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password after elapsed time?

post #1 of 4
1/7/08 at 4:04am
Thread Starter 
My neighbor had someone steal funds by going onto their desktop and writing a check from their financial software. After that, I have password protected my computers. I recently got an iMac and am trying to figure the best way to do that. All user accounts have a password. We use a screen saver that shows family photos. I like the screen saver to come on after a short time, say 3 min, so we can have the photos showing, but I don't want to have to enter a password after just 3 min (inconvenient, as this would be happening all the time). I'd rather have the screen saver come on after 3 min but not require a password until, say 1 or 2 hours. I also don't want to use the security option that logs a user off after a set time because that user would lose their open apps. So does anyone know of a way to have the screen saver come on quickly, but have a password required only after a longer time, like 1 or 2 hours?
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post #2 of 4
1/7/08 at 11:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by brooknorton View Post

My neighbor had someone steal funds by going onto their desktop and writing a check from their financial software. After that, I have password protected my computers. I recently got an iMac and am trying to figure the best way to do that. All user accounts have a password. We use a screen saver that shows family photos. I like the screen saver to come on after a short time, say 3 min, so we can have the photos showing, but I don't want to have to enter a password after just 3 min (inconvenient, as this would be happening all the time). I'd rather have the screen saver come on after 3 min but not require a password until, say 1 or 2 hours. I also don't want to use the security option that logs a user off after a set time because that user would lose their open apps. So does anyone know of a way to have the screen saver come on quickly, but have a password required only after a longer time, like 1 or 2 hours?

Turn off password for the screen saver, but turn on password from sleep. Then set your computer to sleep at the required interval.

Edit: AFAIK it used to work this way, but I now see (in Tiger) that Apple has combined the password preference to read "from screensaver or sleep", without giving you an option of setting PW for sleep but not for screensaver, as I suggested. Oh well. I bet you can still set these separately through Terminal somehow. Perhaps a Terminal expert can help.
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post #3 of 4
1/7/08 at 6:50pm
Thread Starter 
I leave my computer off sleep 24/7 because when it sleeps, I get network access errors on the other computer networked to it (even if the "wake up if contacted by network" box is selected).

Maybe a script of somekind that asks for a password, or a third party program? Or maybe it just wasn't meant to be.
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post #4 of 4
1/7/08 at 7:00pm
http://www.modesittsoftware.com/Prod...t/LockOut.html

Personally, I don't trust 3rd party applications to provide the security expected from the operating system. But there are options like the one posted above.
Most of us employ the Internet not to seek the best information, but rather to select information that confirms our prejudices. - Nicholas D. Kristof
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Most of us employ the Internet not to seek the best information, but rather to select information that confirms our prejudices. - Nicholas D. Kristof
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