Re: Hiding one user's email account from another user (Mac Mail)

On Sat, 27 May 2006 18:35:26 +0100, Sander Tekelenburg wrote
(in article <user->):

> [More about Mac OS X than about Mail.app, therefore crossposted and
> followups set to <news:comp.sys.mac.system>]
>
> In article < et>,
> Sally Thompson <> wrote:
>
>> [...] I plan to set up an email account on
>> the G4 for any guests to use if they're here for a few days and don't have
>> hotmail etc. Obviously I don't want them to have any access to my own
>> email
>> accounts in any way. However, my husband will want to send (but not
>> receive)
>> emails from the G4 using one of our own email accounts. Is there any way I
>> can set up his email so that other people have no access to his email
>> account?
>
> [Assuming Mac OS X 10.4.6, Tiger]

Yes, both.

> Mac OS X is a multi-user system. Make use of that. Create separate
> *login* accounts for each of your guests, regardless of whether they
> have a hotmail account. Let them only use your Mac through that personal
> login account, never through your own login account.
>
> That way each user will have his own environment and settings, including
> email accounts. This protects *all* your data from others, instead of
> just your email, and you're protecting guests from being able to see
> each other's data.

Hmmm. OK, noted, although I had thought of setting up a general user login
account called "guest" or some such (not one for each guest) - we are only a
small concern.

<snip>
> Make sure none of your guest's accounts have Admin rights or they'll be
> able to mess up the system and other user's data, be it intentionally or
> by accident.

Noted - I had hoped to do that - let's hope I don't mess up the system doing
it!

> Lastly
> - make sure all accounts have a (non-empty) passphrase
> - check the options "require password to wake this puter from sleep or
> screen saver" and "Disable automatic login" in System
> Preferences->Security. Maybe better yet: simply check all 5 options in
> that section.

Thanks for that. I've printed this off for future reference.

> That leaves the email account you want to offer your guests.
>
> I think the easiest for you would be to simply let your guests, if they
> don't already have an email address, create a new throw-away email
> address at hotmail, yahoo, etc. With the above setup they can do so
> easily. Reasoning below:

Well, I have my own domain name and had thought of setting up one email
account which would be "" or something similar. If I offer
them have internet access I can't actually stop them setting up a hotmail
account anyway. It was really to help the less computer-savvy.

> New login accounts are created from templates (I forgot where exactly
> they're located -- let's hope someone else jumps in). I'd expect you
> could change that template (make sure to keep a copy of the original) so
> that whenever you create a new login account, it will contain all the
> settings for Mail.app to handle that email account. That way you'll only
> need to create the new account, not configure it. However:
>
> That still leaves one issue: your guests sending mail from that account
> and the recipients replying... That means *another* guest may see the
> reply. That's no way to treat recipients.

As I said to Alice, I assume guests will have the sense to request replies
within a specific timescale. They could, for instance, send an enquiry and
say "I'm not normally on email, please phone me or send a brochure or
whatever". If private replies come in, I will be able to intercept them.

> You could set things up such that people can only send mail, not
> receive, if that's acceptable.

Maybe - how would I do that?

> Otherwise, IMO you should create a unique email address for each guest.
> Not so hard if you have your own domain and especially if you run your
> own mail server. If not, it's probably easiest to let them create a new
> throw-away account at hotmail, yahoo, whatever.

See above (but don't run own mail server).

> HTH

Yes, very much. Thank you.





--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
bed and breakfast near Ludlow: http://www.stonybrook-ludlow.co.uk
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk

On Sun, 28 May 2006 04:55:10 +0100, Sander Tekelenburg wrote
(in article <user->):

> In article < et>,
> Sally Thompson <> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 27 May 2006 18:35:26 +0100, Sander Tekelenburg wrote
>> (in article <user->):
>
> [...]
>
>>> [...] Create separate *login* accounts for each of your guests [...]
>>
>> Hmmm. OK, noted, although I had thought of setting up a general user login
>> account called "guest" or some such (not one for each guest) - we are only
>> a
>> small concern.
>
> Sure, you could do that. I was just considering that you might not just
> want to protect your own data, but also that of your customers. (You
> might even be obligated to do so, depending on local legislation.)

I really don't know. Think I will have to put an Awful Warning there
somewhere, that correspondence might be seen by others :-)

<snip>
>
> New user accounts do not have Admin rights by default. You'd have to
> mess that up on purpose

<g>

>>> That still leaves one issue: your guests sending mail from that account
>>> and the recipients replying... That means *another* guest may see the
>>> reply. That's no way to treat recipients.
>>
>> As I said to Alice, I assume guests will have the sense to request replies
>> within a specific timescale.
>
><snip> So it could still happen that a
> new guest receives mail for an old guest.
>
> Whether that's a problem is for you to decide of course. But you'd be
> surprised at how sloppy people are <snip>.

Nothing would surprise me! I have to deal with people (in another sphere)
who have less than a zero clue when it comes to using email, browsing web
sites, etc (the difference between a web site and email, having to explain
what a link is and how you might recognise it....)

>>> You could set things up such that people can only send mail, not
>>> receive, if that's acceptable.
>>
>> Maybe - how would I do that?
>
> Make sure the mail program your guests use knows only the smtp server
> (for sending mail), not the pop server (for fetching mail), and is
> configured to not even try to fetch mail. (Some mail programs might not
> accept that, perhaps, trying to be too helpful in making sure the user
> enters all 'required' information. I believe Eudora would be happy to
> accept such a configuration.)

Thanks for that, very helpful. I haven't tried Eudora yet, but it might in
fact be an idea to set up Eudora for guests and leave Mac Mail to my husband
- then I can make that more secure.

You've been very helpful.



--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
bed and breakfast near Ludlow: http://www.stonybrook-ludlow.co.uk
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk

If I was in your shoes, I would set up a guest account and then under
parental controls restrict to one email address, which would
effectively deny them access to your Mail application. I live in
Mexico, which I believe is a lot less sophisticated computerwise than
the UK. However, almost everyone has their own email account with
Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail etc. Even most ISPs provide web access to email
accounts. Let them use your browser to access their own personal
accounts on the web. I like Firefox because it's easy to set up
multiple user accounts. So you can set up a separate browser account
in the Emac guest account. I'd shy away from setting up Eudora or any
other mail client that could be a potential source of problems. Good
Luck

If I was in your shoes, I would set up a guest account and then under
parental controls restrict to one email address, which would
effectively deny them access to your Mail application. I live in
Mexico, which I believe is a lot less sophisticated computerwise than
the UK. However, almost everyone has their own email account with
Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail etc. Let them use your browser to access their
own personal accounts on the web. Even most ISPs provide web access to
email accounts. I'd shy away from setting up Eudora or any other mail
client that could be a potential source of problems. Good Luck

On Sun, 28 May 2006 21:57:50 +0100, wrote
(in article < .com>):

{re allowing guests access to email on separate iMac]
> If I was in your shoes, I would set up a guest account and then under
> parental controls restrict to one email address, which would
> effectively deny them access to your Mail application. I live in
> Mexico, which I believe is a lot less sophisticated computerwise than
> the UK. However, almost everyone has their own email account with
> Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail etc. Even most ISPs provide web access to email
> accounts. Let them use your browser to access their own personal
> accounts on the web. I like Firefox because it's easy to set up
> multiple user accounts. So you can set up a separate browser account
> in the Emac guest account. I'd shy away from setting up Eudora or any
> other mail client that could be a potential source of problems. Good
> Luck

Thanks for that. Yes, I also like and use Firefox (and used it on previous
Windows machine). I'm intrigued by your reference to Eudora (which I've
never used). Are you saying Eudora is a particular source of problems? Or
just any mail client?




--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
bed and breakfast near Ludlow: http://www.stonybrook-ludlow.co.uk
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk