and users

As the person in charge of setting up On Guard, you are called an administrator. All other people who use the computer are called users. You set up accounts to control how each user interacts with the Macintosh. 

On Guard begins protecting your disk when a Macintosh starts up. If you have a Startup User account, On Guard automatically signs on that user account. The Startup User account is convenient in situations when users should not be asked to type in a name and password. If no account is designated as the Startup User, On Guard prevents users from accessing the computer until they type a name and password. 

When On Guard is first installed, one user account and one administrator account are created. The default name for administrator account is “Administrator” and the password for this account is “admin”. You must sign on as the Administrator before On Guard allows you to make changes to the Macintosh as shown below in Figure 8.

◊ Note  You should change the password for the Administrator account as soon as possible. Failing to change the Administrator’s password from its default value could allow unauthorized users to modify or destroy important information on your Macintosh.

Finder Menu

On Guard creates a menu called the Finder Menu that provides quick and convenient access to On Guard. The menu’s title is the active user’s name. Figure 7 shows the Finder Menu for the Administrator.

If you prefer to not show the menu, you can configure On Guard so that the Finder Menu is hidden, or that the user can click in the menubar while holding down the option key to activate the Finder Menu. See the section on the Finder panel in the chapter titled “Configuring On Guard” for more information. 



 






              Figure 7. On Guard’s Finder Menu for the Administrator.

Signing Off

When a user is finished with the Macintosh, he signs off by using the Finder Menu’s Sign Off command. When a user signs off, On Guard displays the password dialog as shown below in Figure 8, hides all the files and folders on the Desktop, and waits for the next user to sign on.  Pressing the Startup User button immediately signs on the Startup User. As you type the password, it is automatically encrypted so that it cannot be read by passers-by. Names and passwords are not case-sensitive and may be entered in any combination of upper and lower case letters.

 









                           Figure 8. Signing on as an Administrator.

Configuring

The Configure command in the Finder Menu allows you to configure user accounts. Only administrators are permitted to configure accounts. For more information, see the chapter titled “Configuring On Guard”.


Setting a password

The Set Password command in the Finder Menus allows users to change the password for their accounts. Passwords should be changed frequently in environments where security is important.


Disabling On Guard

You can disable On Guard under System 6 by removing it from the System Folder, and under System 7 by removing it from the Control Panels folder within the System Folder on your startup hard disk. You can also user the On/Off switch located in the Users panel of the On Guard Configuration panel to turn On Guard on and off. See the section on the Users panel in the chapter titled “Configuring On Guard” for more information.