In Firefox, I do exactly what you’re trying with Tab Mix Plus using the “lock all tabs” feature, but from what I could determine from sifting through the tab-oriented Safari utilities at MacUpdate, such a feature doesn’t exist… yet.

I’ve noticed that sometimes there are multiple entries in the Keychain for the same network, maybe one in your Login keychain and one in the System keychain (where it belongs), or some other inconsistency which causes the problem. Usually this fixes things right up. Click Apply or OK on everything and close all your preferences and Keychain Access (be sure to keep a copy of your network passwords) and then add your networks back from the “clean slate”.

For your second issue, there are several things that could be going on, not least of which could be that it’s related to the first issue. Other ideas off the top of my head:

• Parallels is using host-only networking instead of shared or bridge mode;
• The process that handles Parallels networking for Parallels, pvsnatd, is not being started or is dying or is otherwise under the weather;
• The network settings in your Parallels network preferences are messed up. Make sure that both checkboxes are checked and that the numbers appear sane. If you need assistance, let me know.

I’ve had one minor issue with networking XP through Parallels, so here’s something you might try based on my experience: With the virtual machine turned off, select Edit > Virtual Machine from the menu bar. Add a new network interface in Shared mode. Start your XP virtual machine where you’ll now find in the Control Panel network connections a new network connection. Disable the first one, and make sure the new one looks good (getting the right IP address, etc.). Try connecting to The Apple Blog from the Parallels/XP side, and see what happens.

Your Parallels issue could be very simple or more complex; if these ideas don’t help, then I’d suggest heading over to the Parallels online support site.

First, I have airports at home and at work. My Mac signs on to the one at work automatically. At home, however, I have to select the airport from the drop down list each time, despite the fact that the password is stored and that airport is first on the list for it to join automatically … in other words, something is preventing it from actually choosing that airport automatically but, once I choose it, it has the password to join. I’ve checked the settings in the obvious places – perhaps you have a suggestion about what I can change to access this airport automatically?

My second question has to do with accessing the internet through Parallels. Parallels often balks a little at recognizing the internet connection active on the Mac. However, I’ve always been able to get online through Parallels after rebooting Parallels. This week, for the first time, Parallels refuses to recognize any internet connection at all – whether hardwired, through my airport at work or through my airport at home. The error message says ‘a network cable is unplugged’. Rebooting Parallels no longer restores the connection, and reinstalling Parallels and Parallels Tools didn’t do the trick either. What happened and what should I try next?

Thanks for your help -

Cheers

Any other suggestions welcome!

There are other options like VNC (which you mentioned) and other RDS clients like CoRD. I don’t know about others, but I know that CoRD, at least, will let you play audio remotely but not bring it to your Mac.

Enjoy your new MBP!