[SwissMac]

Are there any known issues with Mac OS X Server 10.4 Tiger when it comes to connecting or running Windows 98 desktop computers to the Samba share on the server? We're using an almost new PowerMac G5.

We seem to have a problem with intermittent Fileserver service breaks so that we cannot always login to the server. I just wondered if W98 is a definite no-no here? What should I check and how, please?

TIA

Mac

[ghporter]

If you're using Win98SE it should work. Plain Win98 is problematic-part of what you need to connect is always there and will work, but not all of it. There's something called "advertising" (not always the same term in each version of Windows, by the way) that the OS uses to let everthing know that there's a sharable resource, and plain 98 is bad at it. SE is much better. But XP, if you can get it to run on the Windows machine, is MUCH, MUCH better. I have XP Pro with SP2 running on a 300MHz Pentium 2 laptop with I think 300something MB of RAM... It can be done, and from a networking standpoint it's worth it!

[SwissMac]

Thanks for that, we run Win 98SE - but what is Win 2000 like? I am wary of XP as I have heard of so many stories about how it likes to "take over" your entire system... and then of course I don't agree with Product Activation at all. Not that I use anything illegal, I just don't like the principle of having to "ask" Microsoft for permission to use programs nothing to do with it. Permission to use my own computer!

CHeers,

Mac

[ghporter]

Win2K should work well, but it's a bit harder to manage. And the product activation thing is nothing to worry about-it's just another anti-piracy technique, and significantly less intrusive than the myriad of "dongle-based" techniques around. I've never worried too much about it, actually, since it's automatic and usually only has to be done once in a blue moon, such as when you first install the OS and if you change something major in the hardware like a drive AND the RAM AND a PCI card.