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For more information about setting up a guest computer account for Mac OS X users, see “Working with Guest Computers” on page 107.
Using Mac OS X Portable Computers with One Primary Local User
You can also distribute portable computers with only local accounts and not assign mobile or network accounts to users. This may reduce or eliminate the burden of maintaining dedicated directory domain servers and servers that store home folders.
Even with local accounts, you can still manage users’ computers when they use your network by adding their computers to a computer group.
When distributing portable computers, you can still retain control over the computer when the user logs in with a local account while off the network. To restrict a user from full use of the computer, do not assign him or her local administrator privileges.
You can also set parental controls to further control the computer while off the network. For more information about how to set parental controls, see Mac Help.
To restrict users from full access to a computer, create a local administrator account and a local user account on the computer. Give the user the login information for the local user account but not the local administrator account. Only administrator accounts allow users to install software and save or delete files outside of the home folder.
If you make a user the local administrator of a computer, you can deny him or her the ability to turn off your computer management. However, in many cases, the local administrator can still override management settings.
If local users want to share files with other users over the network, they can enable File Sharing in the Sharing pane of System Preferences and then use their ~/Public folder to share. Similarly, local users can connect to the computers of other users who have File Sharing enabled.
If users also have network accounts, you might prefer that they log in through their local accounts to reduce network traffic. They can connect to their network accounts through the “Connect to Server” command in the Finder Go menu.
Using Mac OS X Portable Computers with Multiple Users
Although mobile accounts are best suited for portable computers, there are a few situations in which using local accounts provides advantages over using mobile accounts.
For example, a school’s wireless mobile lab might consist of 20 to 30 MacBooks, an instructor’s computer, an AirPort Extreme Base Station, and a printer, all located on a mobile cart. Because all of these computers are on a mobile cart, the school could use this lab for multiple classrooms throughout the campus.
Chapter 8 Managing Portable Computers
