Oh internets, help me with my mixed platform environment

[netmouse]

So. I've been assigned some IT-type responsibilities at EDA. I have not used a macintosh regularly for nearly a decade and am just starting to feel almost comfortable on the mac laptop they got me. We have both Windows machines and macs on the network and have a Mac OS X server, which I'm about to upgrade to 10.5.

I feel like a total newb in this environment. In case I have some Mac-heads here, I wanted to ask. What should I read? Where should I go for advice and problem solutions?

Especially, how can I set things up so our windows users can connect to the Mac server as a shared device (like a mounted drive --basically like the mac users can) instead of having to sftp into it?

Comments

[stardustgirl.livejournal.com]

The Apple discussion boards are gennerally pretty helpful.

Don't forget to ask Mike G. for input. Isn't he multi-platform fluent?

And Macwindows.com may be of use.


Have fun :-D

[andrh1a.livejournal.com]

I tend to like http://www.macosxhints.com/ but Google is actually very effective for solving most problems, if you can only work out the right search terms.

And this is a nice walkthrough of connecting a Windows machine to a Mac, including what config you need to do on the Mac upfront: http://www.zdnetasia.com/techguide/windows/0,39044904,61953663,00.htm

I've got your back, let me know if you ever need help. I've been working with mixed networks for four years or so. :)

[flinx.livejournal.com]

I can put you in touch with Herr Dr. Peisach, who's a Macgeek par excellence and is used to operating on multiple platforms. I don't know if he's up on Mac server protocols, but he may well be able to point you in the right direction.

[vaxjedi]

I know that you can set up samba shares on OS X that windows users can access as a network share. maybe you could look those up?

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Ditto on http://www.macosxhints.com/ another good place is http://www.afp548.com/ - it's geared more towards the MacOS X admin than the user.

As for setting it up as a Windows (SMB) share, on my (ancient) 10.3 MacOS X Server box, it's simply a matter of checking the Windows File Sharing checkbox in Workgroup Manager. :)

[holyhippie]

Samba has been integrated into the default desktop builds of OS X for a long time - I'm pretty sure it was there in OS X 10.3, I know it is there in OS X 10.5. The Leopard server admin tool allows you to enable it and do some configuration of the windows service - and the directory utility allows you to make the OS X server check Active Directory for authentication.

All the answers you seek should be documented here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=ServerAdmin/10.5/en/c2fs12.html

[ckd]

Assuming that the server is running Mac OS X Server, the server admin utility should let you turn on Windows file sharing. I don't remember the exact location of the setting.

For Mac OS X Server hints/tips/tricks I recommend AFP548.

[kreie.livejournal.com]

Especially, how can I set things up so our windows users can connect to the Mac server as a shared device (like a mounted drive --basically like the mac users can) instead of having to sftp into it?

Ha! Good luck, I'm still working on this. I've tried every damn tutorial and support thread I've found but nothing seems to work, in either Tiger or Leopard. The best I've managed to do is open up network sharing on My Shared Documents and drop things off into the Windows machine from the Mac machine that way. I can't even get Windows to recognize the Mac machine. :-/

[omnifarious.livejournal.com]

In my opinion, all solutions to this problem are horribly insecure. If sshfs supported anything other than Linux clients I'd tell you to use that on top of ssh/sftp to make things nicer. But barring that, it's possible but you're making your network more vulnerable to internal employee tampering or to being subverted in interesting ways by someone who gets through the firewall.

That likely isn't very helpful though. And you want to know the 'approved' solution that works but is broken and mis-designed from the get-go. Sadly I don't know it, but it likely involves the acronyms SMB, CFS or the word Samba and possibly the term 'Active Directory' and/or the related term 'Bonjour' (or 'zero-conf' being another word for 'Bonjour').