Welcome to the Macintosh Help Pages

This is where you'll find answers to the most common Mac-related questions that our ITS Help Desk receives. The most recent questions and answers start right here. For more FAQs, scan the links column on the left of this page.

Any Mac on the campus network can connect to GCFile. Sometimes known as "M: Drive" to the Windows users, it is where you "My Documents" folder is if you log into  a Windows PC. To connect to GCFile, go to the Finder menu, and select Go > Connect to Server. The address to connect to is smb://username@gcfile.goshen.edu/HOMES (replace "username "with your username). When prompted, enter your GC username and password.

Changing Your GC Password

You can change your GC password any time using the "Change GC Password" tool in GC Online. Your single GC password gives you access to all of our GC network services, such as Email, Webmail, Oracle Calendar, GC Online, connecting to GCfile, Dialup and more. It will also be the password you use to log on to a Lab Mac.

Whenever you change your GC password, your Mac may need you to also update passwords on your computer, or (in the case of Lab Macs) in your hosted Mac Home directory on the Xserver. Specifically, your Keychain Access password, and your Oracle Calendar password (if you use Oracle Calendar) will probably need to be updated. You may also need to update your password in the Mail application on your Mac.

It may help to print this page for easy reference in doing any of the following password changes.

Office Macs and Student Macs

Most GC employees with office Macs (and students with their own Macs) log on to their computer using a local username and password. Changing your GC password will not automatically change the local password on your Mac. To update your local password to match your GC password, launch System Preferences and click on the Accounts icon. This is where you change your local password. Provide your old password in order to authenticate and make changes to this panel.

Mac OS X Mail

If you are like most Mac users, you have Mail store your password so you don't need to type the password every time you want to check for new mail. So after you've changed your GC password, Mail will try using the old stored password, and it won't work. It will ask for the new password, and will remember it for you from then on.

Keychain Access

Keychain Access is a Utility in Mac OS X that can remember all kinds of passwords for you. Your keychain has its own password that you will need to update in order for it to automatically log you into various network services. To change this password, launch Keychain Access. (It's in Applications > Utilities.) If it is locked, click on the padlock icon in the toolbar to unlock it, using your old password. Then select the menu command "Edit > Change Password for Keychain..." Provide your current (old) password, and your new (new!) password, and confirm your new password. Now your Keychain password matches your new GC password and won't ask you for it again... until the next time you change your GC password!

If you need any further help with synchronizing your Mac passwords with your new GC password, please call the Help Desk.

In order to print to our networked printers on campus...

1. You must be logged in to GCfile.
2. You must be logged in for about five minutes.

Don't even try printing until you've been connected for at least five minutes. If you aren't connected to GCfile, your print jobs arrive at our central print queue, and are immediately deleted. You will not receive any message back that your document didn't print.

If the printer is not already in your list of configured printers, you'll need to set that up. See Printer Configuration for instructions on how to add a campus printer to your list.