Mac for Realtors/MLS System

[jennagemini]

I'm an ex-pc/windows user. I was a PC user since I was a kid. As a graphic design major I became familiar with macs in college, but only recently got so absolutely fed up with Windows that I nearly pitched my old laptop out the window and finally bought my new macbook pro which I LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

Anyway, besides graphic design, I am also a realtor, and this is where my Windows issue comes into play. Unfortunately the MLS (the online database realtors use to access properties on the market) is ONLY accessible via Internet Explorer on a Windows platform.

Now I wish that I could totally be free of the Windows world, but unfortunately, because of this ONE issue, I can't. I was thinking of installing Parallels and using it for the SOLE PURPOSE of accessing the MLS. If I do this, am I opening myself up to malware problems? I understand the ins and outs of what keeps OS X so secure, but am confused as to how that is all incorporated once you throw Windows back into the mix.

Any advice?

 

[OceanView]

If you only use Windows for MLS and do not go to any other sites, you should not have any problems.
Actually as long as you stay with websites that you know are good (i.e, Amazon, ebay, CNN, etc.) you should be ok.
Install Microsoft Security Essentials and run windows update every Tuesday, you should be fine.

 

[balamw]

You could also try IE in a Wine Bottle such as described here: http://kb.sagesoftwareonline.com/cg..._faqid=25741&p_created=1259766218&p_topview=1

B

 

[Bill Gates]

A friend of mine had little success with CrossOver when accessing the MLS and now uses VMware Fusion to do so. Where I live the MLS has recently become accessible to Mac users through special software but she complains that it makes everything appear fuzzy and is slow to load, and therefore ends up using VMware anyway.

 

[rjenovai]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.22.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Safari/531.22.7)

You could also try to change the user agent string in Safari to Internet Explorer (6,7,8) and see if it works that way.
To get to the user agent string, open Prefs in Safari and under advanced, make sure show develop menu in
menu bar is checked. Worth a try!