OSX Appleshare

[Vladdo]

We've currently got a couple of macs running OSX and OS9 using appleshare to hook up to a Win2000 server..

We're looking at upgrading all our equipment in the near future and was wondering if its actually possible to do away with appleshare completely. We're looking at running OSX exclusively hooked up to a win2003 server. Can you share files over TCP/IP without probs? Our IT guru tells us that our new server doesn't play ball properly with appleshare so we'd like to ditch it completely.

Any ideas?

[andrew_bg]

yup, you dont need appleshare with the new os x systems.

I have 10.4 on my powerbook and it works 100% in our PC only environment at work.

I can print, use the internet and share files wihtout any issues at all, no appleshare in sight.

;-)

Andrew

[Rake]

I believe it's simply Samba sitting behind OSX.

I too have no problems accessing Windows services on OSX. The other way around though is a different story, shame because I reckon AFP is far better than SMB.

I take it your in a mixed pc + apple environment? If you weren't (Ie all comps were macs, or hte macs have their own server) I'd vote skipping that 2003 stuff and getting OSX Server. Powerful yet easy OS and can handle win clients too.

[Vladdo]

Well, we're a small publishing company that currently has about 7 macs running osx/os9 using quark.. We're all hooked up to a Win2000 Server box that is currently sharing files via Appleshare. We're looking into moving the whole business across to a PC/Indesign setup, however, we're also still considering sticking with a Mac/Quark/Indesign setup. The problem is, is that we're also going to ditch the W2k box and go for a multi clustered rack mountable array but we've been told that it won't like Appleshare at all. We basically need to keep all our production files on the array (ie, no need to access into the Mac boxes at all)..

The bottom line is that we won't be using any apple servers whatsoever. We're setting up a massive online database that is all PC based, theres just no room for any apple servers..

[elvis]

For around 5 years or so I ran the IT department of the entire South-East Asia sector of offices for these kids:
http://www.hoksve.com/sport/

During that time they were entirely Win2K based (upgrading to Win2K3 after I left - which I was called in to do as a consultant).

About mid-way through my time there it was deemed that their entire 2D graphics department would change from PC to Mac. At the time it was just on the OS9/OSX transition. What I did initially was set up "PC proxies". These were Linux boxes running both NetATalk and SAMBA:
http://netatalk.sourceforge.net/
http://www.samba.org/

I simply mounted all the necessary Windows-SMB shares on these Linux boxes, and re-shared them via NetATalk. As far as the OS9 boxes thought, they were looking at other OS9 file servers, and didn't care. The specs on the proxy machines didn't need to be high, and combined with Linux meant that we didn't need to waste time and money on inbetween software like "Dave" and others that started to add up in price over a whole department or seven.

OSX 10.0 and 10.1 were OK, but once 10.2 arrived it basically negated the need for AppleTalk at all. Now in 10.4, Apple are using their own fork of Samba 2.2-stable, which has no problems in a simple Windows file-server environment. Users can mount Windows-SMB shares directly to their desktop with Windows credentials, and start working on remote files immediately.

There are a few hiccups that should be mentioned. Sometimes mysterious connection dropouts occur, and it's still advised that for large files (say, files in excess of 600MB or so) should be copied locally and worked on before pushing back to the network on completion to save your staff's sanity. Apple have acknowledge these and a few other bugs (eg: connecting to Samba 3.0 servers sometimes breaks) and from what I understand are working on shifting the next release of OSX (10.5 - "Leopard") across to Samba3, complete with the AD-aware enhancements it brings (good news for OSX-Server users using Apple's OpenDirectory in mixed environments).

But outside of that, OSX can happily co-exist in non-Apple environments. Clients of mine today often are multi-system setups, with Apple, Windows, LInux and SGI all happily co-existing in a single location (or multi-location via VPN) and will share data without a hiccup.

As for your Quark/InDesign change, do yourself a favour and get that done ASAP. InDesign in it's current form is lightyears ahead of Quark (especially if you ever have to deal with non-"American" script, like Asian double-byte text, etc). Mac vs PC is a debate I won't get in to. Once you're using an application like InDesign, the OS beneath it is fairly meaningless, but no doubt you will have staff who bitch one way or the other regardless.

Good luck with the transition.

[andrewag]

Mac OS X can access SMB (Windows) shares by typing smb://SERVER_IP/SHARENAME/ in the Connect to Server box.

Mac OS 9 can access SMB with a third party app such as Dave.

Appleshare on Win 2k/3 has all sorts of problems such as:
*OLD implementation that does not support long filenames
*Slow
*Very slow to load the appleshare (and make it avail to the network after a server/service restart) if there are tens of gigabytes in the shared directory.

That said it's strange for a publishing house to move to Windows as most of the industry apparently uses Macintoshes. I guess that decision is more of an IT managers choice?

[aza2001]

just use TCP/IP for the mac os 9 boxes

a little application called sharepoints may come in handy aswell for you mac os x machine