[Preciousss]

Hi,

I'm sure this has been asked before, so I apologize for the repetition--I >did< look through all the previous threads and didn't see any subject headings that seemed to correlate, so here goes:

I haven't gotten it yet, but I'll soon be the happy owner of a GigaBook w/ SuperDrive. I work at a small nonprofit that has a Windows 2000 domain server netowrk and I wanted to research ahead of time what I need to do in order to use the PowerBook in this environment and access our shared files/printers.

I found this page on the Switch section of Apple's website here. Is this all I need to do? Someone at work who's opinion I'm inclined to trust said I need to enable something called "samba" (phonetic spelling) on our server. Any idea how I would go about doing this?

Is there anything else I need to do? Before Jaguar, I thought I would need Dave in order for the network to see my Mac. But Jaguar has made Dave obsolete right?

My understanding of all this is very limited, so if you respond, please try to be clear :-)

Oh. And we also have a D-Link router that we use as a WAP. I'm not worried about getting on it since everything I've read seems to indicate that Jaguar is smart enough to sense, find and connect to it without me having to do anything (much). Is this correct?

I really appreciate any help that you can provide.

Thanks!

[Camelot]

Originally posted by Preciousss:

I found this page on the Switch section of Apple's website here. Is this all I need to do? Someone at work who's opinion I'm inclined to trust said I need to enable something called "samba" (phonetic spelling) on our server. Any idea how I would go about doing this?

Yes, it basically is as easy as that page says, but...

It's not as easy to automatically reconnect to Windows servers after a reboot. In Windows you can assign a drive letter to a shared folder and any time you access that 'drive', Windows contacts the server. On your Mac you'll need to connect to server after each reboot (or add a little hack script that mounts it for you). This may or may not be a big issue for you.

Secondly, you do not need to install Samba at all.
Samba is a product that lets Unix servers look like Windows servers so that Windows clients can connect to them. You do not need to install Samba to be able to connect to other Windows servers.
You *might* want to install Samba if you want PC-users in the office to be able to connect to your machine and copy files off your drive, but you don't need to install Samba from your description.

The other caveat you may run into is with printing. Most Windows networks use a print server with the printer attached directly (usually via parallel cable) to the print server.
Macintosh networks, on the other hand, typically have the printer directly on the network, and anyone can print directly to the printer without the need for the print server.
If your printers are on your network (or can be connected to the network), then you should be fine. If you have to print through a print server, you'll have your work cut out for you.


Is there anything else I need to do? Before Jaguar, I thought I would need Dave in order for the network to see my Mac. But Jaguar has made Dave obsolete right?

DAVE still adds some useful features (Windows printer sharing, for example, if I remember rightly), but you don't need DAVE if you're just accessing other Windows servers.

Oh. And we also have a D-Link router that we use as a WAP. I'm not worried about getting on it since everything I've read seems to indicate that Jaguar is smart enough to sense, find and connect to it without me having to do anything (much). Is this correct?


Chances are your Mac will automatically detect and join the wireless network without any problem. The only things you might need are the MAC address of your wireless card (if your network is locked to only talk to known cards), and the WEP key (if your wireless network uses WEP encryption). Your network admin (or whoever configured the wireless router) should be able to provide you with the WEP key, and running 'ifconfig en1' in a terminal window will tell you your MAC address

[ghporter]

Good luck, and do come back and tell us how things go. This is the "meat and potatoes" of cross-platform networking, but it doesn't get a lot of mention; people think it's too hard. Well it doesn't just run by itself, but as Camelot points out, it isn't too hard.

[Preciousss]

Originally posted by Camelot:

The other caveat you may run into is with printing. Most Windows networks use a print server with the printer attached directly (usually via parallel cable) to the print server.

Our printer is locally connected to the server. But! I am happy to say that we have a really cool guy who shares our office space >and< who uses a PowerBook 667. He set up another printer with a static IP address that I'm guessing I'll have no problem printing on. Just don't ask me to explain how :-) So if the local printer doesn't work, I'll use the other one. Hope it's that simple.

Your network admin (or whoever configured the wireless router) should be able to provide you with the WEP key, and running 'ifconfig en1' in a terminal window will tell you your MAC address

Wow! This is incredibly helpful. And don't worry GHPorter, I'll be sure to post again to let you know how everything goes. It might be a while though, I'm taking my time ordering it because I want to make sure I have a few things first (snazzy bag, Office, Virtual PC). Will make sure to catch the seasonal and ram doubler deals though.

I'm psyched. I have a Performa 636 with 32MB of RAM running System 7.5. Hardly use it and get by fine (I have to admit) with my work laptop, a refurbished IBM Thinkpad running XP Pro. It might take me some time getting used to OSX but it'll be a lot of fun getting there. Can't wait!

Thanks again for the advice!

[bojangles]

Okay. My company just bought me a dual-2GHz G5 and I want to be prepared for its arrival. I’ve been bragging to a few people about how easy it is (from what I’ve heard) to get Mac OS X machines onto a Win2K server, so with this being the company’s first Apple since they dumped their Mac Classics in favor of cheap Dells, I’m gonna be under constant scrutiny. In other words, I want everything to work perfectly, so the Wintel-heads floating all over this company can truly be wowed.

Now.... Apple’s “Switch” site makes it sounds ridiculously easy. However, I know that in the real world—particularly when Mi�ro$oft’s involved—things are seldom as easy as they sound.

1) What do I have to do on the Win2K server to be ready for my G5 to connect as soon as it arrives? We already connect to it via TCP/IP, so at least that’s in place, but are there any special naming conventions, or whatever?

2) Is there any way to tell Jag to connect to certain network “drives” (yes, they’re really folders on various computers, including the two servers) on startup? (I guess an AppleScript in the Login Items would do, but something more elegant would be appreciated.)

3) Almost every printer in this place is hooked up to the network via somebody’s computer, whether via USB, parallel, etc.. What do I need to do to be able to access them without any issues?

4) Are there any other issues I might run into?

Thanks in advance!