Newbie needs help with dashboard/widgets and more

[Glonass]

As I've mentioned in my previous post, I'm a newbie in the Mac world (just made the transition 2 days ago), so forgive my obvious questions.

First, it is to my understanding that one can turn on the dashboard and thus see the widgets by pressing F12 or the apple-control key (wich I think is the key with the little apple?) and the + key. For some reason it isn't working Perhaps I should mention that my keyboard is a Kensington with full of multimedia buttons so maybe I'm missing something!

Second of all, I've noticed that my Internet connection is a bit slower with my Mac then what it was with my PC. Any apparent reason or is it just my imagination

Third, probably related to the fact that I have an odd multimedia keyboard, the End and Home keys take me to the end or home of the page I'm on but not to the end or home of the line as I would expect (at least on my PC) is this normal in Mac?

And finally, (for now ) I get from time to time a message of auto-disconnect of the Internet. Is their a way I can turn off that function?

Thanks in advance for the help.
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[idave]

Do you know if your Multimedia Keyboard has an F-Lock button? Go to System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard shortcuts. Make sure the box is checked for Dashboard. If that doesn't work hit the restore defaults button.

"I get from time to time a message of auto-disconnect of the Internet. Is their a way I can turn off that function?"

Are you using the modem, wireless, or ethernet?
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[Glonass]

First of all, thanks for the fast reply!

Indeed my keyboard has that little F-lock button. I did the System preferences stuff and all shortcuts are active though I haven't found the one specific for Dashboard since my OS is in spanish but as I said, all boxes are checked.

My Internet connection is through ethernet.

Thanks again for the help.
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[idave]

I have one last suggestion if turning off F-Lock still doesn't fix it. Go to System Preferences > Dashboard & Expose and make sure the Keyboard Shortcut "on the bottom" for Dashboard is set to F12. Oh yea...You may want to check if Kensington has new drivers for Tiger. Sometimes these multimedia Keyboards can act wacky.

"I get from time to time a message of auto-disconnect of the Internet. Is their a way I can turn off that function?"

If you have DSL you might have to connect with PPPoE. I'm not that great with advance network configuration. Maybe someone else will have better advice.
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[Glonass]

I've mastered the F-lock function so no prob in that sense. I've changed the shortcut allocated to the dashboard; it's now set to F12.

Just to make sure I got the idea right... the dashboard is nothing more than the "desktop", isn't it? If I got that right, how can I activate the widgets??

Thanks in advance for the help.
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[DoFa]

as far as the internet connection seeming slower. I think that is an unavoidable fact.

Try downloading either Camino or Firefox and see if they feel peppier. You can get them at versiontracker.com or macupdate.com or go directly to mozilla.org.

[Jerk]

Glonass I hate to ask but are you sure you have Tiger?

Granted, this will be different in Spanish.

Click on Finder in the menu at the top (with the finder as the active application, of course) and select About This Mac

If the number there is anything less than 10.4.* you don't have Tiger.

Let us know.

BTW, hello gang. Nice to be here in this community.

[DoFa]

Dashboard is not your desktop. It is sort of a 2nd desktop where you store widgets or little tools that do very specific tasks like look up local movie times or track stocks etc.

It looks like this:

[Glonass]

Sorry it took me so long to post. Indeed Tiger was not installed... duh! (I told you I was a newbe). All problems solved.

Thanks a lot for your assistance
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[Susurrus]

I don't think anyone addressed the Home and End keys issue. On OS X the Home and End key work differently, I've heard that they work like they're "supposed" to. To go to the beginning of a line it's Cmd+left-arrow-key and to go to the end of a line it's Cmd+right-arrow-key.
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