I might have a setting wrong or who knows...it works at random. I have points on a mask with the handle bars showing. I want to only drag one of them without affecting the other. How do you do this? Its seems I get it to sporadically work in both AE and Illustrator on the Mac, but I can never remember how.I`m using CS3

Use the alt key while drawing, or use the pen convert tool to create separate handles.
Also I think you can click on a handle after creation with the pen convert tool.
I'm not sure I'm using the correct names.....so I'm calling the pen tool that looks like a almost upside down "V" the pen convert tool.
Hope this helps,
Jon