[sm8000]

My office has a department with Mac users, but a couple of them are also Windows users. Since these Macs don't log into our domain, nor do they use a Novell login, they have a quota of our fileserver allocated for their shared drive. However they've asked if their Windows users can gain access to this drive.

We can attach them to it all right, but there is some concern from my co-workers that files made on the Macs would get corrupted after being edited by the PCs. I don't anticipate any problem of this sort, but are there precautions I should be aware of? The Mac users create and save files made in Adobe, Quark, and MS Office apps.

[ghporter]

I don't see a problem with the Windows users access corrupting the Macs' files. I DO see an issue with access control and the breakdown of the separation between what's available to the domain as a whole and what's available ONLY to the Macs.

This sounds like a serious network (virtual) topology and management issue. What's your Information Security guy's take on it?

[sm8000]

I guess not so much corruption as compatibility, interoperability, conversion, etc... one guy mentioned something about "resource fork" - any thoughts on that?

Not sure what you mean about access control, etc. - only people in that department have access to that portion (that share) of the file server. That's the way it goes for all departments. This is administered on Netware via ConsoleOne.

[ghporter]

Resource forks are additional, tiny files that OS X saves for backward compatibility with older Mac OS systems. They are innocuous and surplus-OS X doesn't need them and Windows doesn't use them, though Windows users will see them. If you're sharing a file with a Windows user, you might have to point out that the tiny file with the same name ain't the one they want.

By allowing Windows users access to something that's not part of their controlled domain, you allow "leakage" (to coin a term) between the domain and the outside. That reduces the ability of the IT people to prevent bad things from getting in or good things from sneaking out. It basically says "in spite of the fact that your data is in this secure vault called a domain, there's a doggie door that some users can access, and it's not locked or watched." Does that answer your question about access control?

[sm8000]

Yes, my question about access control is answered, but I'm not sure we're on the same page, and I think it's my fault (miswording on my part). Let me lay it out for you:

Our building's domain is called "Inner". All the Windows PCs typically log into Inner, as well as into Netware via Novell login. The AD login is synched to the Netware login. PCs logged into Inner and Netware can basically reach their personal network drives [M:], whatever folders they've been requested to be granted access to (and what type of access) on their department's (shared) network drive [K:], and printers, via NDPS (Novell Distributed Print Services).

Now the Macs: They get their printers connected via TCP/IP (IIRC), are able to reach the internet (via our DNS, proxies, etc.) and have a "K:" drive as described above. Sounds like they do log into Inner after all, just not Netware. We tried the Novell login client on them for a while but it didn't work too well. Same with GroupWise. Novell seems to neglect its Mac users from what we've seen - all our Mac users are on Thunderbird.

[ghporter]

Novel and Macs have a history of not playing nice. Novel never did like supporting MacOS as well as they did Windows; they practically owned the Windows Network OS market for a long time. I agree that you seem to be logging into the domain with your Macs. Domains managed by Windows servers are compatible with MacOS and their shared drives are pretty agnostic; they won't care about what sort of data you're putting on them as long as the app that saves or accesses the file knows what it's doing.

It sounds like you're well connected, and that your questions are answered. All good?

[sm8000]

I think so, thank you. I'll run all this info by the netadmin I am working with tomorrow and let you know how it goes.