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Prosoft fixes NetWare client conflict with MS Office; IP client to come. March 30, 2001 --Rick Zeman reports that Prosoft Engineering has released NetWare Client for Macintosh 5.14, which fixes the bug that causes the Mac to crash when Microsoft Office is launched, which we first reported last August. Zeman sent us this:

From Prosoft's David Neil on the Prosoft Netware4Mac list:

I have two announcements that will be of interest to this list.

First: The Office bug that causes hangs...remember that one? It's been fixed. Anyone who needs it can contact support@prosofteng.com. This is called version 5.14. I want anyone who needs it to have it as soon as possible.

Second: The development contract with Novell that will permit us to develop an IP client has been signed by us and is on it's way back to Novell now.

I contacted Prosoft support and received the updated client nearly immediately.

This new version is a change from Prosoft's previous position, which was "there is no plan to update the IPX client." The new contract with Novell is probably the cause of Prosoft's change of heart.

MeetingMaker 7.0, major new version of X-platform group calendar. March 30, 2001 -- MeetingMaker, Inc., has release MeetingMaker 7.0, a new version of the cross-platform group scheduling and calendar software. The new version is for servers and clients for Mac OS, Windows 95/98/NT/2000, and Sun Solaris. New features include:

• Support of LDAP directory services
• Publishing of calendars as HTML (web pages)
• E-mail and pager notification
• A new messaging system
• Time zone management
• Enhanced user interface
• Enhanced contact manager and to-do list
• A Java client

TeamAgenda 3.1.12-- a bug fix update. March 30, 2001 -- Teamsoft Inc. has released TeamAgenda 3.1.12, a minor upgrade to the cross-platform group scheduling software for Windows and Mac OS.(Upgrade is free.) The new version fixes some problems with e-mail notifications and other bugs.

VPC OS X update won't be free. March 29, 2001 -- Steven Palm reports that Connectix told him that Virtual PC 4 for Mac OS X will not be an update for Virtual PC 4 for OS 9.x, but will be considered a new product. Owners of VPC 4 be offered VPC 4 for OS X for a special price, which has not yet been announced.

This is not surprising, as VPC for OS X is another rewrite of the product, and not a simple "carbonization." VPC 4 does a lot of unorthodox things with RAM and the hardware that other Mac applications don't do, which is why it doesn't run in the OS X Classic mode.

SuSE Linux 7.1 PowerPC Edition to ship in a few weeks. March 30, 2001 -- SuSE Linux announced that it would release SuSE Linux 7.1 PowerPC Edition (US $50) in April. The company said the new version improved USB support and sound, and would ship on 6 CDs, including 1000 applications. (Version 7.0 ships on 5 CDs.)

More on iTools and Windows: accessing files. March 30, 2001 -- Apple Tech Info Library article 25267 describes a problem and a fix for when Windows users download files from an iTools HomePage File Sharing web page.

Web tutorials for moving fonts between Windows and Mac. March 30, 2001 -- A web site called Mike's Sketchpad has a number of tutorial for converting font files and graphics files between Mac and Windows. The site is targeted for graphics designers. (Thanks to Bob Maguire for the tip.)

Fix for Outlook 2001 Beta and Mac OS X: hosts file issue. March 29, 2001 -- Ed Dyer responded to our report of a problem with Outlook 2001 Beta and Mac OS X with a solution. He says:

The problem is not really with the Outlook 2001 beta, but with the hosts file. I have just duplicated the problem with Outlook 8.2.2 and OS X final release. OS X creates a TCP/IP config in OS 9.1 called "classic."

Dyer send us a procedure for creating a hosts file in Mac OS X, which you can read on our Outlook 2001 Beta special report page.

George W Raduano also found the hosts file to be the problem. In his case, he got it to work just by deleting it:

I had the same exact problem when I installed OS X. I discovered it through a process of elimination. After eliminating the "hosts" file, everything worked just fine. I worked through the problem with Apple tech support and alerted them to my find.

OS X - Outlook 2001 Beta: another problem related to hosts file. March 29, 2001 -- Michael Cohen has another problem with Outlook 2001 Beta and Mac OS X:

Although I don't have the same problem that Leland Jory has with the Outlook beta on OS X I have some interesting ones that may be related to the hosts file and how X modifies the OS 9.1 system folder.

After installing OS X, the Outlook Beta would not work when I rebooted under OS 9.1: claimed that it couldn't find the server. I reinstalled the beta under 9.1, and it allowed me to set up a profile and seemed to find the server during the check phase, but when I actually tried to use Outlook, again the server was not to be found.

Interestingly, the Outlook beta does work in the Classic environment under OS X, but only once per session. If I launch it, do some work, and quit, then relaunch, the beta hangs, freezing the dock completely.

Even restarting the system doesn't work; I actually have to press the reset button on my G4. (Interestingly, I see the same pattern trying to run Eudora 4.3 in the Classic environment: one launch per session).

OS X Mail and Exchange Server. March 29, 2001 -- Matthew Smith tried using the Mail IMAP client that comes with Mac OS X with Microsoft Exchange server.

I am having the following problem with OS X's mail program and Exchange Server. I attempt to connect to the Exchange Server as an IMAP server. Some mailboxes I am able to read messages from, but if they have other folders within them, then I can't read messages... I can just open the enclosed folders.

If you've seen this problem, please let us know.

VPC 4 problems with Win NT. March 29, 2001 -- Jonadab Torres is having problem with Windows NT on Virtual PC 4. Despite the fact that the Virtual PC 4 manual says that Windows NT is one of the operating systems that Virtual PC 4, Connectix is now telling him that VPC 4 does not support Windows NT, and that there is a problem with VPC Additions and Windows NT. Torres received this message from Connectix tech support:

In regards to the NT additions. This is a know issue. Our developers are working on a fix for this and it shall be posted on our Connectix website as soon as possible.

Torres describes the problem:

I just had another very length conversation with Jim (VPC 1st level tech support). He told me again that they in no way shape or form support Win NT and that any problem I might be having is not there problem. I tried to help him appreciate that I'm a support person also and that my questions are for 25 VPC users. This didn't seem to help, he just continued to say that he doesn't support Win NT.

The problem that I'm calling about is a long standing one for me. Even though I've just come to prove to my self what is causing it. After installing VPC Additions for NT I'm now having a problem. The system begins acting like I've depressed the right mouse button and I'm holding it down with out let up. When this happens the only thing I can do is move the mouse off the VPC screen and restart using the keyboard.

A Win NT Event that comes up when the right mouse button begins to stick.

In an attempt to correct the problem I switched this driver out with a standard Microsoft Driver, the problem went away but I lost the ability to move freely from the VPC window to the Mac desktop.

Microsoft releases Windows XP Server Beta 2. March 29, 2001 -- Microsoft has shipped 300,000 copies of the Windows XP Server Beta 2, the latest prerelease version of it's next generation operating system server platform (formerly code-named "Whistler").

Microsoft ships Win Media Player 7 for Mac, version 8 for Windows March 29, 2001 -- Microsoft released the shipping version of Windows Media Player 7 for Macintosh and Windows Media Player 8 for Windows (see ZDNet story). Microsoft says that WMP 8 for Windows has 30 percent improved quality over version 7.

HELIOS servers for Win, Mac clients to run on Mac OS X. March 26, 2001 -- HELIOS Software GmbH announced that all of its server products will be available for Mac OS X some time this summer. (Currently, HELIOS' servers run on Unix hardware and support Mac or Windows clients.) This includes EtherShare 2.6 (an AFP-over-IP file server supporting Mac clients), EtherShare OPI 2.1, PCShare 3.0 (an SMB/CIFS file sharing server for Windows clients), PDF Handshake 2 including PDF Internet Printing, and Print Preview. HELIOS also said that its Mac programs EtherShare Admin, LANTest, Tagger, and Touch will also be available "soon" for Mac OS X, which Apple began shipping last weekend.

Mac OS X uses MS Windows font formats. March 26, 2001 -- Apple Tech Info Library article 25251 describes OS X using Windows fonts:

Mac OS X also works with font formats used by Microsoft Windows. These fonts have all their data in the data fork and do not have the additional resources found in Macintosh fonts. Mac OS X works with these font formats:

• TrueType fonts (with the extension .ttf)
• TrueType collections (with the extension .ttc)
• OpenType fonts (with the extension .otf)

Problem with Outlook 2001 Beta and Mac OS X. March 26, 2001 -- Leland Jory reports a problem with the Outlook 2001 Beta for Mac and a recent build of Mac OS X. We've posted his message on our Outlook 2001 Beta special report page.

If you've seen this problem, please let us know.

Graphics Converter 4.0.5 for Mac OS and OS X. March 26, 2001 -- Lemke software has released Graphics Converter 4.0.5 in Carbon format for Mac OS X and OS 9.x. Graphics Converter is a Mac utility that can convert dozens of Windows, Unix, and Mac graphics file formats.

Asante issues Mac OS X drivers for gigabit and 10/100 Ethernet adapters. March 26, 2001 -- Asante is now offering free Mac OS X drivers for its FriendlyNET GigaNIX PCI 1000TA (US $249) and AsantÈFast 10/100 PCI adapters (US $49).

MS UAM 5.0.7 and continued failure to change passwords. March 26, 2001 -- Brian Little is another reader who discovered that upgrading his Macs to Microsoft version User Authentication Module 5.0.7 doesn't fix the problem of changing passwords for access to Windows 2000 Servers:

Just to follow on, the 5.0.7 upgrade still doesn't let us change passwords, either. We're still using Outlook Web Access. Regarding the supposition that Kerb5 v. NTLM is causing the problem, I don't think that's it. You have to very specifically disable NTLM, and we've not done that here, because we still have NT clients and servers active on campus. Our setup is "Prefer Kerb5, default to NTLM, then default to Cleartext." Still no luck with the UAM, though.

TIP: Orinoco/Airport card and Intel Pro/Wireless. March 26, 2001 -- Chris Dollmont sent in a tip about configuring and Orinoco wireless card to work on a Mac with an Intel wireless network:

The Intel Pro/Wireless WAP only allows a hexadecimal password for its WEP. Both the Orinoco control panel and the Airport control panel expect a password as an ASCII string. Here's what I've discovered:

1) On the Orinoco control panel, precede the string of hex digits with '0x'. If your Intel password is 3131313131, enter it as 0x3131313131.

2) On the Airport control panel, precede the string with a '$'. If your Intel password is 3131313131, enter is as $3131313131.

3) If you are using an Orinoco card because you have an older PowerBook (like me), you can use the Airport drivers and control panel (Airport cards are Orinoco Silver relabelled). The Airport drivers are a better choice because you get the control strip application and scripting abilities for easily switching between settings.

Dell TrueMobile 1150 and AirPort. March 26, 2001 -- Jim Hines reports success with using a Dell TrueMobile 1150 wireless PC card with AirPort. You can read about it on our Cross-platform AirPort special report page.

Solutions update: another KVM for sharing keyboards and monitors. March 26, 2001 -- We've added the Hawking Technology 2 Port USB KVM to our list of switches that can be used to share a single keyboard and monitor with a Mac and a PC. This is is on our Keyboard Solutions page. Alan Ristow recommends the Hawking:

The Hawking 2 Port USB KVM is very similar to the Iogear MiniView; as far as I can tell, the only major difference is that the Iogear unit allows sharing of four USB devices, while the Hawking unit only allows sharing of only two. The Hawking unit seems to be $10-20 cheaper, depending on where you look.

Mac OS X 10.0 ships tomorrow: Mac goes Unix. March 23, 2001 -- Tomorrow, Apple will ship Mac OS X 10.0, the first version of its next generation and long-awaited operating system. At a press briefing on March 21 at the Apple campus in Cupertino, CA, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said this first release was targeted at "earlier adopters." Apple admits that there are pieces still missing from the operating system, including support for DVD playback and CD-RW writing, which Apple says will be released during the next few months.

Though there is little new in the way of Windows integration in OS X 10.0, but there is quite a bit of Unix in the Mac system, which uses BSD Unix as it's core OS running on a Mach kernel. Jobs predicted that by they end of the year, Mac OS X would be largest Unix distribution in terms of volume, as well as the largest Java 2 distribution.

We asked Jobs about the extent of BSD Unix that is available to the user OS X user. He described OS X as a robust and complete Unix environment. BSD in OS X provides uses with an FTP server and an Apache web server which can be turned on in the Sharing pane of the System Preferences window. The Terminal application, which provides a command line shell, is installed in the Applications/Utilities/ directory. Avie Tevanian, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, said that most Linux software should run unaltered on OS X after a recompile. A server based on Mac OS X 10.0 will ship next quarter.

Connectix announces Virtual PC for Mac OS X for summer ship. March 23, 2001 -- Connectix announced that it would ship Virtual PC for Mac OS X this summer. In a press statement, Connectix Vice President of Marketing Mitchell Cipriano said "We believe Mac OS X is the ideal platform on which to build a better Virtual PC."

PPTP VPN client for Mac OS X. March 23, 2001 -- pptp for Mac OS X is a free (open source) PPTP client for Mac OS X and Virtual Private Networks and some ADSL connects. It is a Cocoa application available with an Aqua interface or a command line interface.

Sharity for OS X: a SMB/CIFS file sharing client for Windows networks. March 23, 2001 -- Objective Development's Sharity 2.4 Beta 8 is an SMB/CIFS file sharing client for Windows networks that runs on Mac OS X. (By comparison, Thursby's DAVE is an SMB/CIFS client for Mac OS 8.x/9.x.) The developer notes that there are some problems with Mac OS X Public Beta that it did not expect to occur with Mac OS X 10.0.

Still unable to change passwords on W2K using UAM 5.0.7. March 23, 2001 -- John Lascurettes upgraded to his Microsoft UAM (Mac software for secure login to Windows servers), but is still having problems with changing passwords:

I installed the UAM 5.0.7 and was unable to change my password. I get the following error:

The Microsoft User Authentication Method encountered an error. Unable to change password: your new password was not accepted by the server.

After sitting down with our lone IT administrator, we came to the following conclusions. Due to some pretty nasty hacker attacks we've had in the last year, only strong encryption is allowed by the Windows users in the office to change their passwords on the Windows 2000 server (Kerberos if I remember correctly). If the UAM is only using low-level LM authentication (as quoted by Brad Judy ), it isn't able to authenticate a new password because it isn't able to use an encryption level that is secure enough. Does this sound correct?

If it is correct, I'd be curious to know if anyone has any ideas for a work around without compromising the security required to change the password. For now, Mac users have been using a guest W2K station to log in and change their passwords. We have had hackers change the administrator password when permissions and security were set too low; so allowing LM authentication for changing passwords is not an option.

If you have any thoughts on this issue, please let us know.

MS UAM 5.0.5 tip for Mac Keychain access confirmed. March 23, 2001 -- John Lascurettes confirmed procedure we reported on March 20 (below) for enabling Windows 2000 Server passwords to be added to the OS 9 Keychain.

Windows users can access files of iTools Mac users. March 23, 2001 -- Users of Apple's free iTools service can make share files available to Windows users on the Web. iTools provides up to 20 MB of server space on the Internet for travelers or for sharing. Mac users can access iTools content through a Macintosh interface that mounts a volume on the desktop. At the iTools web site, iTools users have the option to present the shared information using an http web interface.

iFusion PowerPC Mac emulator ships for Amiga platform. March 23, 2001 -- Mike Goodine of Emaculation.com reports that Microcode Solutions will release iFusion for Amiga, a PowerPC Macintosh emulator for the PowerPC-based Amiga platform. A distributor called Bittersoft is taking orders for £ 127.62 + VAT.

Another SkyLINE driver update from Farallon. March 23, 2001 -- After posting driver update a little over a week ago, Farallon has posted SkyLINE Wireless Driver Installer 2.4 for its PC Card and PCI card for Macs. The new version fixes some bugs.

Microsoft posts UAM 5.0.7, fixes password bug. March 20, 2001 -- Microsoft has posted User Authentication Module (UAM) 5.0.7. Microsoft says the new version " fixes a bug that prevented Mac users from changing passwords over 7 characters long." MacWindows readers have been reporting a password bug with UAM 5.0.5, but not with previous versions.

(The MS UAM is an optional Mac program installed on Macs to provide a more secure connection to a Windows network, providing encrypted authentication to Windows 2000 Servers running Services for Macintosh.)

TIP: How to add MS Server/UAM to Keychain. March 20, 2001 -- A reader named Jim sent us a procedure for saving a MS UAM 5.0.5 password to the Mac OS 9 Keychain:

The Windows 2000 Server administrator needs to:

1. open Computer Management,
2. right click on Shared Folders,
3. select Configure file Server for Macintosh,
4. and check the "Allow workstations to save password" box.

Advice for getting Compaq iPaq on an AirPort network. March 20, 2001 -- David Karlsson is using a Compaq iPaq Pocket PC on an AirPort network. Here's how he did it:

I was able to get an Ipaq with the Compaq WL1000 card working together with an AirPort Base Station. The trick is to use (on the Ipaq side) a setting called "infrastructure" in the cards config menu. The other two options in that section is 802.11 AdHoc and one I can´t recall.

For more tips about cross-platform wireless networks, see our Cross-platform AirPort special report page.

StuffIt Deluxe 6.0.1 adds Mac OS X features, Entourage improvement. March 20, 2001 -- Aladdin has released StuffIt Deluxe 6.0.1 (US $79.95, update free), an upgrade of its cross-platform compression/encoding utility for Macintosh. (The StuffIt for Windows has not been upgraded at this time.) The new version, which runs on Mac OS 8 and 9 and OS X, adds some new features, including:

• Decompression of GnuTar archives, a Unix compression format. In OS X, this support will maintain file and user permissions
• Support of symbolic links, an OS X feature that allows packaged applications to be Stuffed and un-Stuffed without any data loss
• Improved support to stuff files attached to MS Entourage messages

Aladdin also released StuffIt Expander and DropStuff 6.0.1 for Mac. These utilities gained some user interface improvements.

Palm bundles DataViz editor for Word, Excel. March 20, 2001 -- Palm, Inc. will be bundling DataViz' Documents To Go Professional Edition software with the new Palm m500 and m505 handheld computers. Documents To Go lets you view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and other documents on the Palm.

Text Cleaner 2.0. March 20, 2001 -- Studio 405 has released TextCleaner 2.0 (US $79, upgrades US $39), a Macintosh utility for converting text problems between platforms and other text conversion tasks. The new version increases performance by up to 300 percent, improves cleaning of Quark Xpress documents while retaining style information. It also adds support for user-defined cleaning operations and unlimited presets that you can export and import, and use in custom DropClean applets.

Taylor Design releases Textpresso 1.8.1. March 20, 2001 -- Taylor Design has released Textpresso 1.8.1 (US $29.95, free upgrade), a text editor for Mac OS that can convert between Mac and PC text. The new version now includes 190 filters, adding filters for HTML tables, managing C++ source code, and working with FileMaker Pro text exports.

New Mac Telnet client revision adds AppleScript. March 19, 2001 -- Kevin Grant has posted MacTelnet 3.0 Alpha 20, a new revision to the telnet client for Mac. The new version adds AppleScript support, improvements in terminal windows, and bug fixes.

Another problem with MS UAM 5.0.5--OS 9 Keychain access. March 19, 2001 -- John Lascurettes reports of another problem with the Microsoft UAM 5.0.5 for logging into Windows servers:

[I am] having a problem with Microsoft UAM 5.0.5 and Apple's Keychain. I am running OS 9.1 so I have the latest AppleShare software - but every time I mount a Windows 2000 Server volume, the "add to Keychain" is grayed out.

I tried to add manually by taking the mounted directory and dragging to my Keychain items window. That added an item to Keychain access, but when I try accessing that volume again, it accesses the Keychain but still brings up the UAM dialog and requests my password.

Also, what was mounted was "volume B" which lives on "server A", but the Keychain item is named "server A" in Keychain access. Is there something I'm missing here? What should I point my MS administrator toward?

If you've seen this problem, please let us know. Recently, we've been reporting login errors with MS UAM 5.0.5.  

PcConverter 2.0, cross-platform text manipulator for Mac. March 19, 2001 -- Vampire Software has upgraded ASCII Converter to PcConverter 2.0 (US $20) Mac utility for converting text and RTF files between Windows, Unix, and Macintosh. It will convert ASCII characters and let you build your own conversion tables. Vampire says "you can use it to process your custom database files or to automate the conversion of text files to html." (For more file converter software for Macs and Windows, see our File Translation Solutions page.

PCMacLan works with AirPort. March 19, 2001 -- A reader named Janie reports that she has the same setup as Roy Marquez and had the same problems with DAVE on AirPort networks. However, she also reports that Miramar's PC MACLAN does work on the same AirPort network.

Oracle on VPC advice. March 19, 2001 -- Macintouch has a discussion of running Oracle Client on Virtual PC.

X-platform medical billing software upgrade. March 19, 2001 -- The d.i.d. Circle Organization released Medical Billing Circle 6.6 (starting at US $960) for Mac OS and Windows. The new version includes "over 40 major new features and many smaller improvements," according to the company. Some of these improvements are in the areas of cross platform graphics, e-mail, import/export, and cross indexing of diagnoses and services.

Fix for problem: NT crashes when Mac copies files. March 19, 2001 -- Tom McDonald read our report of a problem with NT crashing when Macs copy files to an SFM module. He found a KnowledgeBase article , which he says fixed the problem.

Just read this string while looking for another problem. I recently went through this same odd problem with an HP NetServer E60, NT4, SP4.

I had run this machine for awhile with no sign of this problem. Recently I reformatted and reinstalled the OS creating a partition for the OS and another for the shared SFM directories. Immediately after that any time I would copy a group of files or a large file from a Mac to the server it would drop into a Blue Screen.

To make a long story short I had one obscure error message about the page file which led me to Microsoft's Knowledge base. There I found the following information.

This tech note explains about a damaged paging file and how to fix it. It was titled "STOP OxA or Ox1E screens caused by damaged paging file." I have not had the problem since. Although there could be multiple causes for dropping into a Blue Screen I thought this might help someone else.

Sony and Connectix join forces in PlayStation emulation. March 16, 2001 -- In a case of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," Sony and Connectix announced that they have joined forces to create emulation solutions for PlayStation, and perhaps more. Since 1999, Sony has lost nearly all of its legal challenges against Connectix for Virtual Game Station, a software emulator of Sony's PlayStation.

Under the new agreement between the two companies, the Connectix will offer the current version of Virtual Game Station for Mac OS and Windows until June 30, 2001. The press release said that:

Sony Computer Entertainment will acquire from Connectix all assets related to the VGS emulation technology...All further emulation development for the PlayStation game console will proceed under the auspices of the joint agreement.

This could mean that the PlayStation game console and its software emulator equivalent on Mac and PC will be developed together; Instead of reverse engineering, the emulator can include Sony code, and therefore become more compatible with more PlayStation games. Connectix President Roy McDonald hinted at moving beyond the game market. "We believe that this collaboration can lead to improved development tools, innovative consumer products and productive enterprise solutions."

More on the Microsoft UAM 5.05 password problem. March 16, 2001 -- Igor Zagatsky is the latest reader to confirm the problem with Microsoft UAM 5.0.5 (for use with logging onto Windows servers from Macs):

We have the same problem ("Miscellaneous AFP error"). Highly annoying! This does not happen with UAM 5.0.4 that comes with Windows 2000, only with 5.0.5 that is on the MS Website. However the 5.0.5 version seems to be more reliable in general with the exception of the password problem. Sure would be nice if this would get fixed.

Suggestion for fonts/apps stored on NT. March 16, 2001 -- Responding to yesterday's item on backing up Mac fonts and apps stored on NT Server SFM volumes, developer Patrick Peccatte has a few suggestions:

1. NT users can use standard Explorer in order to copy/backup Macintosh files. This works perfectly even if the file size displayed by NT is zero. This is possible since SP3 or SP4 (I do not remember exactly) because the low level API used by Explorer to copy files have been modified to manage all associate streams during copy operation.

2. Other tools using these API (like my Idem replication software) are also able to correctly backup Mac files (even fonts or Mac programs).

3. NT users can also display data *and* resource sizes of Mac files stored on an NT box using my free software MacExplorer.

I add that all my tools are now edited and distributed by a new company called Soft Experience.

Farallon posts new drivers for wireless SkyLINE card. March 16, 2001 -- The Farallon division of Proxima has posted Mac SkyLINE drivers 2.3 (free) for the wireless SkyLINE PC Card and SkyLINE 11 Mb Wireless PCI Card. The new version adds stability and includes a firmware upgrade for the cards. Also available are the Windows SkyLINE PC Card drivers 1.3 for Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000. The cards work in both PCs and Macs.

Compaq to release "ultra dense" servers. March 16, 2001 -- A ZDNet story says that later this year Compaq will introduce a server solution code named QuickBlade that could hold up to 300 CPUs in a single 6-foot rack.

ConceptDraw Server creates HTML pages. March 16, 2001 -- Odessa Corp. has released ConceptDraw Server 1.0 (US $1199), server software for Windows that converts Mac and Windows ConceptDraw documents into HTML pages.

Another AFP-IP file server for NT: Xinet FullPress. March 16, 2001 -- Stewart Ayers points out that Xinet's FullPress OPI Server for Windows NT includes an AFP-over-IP (AppleShare IP compatible) file server. Xinet is a longtime developer of AFP servers for Unix, KA-Share, but it doesn't make an NT version of just the AFP server. Ayers was wondering if anyone know how FullPress for NT compares performance-wise with Windows 2000 SFM, ExtremeZ-IP, MacServerIP. If you have any idea, please let us know.

Cross-platform script trigger for FileMaker. March 16, 2001 -- Troi Automatisering has released Activator Plug-in 1.2 for FileMaker 5 ( US $89 per user) a plug-in that lets you trigger FileMaker scripts on Macs and PCs over a network.

DAVE gets Keychain support. March 15, 2001 -- Thursby Software Systems released DAVE 2.5.2 (US $149), a new version of Mac software that enables Macs to share files and printers on PC networks.

• OS 9 Keychain support
• A new setup assistant for easier configuration
• Improved DHCP handling, a special feature that allows virtually automatic setup on corporate networks and a
• new installer feature designed to better support non-English systems.

The update is free for owners of DAVE 2.5 and 2.5.1 and for those who have a support contract. For owners of older versions, the upgrade is US $79.95.

DAVE over AirPort problems due to NAT, name resolution. March 15, 2001 -- Carl Ketterling of Thursby Software has responded to our reports of problems with DAVE on AirPort networks. First, he points out that NAT in the AirPort Base Station causes name resolution problems. Thursby also recommends using a fixes IP address in the Mac when using DAVE on an AirPort connection. You can read Ketterling's response on our DAVE special report page.

NT Server file size of Mac fonts, apps can affect backup. March 15, 2001 -- Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q112402 mentions that Windows NT Server reports wrong files sizes of fonts and applications:

Macintosh files have both a Data Fork and a Resource Fork. Windows NT gets the file size info from the Data Fork. If no information is available in the Data Fork, the file size displayed is zero. Both Macintosh executable files and font files have 0 bytes listed in the Data Fork, so their size is displayed as 0 bytes.

Bill Mansur points out that backing up font files with zero size are not recoverable (as would be data files).

More on Microsoft UAM/password problem. March 14, 2001 -- A couple of readers report having the same problem with Microsoft UAM 5.0.5 when logging on to a Windows server, which we described yesterday (below). Brian Little reported:

Same setup as your reported problem, but we are COMPLETELY unable to change passwords, numbers or not. We have been for months...We've come to rely on Outlook Web Access's password change facility almost exclusively.

Outlook Web Access will let you change your password via a secure server (we use Exchange for our campus mail system).

Jerry Colen also has the problem:

Just wanted to let you know we have the same exact problem with UAM 5.0.5. When we try to change the password we get a "Miscellaneous AFP error".

If you've seen this problem, please let us know.

Group Logic ships ExtremeZ-IP 2.01 for Win servers. March 14, 2001 -- Group Logic has shipped ExtremeZ-IP 2.0.1, a "maintenance release" of the AFP-over-IP file and print services for Windows NT/2000 servers. (ExtremeZ-IP is an alternative to Microsoft Services for Macintosh.) Improvements in version 2.0.1 include:

• Performance enhancements
• Optimization for Windows 2000
• Faster Sherlock searches
• Remote administration
• Better integration with other Macintosh and Windows applications

More on DAVE and AirPort problem. March 14, 2001 -- A couple of readers responded to our report of a problem with DAVE on AirPort networks. Michael LoRusso said he had the problem and found two workarounds: creating aliases of the mounted volumes when connectied via Ethernet, and using the mount manually option. Willem Schijf recommends upgrading to DAVE Client 2.5.7 and NetBIOS 2.5p6. You can read both reports on our DAVE special report page.

Tip: Orinoco/PC setup with WEP on AirPort Base Station. March 14, 2001 -- Mike Sullivan sent this item about using a Lucent Orinoco Silver card on Apple AirPort Base Station / WEP On:

It is no longer necessary to enter a '0' (zero) prior to the Equivalent Network Password key copied from the Apple AirPort Admin Utility / Base Station / Equivalent Network Password menu. Just click the 'Use Alphanumeric Characters (0-9, a-z)' radio button and enter the 10-digit key given in the Apple dialog box.

This is with Orinoco Client Manager Variant 1, Version 1.18 software on the PC.

MacDisk 6: PC utility for Mac media. March 14, 2001 -- Pierre Duhem has released MacDisk 6, a utility to mount and manage all kinds of Macintosh media on a PC. Duhem describes version 6 as "major release." The new version offers a new user interface that looks like the Windows Explorer and new and rewritten functions. Duhem says:

MacDisk now replaces our former products MacDisk and MacScuzzy, and offer in particular many features for network administrators managing NTFS/SFM volumes (in place file renaming, and the like).

A special, introductory offer (with 15 % off, valid till May 2001) is available here, and for Europe (in euros).Check here for upgrades, or here in Europe.  

Mac OS X golden doesn't support browsing of some 3rd party AFP-IP servers. March 13, 2001 -- MacWindows has learned from a source that the golden master of Mac OS X does not support Name Binding Protocol (NBP) lookups, used to browse for AFP file servers over TCP/IP. This could mean that for many AFP (Apple File Protocol) servers, users will need to type in IP addresses in order to access the server. However, once an IP address has been typed in, OS X keeps it, so you can select it from a pulldown menu the next time you log on.

Mac OS X Public Beta also does not support NBP. Apple refers to NBP being used for AFP-on-AppleTalk servers (such as Windows NT 4 SFM), but some AFP over TCP/IP also use NBP to enable the server to appear in the Chooser.

Apple is calling the first version of OS X, to be released on March 24, "Mac OS X 10.0."

Adobe announces Adobe Acrobat 5 for Mac and Windows. March 13, 2001 -- Adobe announced yesterday that Adobe Acrobat 5 (US $249, upgrade US $99) for Windows and Mac would ship during the second quarter in the US and Canada. (See also this Adobe press release.) The new features of the cross-platform PDF editor and generator is aimed at business collaboration. The new features include:

• Web and database integration based WebDistributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) and ODBC for simultaneously sharing comments on Adobe PDF files from within a browser.
• Support for the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) for integrating metadata and forms data in Adobe PDF file with backend systems.
• Support for digital signatures

Reader problem with Windows server and MS UAM 5.0.5. March 13, 2001 -- Stephen Chiang reports this problem with the Microsoft UAM when logging on to a Windows server:

Running UAM 5.0.5 on a PowerBook G3 Bronze, OS 9.0.4. When user tries to change his password, it will work, however if there are any numbers in his new password, I get an error dialog that says: "The Microsoft User Authentication method encountered an error, a misc. AFP error has occurred."

If you've seen this problem, please let us know.

WebMerge 1.5 X-platform web database publishing tool. March 12, 2001 -- Fourth World today released WebMerge 1.5 (US $69; free upgrade), a tool for Mac OS 8/9 and Windows 95/98/NT/2000 that creates static Web pages from database files. Version 1.5 adds support for databases that export in tab-delimited export formats, including FileMaker Pro and Microsoft Access. Other improvements include support for Apple Events on Macs, the ability to generate links from URLs in a database field, and better generation of HTML code. WebMerge generates standard web pages from databases data, and does not require you to add software to the web server.

Farallon SkyLINE in Win 2000 works with AirPort. March 12, 2001 -- Max Dichter had good results getting his Windows 2000 PC on an AirPort wireless network when you installed a Farallon Skyline 11 card in the PC, as long as he didn't use encrypted mode. You can read his report on our Cross-platform AirPort special report page.

DAVE and AirPort problem. March 12, 2001 -- Roy Marquez is having a problem getting DAVE to work on an AirPort network:

I got a G4 desktop and a PC laptop that uses a SkyLINE PC card. They both play "together" when used with my AirPort Base Station; they both can grab an IP address from DHCP and use NAT to access the Internet. Both machines can surf at the same time when I use the modem on the Base Station.

However, I really need to share file between the two machines. I thought Dave might be my solution here...Dave 2.5.1 stalls just when the Finder is about to load completely.

Marquez also wondered if there was some special DAVE configuration needed for AirPort networks. If you have any advice, please pass it our way.

Another report of AirPort connectivity problems. March 9, 2001-- Another reader describes connectivity problems with Windows accessing AirPort Base Station. The reader said that Linux worked better. Also reported were problems with AirPort's NAT Internet gateway and the Ethernet port. You can read this report and the others on our Cross-platform AirPort special report page.

Apple posts tech info on AirPort 1.3. March 9, 2001-- Apple has posted several technical articles on some of the new features of AirPort 1.3 software, which it released earlier this week:

• Tech Info Library article 106140 describes configuring AirPort 1.3 software to join a non-Macintosh IBSS standard computer-to-computer network.
• Tech Info Library article 106142 warns of a problem with entering an incorrect password when joining a Computer-to-Computer network.

Tech Info Library article 58604 describes using using an AirPort Base Station with DHCP Client ID.

Aladdin names European distributor for StuffIt for Windows. March 9, 2001-- Aladdin Systems has named Softline AG of Offenburg, Germany as its exclusive European distributor of StuffIt for Windows, the cross-platform compression/encoding utility. Softline will also be a distributor for the international versions of other Aladdin products for Windows and Macintosh.

Intel to cut 5000 employees. March 9, 2001-- A ZDNet story describes an announcement from Intel that it will cut 5000 of its 86,000 employees due to a 15 percent drop in revenue.

How to configure StarBand satellite for Mac and Win. March 8, 2001-- Macworld has an article by Christopher Breen that details the software and hardware configuration of the StarBand Internet satellite connection with Macs and Windows PCs. It's a very detailed article complete with 8 photos and nearly a dozen Windows and Mac OS screen shots. (For more on StarBand, we have some reader reports of using satellite connections with cross-platform AirPort networks on our cross-platform AirPort special report.)

Suggestion for sporadic AirPort connectivity. March 8, 2001-- Scott Sorensen responds to our reader report of March 6 (below) about a reader whose PC connection to AirPort Base Station drops out. Sorensen has seen this with a Mac:

This problem is not unique to Windows 98. I had my blue and white G3 hooked up to a hub, which was hooked up to a base station. I too, had the problem of sporadic connectivity. I think the problem is with the Base Station software in this particular configuration. I have since installed a Farallon Skyline PCI/PC card combo in my G3 and it works just fine. No more wires!

Mac OS X goes golden. March 8, 2001-- Apple issued a press release yesterday saying that Mac OS X had gone gold master has been released to manufacturing for production. ("Gold master" usually means that no more changes will be made for a release.) Apple plans to ship OS X on March 24 for US $129.

Miramar adds IP support to PC MACLAN for Win 95/98/Me. March 7, 2001-- Miramar Systems released a PC MACLAN for Windows 95/98/Me a new version of it's AFP software that includes two-way cross-platform file/print sharing over TCP/IP. (US $199; upgrades US $69-$99 direct from Miramar Systems.) The previous version of PC MACLAN for Windows 95/98 did not support Windows ME and worked over AppleTalk only. This version supports both AppleTalk and TCP/IP, like Miramar's previously released version for Win NT/2000. Features include:

• IP Client and IP Server for faster file sharing with Macs
• Bi-directional printer support, including support for non-PostScript printers
• Dialup support
• PC Migrator (for file extensions during file transfer)
• A.K.A. (for removing illegal characters from Mac files before transfer to PC)
• DataViz' MacOpener (Mac file translation utility)

(Miramar's web site had not been updated at press time.)

Shrinking VPC 4 drives by wiping free drive space. March 7, 2001-- Connectix Knowledge Base article 4516 describes an "advanced" method of getting the dynamic hard disk image to shrink. The method involves using Norton SystemWorks (part of Norton Utilities for Windows) from within Windows 95, 98, or ME to "wipe" the free space. The article says "Free space will have been reclaimed and the drive will be smaller by the corresponding amount."

AirPort 1.3 adds PPPoE, WiFiTM, AppleScript. March 6, 2001-- Yesterday, Apple has released AirPort 1.3, the latest version of software for the AirPort Base Station and Mac AirPort clients. The new version adds a number of new features, including:

• Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) for some DSL connections
• DHCP client ID support, required by some ISPs
• Wi-FiTM certification for better interoperability with other manufacturers' wireless networking products.
• Scripting ability and sample AppleScripts

AirPort problem with Win 98. March 6, 2001-- Doug Harris is having a problem with one PC on an AirPort wireless network:

I'm using the Airport Base Station as the network access point to connect to my dialup Mindspring/Earthlink account. The phone line is plugged into the base station. I have an Orinoco/WaveLAN silver card in my Dell laptop which communicates with the Base Station under Windows ME and Linux.

The base station is connected by a short cat-5 cable to a small Linksys hub. Also hanging off of this hub is my desktop machine, which is also dual boot -- Win 98 and Linux.

Everything works fine, except Windows 98 on the desktop. It will work fine for 3-5 minutes, connecting through the base station to the outside world. But then it seems to forget how to use its gateway. I can still ping the base station and the laptop. Typing "route print" in a command window shows the same routing tables. If I walk away from the desktop for 20-30 min., it will work again when I return, but again only for 3-5 minutes.

If you've seen this, please let us know.

FWB discontinues SoftWindows emulator for Mac. March 5, 2001-- FWB Software has announced that it is discontinuing SoftWindows 98 for Mac, the PC emulator. FWB will continue to provide e-mail technical support for until May 31st, 2001. FWB will continue to sell Real PC, the same emulator which comes with DOS.

SoftWindows was created by Insignia Solutions, and was the first PC emulator for Macintosh. It was originally called SoftPC, but Insignia changed the name when Apple launched PowerPC Macs. Insignia sold SoftWindows and Real PC to FWB two years ago, but FWB never released a major upgrade. In this time, Connectix has had several major upgrades to Virtual PC, the major competing emulator. SoftWindows was faster and had more features than Virtual PC versions 1 and 2, but VPC 3 caught up, and VPC 4 clearly surpassed SoftWindows in speed and features. One other PC emulator remains, Blue Label Power Emulator from Lismore Software. Like Real PC, BLPE comes with DOS.

MS explains why SFM does not work on Cluster Services. March 5, 2001-- We had a number of readers tell use that Services for Macintosh does not work with Microsoft Cluster Services. Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q243839 says that this is true, but for different reasons on Windows NT then on Windows 2000:

In Windows NT 4.0, this is because of architectural restraints imposed by AppleTalk. In Windows 2000, SFM is not supported because SFM maintains state information in memory. Specifically, the Macintosh volume index is located in paged pool memory. Using SFM in clustered mode is not supported and may result in data loss.

The article also says that a third-party SMB server may work to support Macs on MS Cluster Services. A number of reader have already reported that MacServerIP does work. (See our Microsoft Cluster Services special report page.)  

Keyspan ships X-platform USB sharing device. March 5, 2001-- Keyspan is now shipping a new USB 4-port Serial Adapter (US $149), which allows you to connect 4 RS232 serial devices to a single USB port. The adapter supports Linux 2.4, Windows 98/Me/2000, and Mac OS 8.6/9.x. Mac OS X support will be available in the 3rd quarter.

Linux growth outpaces Windows in server market in Y2K. March 5, 2001 -- CNET reports that Linux' presence in the server market increased more than Windows in 2000. Linux installations grew by 24 percent, while Windows grew by 20 percent. Windows still lead in new server installs with a share of 41 percent, with Linux at 27 percent. However, if you combine the Linux numbers with that of Unix for the year 2000, Linux/Unix ties the market share of Windows servers.

Microcode Solutions talks about G3s for PCs. March 2, 2001 -- Jim Drew, CEO of Microcode Solutions sent MacWindows some information about an upcoming PowerPC emulator product that would include a PowerPC processor for PCs.

We are not developing the PCI card. Our software, along with other software will be bundled with cards.

There is no information available concerning who is developing these cards, or a release date. The cards will be used for other secondary CPU purposes, such as games, Photoshop filters (AltiVec support for your PC), other emulations, etc...

iFUSION is an Amiga product. It runs on PowerPC equipped Amigas, and gives you a G3 emulation, even with a 603e processor.

Our PC version will not have the "FUSION" namesake. I have not yet decided what the product will be called. The PC version will be a software emulation that can use real PowerPC hardware if available. It is a G3 level emulation that uses OS 8.6 or later. No ROM image is required (like previous emulators).

I will release more information in the near future.

At the Emaculation Mac emulation forum , Drew said that the iFusion/350 MHz G3 card bundle would "retail for less than $300."

New benchmarks of Mac emulators for PCs. March 2, 2001 -- Jim Watters has posted benchmark results of Mac emulators running on Windows and Linux at the Mac Emulation Station site. Watters used actual Mac applications to test several builds of Basilisk II, SoftMac 2000, Fusion 3, and Executor. The fastest was a recent build of Basilisk II running on Windows 98. (For more on Mac emulators for PCs, see our Mac Emulators special report page.)

MetaCard, X-platform multimedia authoring tool. March 2, 2001 -- MetaCard is a cross-platform multimedia development tool for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux/Unix/X11. You can use it to build graphical applications and documentation for all of these platforms. Reader Richard Gaskin uses it, and says "it has the fastest interpreter of any xTalk I've worked with (and I've worked with just about all of 'em, including HyperCard, SuperCard, OMO, Director, ToolBook, Plus, and Gain Momentum."

4D 6.7.1 update to X-platform database. March 2, 2001 -- 4D, Inc., released 4th Dimension version 6.7.1, the latest update to the cross-platform relational database environments for Macintosh and Windows. (Upgrade free to owners of 4D v6.7.x.) The new version adds "many improvements and optimizations along with the addition of a few minor new web features," and is more stable, according to 4D, Inc. (Click here for more on the 4D v6.7.x product line.)

New TIP: syncing Casio E-125 VPC 4.0 and Mac. March 1, 2001 -- In reponse to questions on how to sync a Casio handheld with Virtual PC running on a Mac, Jeff Owens told us how he does it:

I'm just letting you know that I have a Casio E-125 that I sync and transfer info. Over all I don't have a problem. I could not use USB and Connectix said PDA's are not supported. But I got a serial cable from Casio and the Keyspan USB to serial/PDA adapter and everything works, most of the time. Here is the setup:

You have to make sure that the USB PDA adapter is connected in the Mac environment. Set the communication speed on the Casio to '57600 Default. I could not get it to work at '115200. Make sure the VPC is freshly booted. Comms doesn't seem to happen if you used Internet Explorer or other applications before connection. Start Activesynce. Connect the serial cable to the Casio. Now here is where I think I have it working. Activesync will try to connect but not find the Casio, it will ask you if you want to continue or disconnect. click disconnect and then try to connect again under the connect menu. I have found they will connect almost 100 percent after that.

We have more tips on sync VPC with Casio and Palm on our Virutal PC 4 special report page.

AFP Trash Bug update: reports with ExtremeZ-IP, OS 8.x clients. March 1, 2001 -- Yvan Rodrigues sent a news report of the AFP file server client Trash Bug:

Just to add my $0.02 to the trash bug. We have noticed this problem since I installed a trial copy of ExtremeZ-IP on my server for Mac file sharing. My clients are on OS 8.5/8.6.

We've also had reports of this problem with Windows NT SFM, Linux running Netatalk, MacServerIP and AppleShare IP. This is the first confirmed report of the problem occurring with Mac OS 8.x clients.

Suggestion for problem with large NT SFM volumes. March 1, 2001 -- Micha de Wals found a workaround to a problem of large SFM volumes on Windows NT Server.

We encountered the same problems here. We have a 400 MHz Compaq server running Win NT 4 SP4 and have 1 G3 B/W running OS 8.6. We recently put the G3 into the network and put a 18 GB drive into the server. This 18 GB would be used for backup space for the Mac. Well we could copy small files but big files resulted in blue screens and restarts. After looking at this site we also decided to reinstall SP 4. With great result!! We can now backup onto the 18 GB without the blue screens!

Small developer working on putting G3 in PCs. March 1, 2001 -- On the Emaculation Mac emulation forum, Jim Drew of Microcode Solutions describes his plans to put a G3 processor in a PC along with his iFusion Mac emulation software. He says he plans to use a low-cost G3 processor on a PCI card along with his software to run Mac OS on a PC. No ship date has been announced. Although there are Mac emulators for PC currently available, all emulate the old 680x0 processor. (Thanks to Jim Watters for this item.)

Microsoft release a new corporate beta of Office XP for Win. March 1, 2001 -- Microsoft released a beta of Office XP for Windows (for US $19.95 ) to selected corporate clients. The release date is set for June. A ZDNet story describes the release, as well as the release of the final version of BackOffice 2000 (US $3,999).

Mac OS X to be missing some pieces when it ships. March 1, 2001 -- Apple has announced that Mac OS X will be missing some consumer pieces when it ships on March 24. Mac OS X 1.0 won't be able to play DVD discs, and won't have OS X-native versions of iTunes and iMovie. ZDNet interviewed Ken Bereskin, Mac OS X Product Manager.

February 2001

AppleShare IP 6.3.3 now at Apple Store; upgrades available. February 27, 2001 -- The Apple Store is now shipping ASIP 6.3.3 to the public, which we announced yesterday was shipping to developers. It is also shipping at retail outlets. Additionally, the AppleShare IP web site now has a page on ASIP 6.3.3. Apple says:

Customers with AppleShare IP 6 are eligible for a free upgrade to AppleShare IP 6.3.3 plus the cost of shipping and handling ($19.95 US, $29.95 Canadian). AppleShare IP 6.3.3 also includes Mac OS 9.1.

However, the upgrade is not available as a download at Apple's Software Update page at this time.

As we reported yesterday, ASIP 6.3.3 fixes bugs with Windows clients, according to Apple and a reader review.

Exchange 2000's virtual M:\ drive. February 27, 2001 -- Dan Schwartz of the Mac-NT e-mail list sent this interesting note about a drive volume created by the Exchange 2000 server and his attempt to create a Services for Macintosh share with it:

When you install Exchange 2000, a new virtual M: drive is created. MS claims you use it like any other drive, including sharing folders. However, if you attempt to create an SFM (Mac) share, an error comes back saying a Mac share "can only be created on an NTFS volume."

Bug or "feature?"

The M: drive is neither [NTFS drive nor a FAT32 drive]: It's a virtual drive created by Exchange "that you can treat like any other drive." It's actually an Exchange store; and AFAIF it behaves like a SoftPC drive container. It's mandatory that you locate the stores on an NTFS volume; but it does not (yet) behave like an NTFS volume vis a vis SFM. I haven't tried encryption yet...

Thursby offers competitive TSStalk upgrade. February 27, 2001 -- Thursby Software Systems, Inc. is running a special promotion for upgrades to TSStalk 2.0 for owners of TSStalk, COPSTalk and PC MACLAN. (TSStalk enables Windows PCs to access Mac shared files.) The upgrade is free for people who purchased TSStalk 95/98/NT purchased on or after October 1, 2000, or $49.95 for owners of TSStalk 95/98/NT (purchased before October 1) and for owners of COPSTalk or PC MACLAN. Offer ends on March 31, 2001.

More on VPC synching with Casio handheld. February 27, 2001 -- Mike Rothe would like to sync a Casio handheld device with a Mac using Virtual PC, but says the suggestions on our Virtual PC 4 special report page don't apply:

I recently got a Casio E-125 which includes a USB sync cradle. I am trying to use ActiveSync running on VPC 4.01 on an Apple FireWire PowerBook for PDA synchronization. However, I just can't establish a connection. The Casio is set to use the USB connection and I can see the device in the VPC settings, but ActiveSync (most recent build downloaded) just ignores the device. I was wondering if you had any solutions or insights into this.

I have seen [the suggestion at MacWindows] and tried it. The difference is that the new Casio E-125 comes with the USB synching cradle to which this solution does not apply.... I am also surprised that I have not gotten any response from Connectix to my problem inquiry.

More questions on Mac and MS Proxy Server; Groupwise issue. February 27, 2001 -- Tom Drolett has several questions about using Macs and MS Proxy Server 2.0, including having problems with FTP, as we have previously reported. As part of his report, he says:

Can this be done without the Socks app and extension? When we use this app, our Novell Groupwise e-mail quits.

If you know the answer, please let us know. You can read Drolett's full report on our MS Proxy special report page.

Notes questionnaire for next Mac client. February 27, 2001 -- Lotus has a web questionnaire is asking for input for the next Mac client for Lotus Notes for users:

The goal of our R5 Macintosh development was to provide comparable functionality to the Windows product, which we believe we have delivered to our customers. With rare exceptions, the Mail and Calendaring & Scheduling experience is identical to the Windows product. The product is certified and supported on several Mac OS versions up through Mac OS 9.1.

At Lotusphere 2001, we previewed the next major feature release of the Notes Client, which we have been developing for both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. We are currently engaged in an effort to reevaluate our customers' need and the market demand for a Macintosh version of this next feature release.

OS Wars: Red Hat and Microsoft. February 27, 2001 -- A ZDNet story describes the current war of words between Microsoft and Red Hat regarding Windows and Linux.

AppleShare IP 6.3.3 fixes Win client bugs, improves speed. February 26, 2001 -- Apple is offering an update to Registered Apple developers can now download AppleShare IP 6.3.3, a new version that fixes bugs with Windows 2000 file sharing clients and has other SMB improvements. Damien Barrett says the update will be soon be widely available. Barrett has tried ASIP 6.3.3 and sent this report:

At long last, it appears that the recently updated ASIP 6.3.3 fixes the issues with Windows 2000 clients accessing an ASIP server using the SMB protocols.

Important to us cross-platform people is the SMB fixes. Win 2000 clients can now see all items in a folder, and rename a folder after naming it. I've also noticed that Win 2000 makes it much easier to map the ASIP server to a drive letter. Unfortunately, the ASIP still does not show in the Network Neighborhood, but it's at least easier to map it.

I imagine the update will be available very soon from Apple. It's currently available to registered Apple Developers on the developer site. In size, it's a 24 MB download, and installation is very similar to the ASIP 6.3.1 install where it "reinstalls" the software rather than patching it.

MacOS 9.1 must be used with ASIP 6.3.3.

I also noticed that on a G4 Dual 450, the performance of the server was *much* improved. I'm assuming this is due to both the Mac OS 9.1 update and enhancements made to the ASIP software.

From the ASIP 6.3.3 readme, the fixes related to Windows clients include:

• The maximum number of simultaneous SMB connections is increased to 500.
• SMB drives will always stay mounted on client computers connected to an AppleShare IP server.
• Client computers that connect to the server using SMB can always view all items available in a directory.

You can read more of the cross-platform improvements on our AppleShare IP special report page.

ASIP crashes when Win clients map more than 10 volumes. February 26, 2001 --

Drew Marchi reported a problem with Windows NT 4 service pack 5 accessing an AppleShare IP 6.3 server running on a Power Mac G4/400, 512 MB RAM (OS 9.0):

When mapping Macintosh server drives we have found that we cannot map more than 10 drives on a Macintosh server without crashing the server upon mapping the 11th drive.

If you've seen this problem please let us know.

Another AFP client "Trash Bug" report, this time with Linux/Netatalk. February 26, 2001 -- Blair Stilwell reports of another instance of the Mac AFP client "trash bug" that causes the contents of mounted volumes to appear in the Macintosh Trash. We've has reports of this occurring with a variety of AFP (Apple File Protocol) file servers, including Windows NT SFM, Linux running Netatalk, MacServerIP, and AppleShare IP. Stilwell is seeing it with Linux and Netatalk, with Mac OS 9.0.4 clients:

In some cases, an entire (22 GB) share will end up on in the users Trash. In other cases, just a subdirectory (1GB-5GB) ends up in the Trash.

You can read Stilwell's report on our Mac OS 9 special report page.

Bug fix upgrade for GraphicConverter 4.0.4 utility. February 26, 2001 -- Lemke software has released GraphicConverter 4.0.4, an update to the shareware cross-platform file translation utility for Macintosh. The upgrade fixes a number of bugs with importing and exporting in specific file formats.

VCard Happy Birthday security bug in Outlook for Windows. February 26, 2001 -- ZDNet reports that Outlook 97/2000 and Outlook Express 5.01 or 5.5 have a security hole in the way the VCard electronic business cards handle birthday data. The report says Microsoft has acknowledged the bug, which does not affect any Outlook version for Macintosh.

Revolution X-platform development environment in beta. February 26, 2001 -- Runtime Revolution has released Revolution Public Beta, which it says lets you "create powerful Internet-enabled applications and solutions which can then be delivered on MacOS, Windows, Linux, and popular UNIX systems. (Support for MacOS X is planned.)"

Apple cans iReview. February 26, 2001 -- Apple has discontinued its iReview web site, which reviewed other web sites, including MacWindows. We received this message last Friday:

Dear iReview Badge recipient,
iReview has been removed from http://www.apple.com. Please remove any badge and hyperlink references to iReview from your Web site.
Thank you,
Apple Computer Internet Services

Apple has not given a reason for the move.

Apple to ship new Mac OS X Server with Windows support. February 23, 2001 -- Apple is readying a new version of Mac OS X Server with an Aqua interface, which it says "is planned for release shortly after Mac OS X." It will combine the Windows client support of AppleShare IP with Unix-based OS X core operating systems and networking. (Previous versions of OS X Server, which are no longer selling at the Apple store, did not support Windows clients.) According to Apple, the OS X Server will include these file and print services:

• Apple file services: AFP 3.0
• Windows file services: SMB/CIFS
• Network file system: NFS
• File Transfer Protocol: FTP
• Cross-platform Postscript print spooling over either TCP/IP or AppleTalk.

Of the print server, Apple says:

• Macintosh customers can use the LPR support in Print Center or the Desktop PrinterUtility to connect to a Mac OS X Server-based print spooler. Windows users can use their native SMB protocol to connect to a Mac OS X Server-based print spooler.

Mac OS X server will also come with web and mail servers, QuickTime Streaming Server, DHCP server, Service Location Protocol (SLP) for browsing of IP-based file servers, IP filtering, NetBoot for Macintosh clients, and NetInfo and LDAP support for directory services.

New TIP: Reg edit for using Mac keyboard w/Win 2K. February 23, 2001 -- Ned Holbrook sent in a tip about using a Macintosh keyboard on a Windows 2000 PC:

I use a Mac keyboard with a PC running Windows 2000 via a USB KVM switcher and was annoyed that the keyboard had the keys in the lower left arranged (control, alt, command) instead of a PC keyboard's (control, windows, alt). After some investigation I learned how to add a registry key to the PC to swap the behavior of the Windows and Alt keys. To do this, use REGEDT32 to add a new registry key at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/Keyboard Layout/Scancode Map with type REG_BINARY and hex value:

00000000000000000500000038005BE038E05CE05BE038005CE038E000000000

If you can ignore the key labels, this will put the alt key back where it belongs in relation to the space bar. I think this will also work with Windows NT, but I haven't tried it myself.

Suggestions for QT Beta 2 Mac problem. February 22, 2001 -- Responding to yesterday's report of the expiring QuickTime 5 Public Preview 2 preventing Macs from booting, William Steil sent us this suggestion:

I had exactly the same problem last week on a G3 and a G4 Solution which worked for me:

Boot with shift key down to disable extensions.

Turn off ALL of the QT, including the QuickDraw and QT Sound Manager extensions in the Extensions Manager (Sort "by Package" so all of the QT Ext. are grouped together. Otherwise, it's easy to miss the ones that start with Apple and Sound, which are part of the QT Package).

Doing this allowed the Macs to completely start up.

I then trashed all of the QT extensions. They both still booted reliably after installing QT 5, Preview 3.

Matthew Smith also has a suggestion:

I believe the best solution for the QuickTime 5 preview 2 problem is to reinstall an old version of QuickTime. Apple offers QuickTime 4 on their web site, or you can install QuickTime using a custom install from the CD-ROM that came with the Mac or any OS installer CD. Finally, installing QuickTime 5 preview 3 would solve it as well, but you might have the expiration problem again. I had problems when mine expired, but I was at least able to boot and download the new version.

Reader writes software for using PC keyboard on a Mac. February 22, 2001 -- A reader named Robin says:

I read your piece at on using a PC keyboard on a Mac. I also have that problem, since I use a BeOS PC and a Cube on a KVM switch. I took a slightly different route than everyone else seems to, however, and wrote my solution as an INIT that patches the system KeyTrans and SystemEvent traps to swap those keys (it also turns the Menu key into an extra escape key).

It's working well for me, so if you'd like to check it out I put the program (and it's source) on my web server.

If you try it, let us know what you think.

Opera browser for Mac pre-beta available. February 22, 2001 -- There is now an early, pre-Beta version of the Opera web browser available for Macintosh, Opera 5.0 for Macintosh Technology Preview 1. The site says "the next version will be a public Beta 1 version." Opera, available for Windows, boasts of good performance.

Connectix ships Virtual PC 4 with Win 2000. February 21, 2001 -- Yesterday, Connectix shipped a version of Virtual PC 4 with Windows 2000 preinstalled (US $249).

Virtual PC 4, which first shipped last December, is now offered with Windows 98, Windows ME, DOS, or Windows 2000. A preinstalled Linux bundle still hasn't shipped with VPC 4, though it was offered with VPC 3. Connectix told MacWindows that a preinstalled Red Hat Linux may be sold only as an OS Pack. (No OS Packs have yet shipped.)

For more VPC 4, see our Virtual PC 4 special report page.

Suggestion for "Trash bug" with Mac AFP clients: February 21, 2001 -- Brian Frobisher has a temporary workaround for the Mac file server client trash bug that has been reported to occur with a variety of AFP server platforms:

We are experiencing the "Files and Folders" in the trash can from time to time. (OS 9.04, Windows NT 4.0 Server SP 6 SFM).

My fix is to reboot the NT server and then it seems to be good for a long time (2 months or so without rebooting)

I have a similar and possibly related problem where privileges seem to change on folders in the Mac Volumes and I am not sure why this occurs. I just reapply the rules and then reboot and it stays good for quite a while also.  

Another company's AT routers can mess with your LAN. February 21, 2001 -- Duane Wheaton was having some very odd problems with Macs on an NT networks: Macs dropping from the network with slow network speed, and this:

Today we found that two new servers appeared in the Chooser during the time network access speed dropped. We determined that the unknown servers were forcing our Macs into their Apple Talk zone.

We suggested that it might be misconfigured or conflicting AppleTalk routers in his NT Servers. We didn't expect this surprising result:

Turns out it was a router problem, just not our router!

Both of our NT servers running SFM are on the same network segment as the Mac clients so no routing was set up. Turns out that our Internet firewall was never configured to block AppleTalk protocols.

Another business started using a broadband ISP that happened to be on the same Internet backbone as our ISP. (This business did not appear to have any type of firewall in place.) Their seed router was what caused all the havoc with our machines. Once we blocked AppleTalk through the firewall everything immediately sped up.

More on moving extensions for Entourage/IE extension tip. February 21, 2001 -- Responding to yesterday's suggestion for moving the MS Internet Library Extension for a case of Internet Explorer freezing, Rick Wintheiser adds:

When moving the MS Internet Library, do we put it in the same folder as the application or the folder called Office. I use a trick before 2001 to help the different extensions work and reduce failures. We were told to put the extensions in the Office folder.

TechSono offers free PixMachine for Mac to owners of Windows version. February 21, 2001 -- TechSono Engineering is offering users of PixMachine2000 for Windows 95/98/ME a free copy of PixMachineMac. To take advantage of the offer, send email to TechSono by March 1st, 2001. PixMachineMac 1.0.6 downloads, decodes, and assembles files found in Usenet newsgroups. It can also also detect, download, and assemble MasterSplitter files created on Windows PCs.

QuickTime 5 Beta expires, prevents Macs from booting. February 21, 2001 -- Scott Seifert reports this problem with QuickTime 5 Public Preview 2 for Macs, which just expired:

I have had two Macs one is a G4 and the other a G3 that when the QuickTime 5 Public Preview 2 expired the computers would not boot. Each would get about half way through the Extensions and crash. If I held the shift key down the computer would boot and work. I tried to figure out which extension was the conflict but after about 4 hours nothing was consistently reproducible. I wanted to know if anyone out there has seen the same issues.

The G4 was running OS 9.0.4 and the G3 was running 8.5. First thing I did was remove the QuickTime extensions and no change it still crashed. Then I deleted any preference files and still no change. After all that, on the G3 I started up with the OS 9.0 CD and did an update to the 8.5 System folder and the computer still wouldn't boot, the only thing that worked was to do a clean install of the OS and it worked fine. I currently have put a ban on anyone installing the QuickTime 5 Public Beta on any of the Macs in my office.

Get ready for more junk e-mail: Network Solutions is selling data. February 21, 2001 -- Network Solutions Inc., a company that registers of Internet domain names for web sites, will be selling the data collected when companies register web domains. A Publish story says that Network Solutions, now a subsidiary of Verisign, will sell the database information to direct marketers.

Conflict with Entourage extensions may by an IE 5 problem, not Outlook Beta. February 20, 2001 -- Rick Zeman Responded to our reports of some users having conflicts with the extensions files in Microsoft Office and Outlook Beta. In particular, Zeman responds to our report about a case of Internet Explorer freezing:

The Entourage team STRONGLY suggested (on the Entourage-Talk mailing list) putting a COPY of the Microsoft Internet Library in the Office 2001 folder where the Entourage application resides. There's a contention issue otherwise when Entourage and IE 5 access the library at the same time. This way, IE uses the copy in Extensions and Entourage uses copy local to it (remember, the Mac will use the copy local to the application before looking to system files).

Dunno if the Outlook 2001 beta has anything to do with this as luckily I'm in a Novell GroupWise environment, not Exchange. I suspect that's a non-issue as it's just Entourage passing the GURL event to IE.

Update on "Trash bug" with Mac AFP clients: ASIP added to the list of servers. February 20, 2001 -- Warren Mason sent us a report about a previously report problem that cause the contents of mounted volumes to appear in the Trash of a Macintosh client on startup. Mason also recommends a partial workaround.

We've has reports of this occurring with a variety of AFP file servers, including Windows NT, Linux running Netatalk, and MacServerIP--now Mason reports it with AppleShare IP 6.3.1. We've gathered together past reports of this problem from our News Archives and posted them together with Mason's report on our Mac OS 9 page. However, we don't actually know that all the users are running OS 9.0.4. If you seen this problem please let us know, and send us the details of the Macs' configuration.

Another X-platform AirPort-to-satellite success story. February 20, 2001 -- Bill Hanson writes from the wilds of Montana about how he connected two iBooks and a PC to a StarBand satellite Internet connection via an AirPort Base Station. Hanson used the the StarBand home networking FAQ to help with configuration. He also offers some of his own configuration tips, which you can read on our special report on Cross-platform AirPort Wireless Networks. For previous reports of AirPort and satellite connections, scroll above Hanson's report.

Wakeup issue with PowerBook may not be restricted to Mac IPX. February 20, 2001 -- Thomas Koons responded to last week's report of a problem with a PowerBook G3 that won't wake from sleep when MacIPX set to Ethernet 2. However, Koons isn't running MacIPX, and attributes it to an upgrade to Mac OS 9.1. You can read his report on our NetWare special report page.

Outlook 2001 Beta: memory usage, extensions conflicts. February 16, 2001 -- We've updated our Outlook 2001:Mac Beta for Exchange Server special report page with additional reader reports.

Craig Grannell responds to a reader comment about memory usage, comparing Outlook to Netscape and other "badly-behaved" applications. Grannel also reports an error message "Too many files open. MacOS error -42" that he gets when Outlook 2001 is in the background.

J. Scott Franko reports report of another conflict with Office extensions. In his case, Outlook 2001 Beta affects clicking on links in Entourage, which causes Internet Explorer to freeze when it launches. (We've added this to the previous reports on Outlook 2001 problems Office extensions files.)

We'd like to remind our readers that Outlook 2001 is beta (or prerelease) software, which means that Microsoft isn't quite finished with it. As with any beta software, use it at your own risk.

New faster build of Basilisk II. February 16, 2001 -- Jim Watters tells us of a new, faster build of Basilisk II, an 68k Macintosh emulator of PCs:

A new compiled version of Basilisk II has been being developed for the last few months. Gwenolé Beauchesne has used the original Basilisk II source code to create a Just In Time compiled version of Basilisk II. For the last few months it has been for Linux only, but after many requests he has ported Basilisk II JIT to Windows this week.

MacIPX prevents PowerBook with AirPort from waking. February 16, 2001 -- Kim David Hawksworth reports that his PowerBook G3 (FireWire) won't wake from sleep when MacIPX set to Ethernet 2 on an AirPort network. You can read his report on our NetWare special report page.If you've seen this problem, please let us know.

New Tip: Mac VPN connection to Windows 2000 over DSL PPPoE. February 15, 2001 -- John DeRosa of Motorola offers a suggestion for establishing a Macintosh virtual private network (VPN) connection over PPPoE/DSL: use a home router. DeRosa says a home router will pass Macintosh VPN authentication as well as do the PPPoE authentication.

You can read DeRosa's report on our Windows 2000 Server special report page.

Microsoft releases SP4 for Exchange Server 5.5. February 15, 2001 -- Microsoft has released Service Pack 4 for Exchange Server 5.5. It includes over 100 bug fixes, including several with Outlook and Outlook Web Access. SP4 also includes "the feature enhancements and utilities from Service Pack 3." (Thanks to Rich Pape for the tip.)

PC MacLAN test results with Win AFP-IP servers, OS X Beta clients. February 15, 2001 -- Responding to our reader report on OS X as a client ExtremeZ-IP, MacServerIP, and Win2K SFM, Scott Christopher of Miramar Systems decided to run a similar test comparing Miramar's PC MacLAN, Windows 2000 File Server, and MacServerIP. (PC MacLAN is also provides an AFP-over-IP file server for Windows, but is targeted at networks with 10 and under Macs, according to Miramar.) Christopher found that PC MacLAN moved files faster than the other two Windows 2000 SFM and MacServerIP.

However, Christopher warns "Apple is still working out a lot of bugs in OS X and I don't expect normal performance or functionality from OS X until it's release or OS X.I. OS X is a new OS. We at Miramar Systems have all ready determined that there are going to be patches needed for all PC based AFP Servers and Clients that are going to work with OS X. I would wait until OS X is released before I would worry about performance issues."

You can read Christopher's report (with results numbers) on our AFP-over-IP Servers for Windows special report page.

Basilisk II (Mac emulator for Windows) performance test results. February 15, 2001 -- Reader Gregg E. sent us some test results for Basilisk II, a 68k (pre-PowerPC) Macintosh emulator for Windows. He used the Speedometer utility that comes with Symantec's Norton Utilities for Macintosh to show that the performance of the current Basilisk II build has more than doubled over versions of a year ago. You can read this report on our Mac Emulators for PCs special report page.

Another report of extensions problem with Outlook 2001 and Office 98. February 15, 2001 -- Kim Thesiger writes of a problem with Outlook 2001:Mac Beta and Excel 98. The problem causes the wrong day of the week to be displayed. Thesiger says that the problem can be fixed by replacing the Microsoft OLE 2.3 and Internet Library 5.0.3 extensions with previous versions, or by upgrading Office 98 to Office 2001. This fix is similar to another problem with Office 98 previously reported here. You can read Thesiger's full description of the problem on our Outlook 2001 special report page. If you've seen this problem, please let us know.

Microsoft demos Windows XP at press event. February 14, 2001 -- At a press event in Seattle yesterday, Microsoft demonstrated Windows XP (formerly know as "Whistler"), the technological successor to Windows 2000. The company plans to license Windows XP on all business and consumer PCs when it ships later this year. Windows XP features a new user interface and greater integration with the Internet.

We have previously reported that Windows XP Server Services for Macintosh will drop MacPrint and drop AppleTalk support.

Group Logic will do OS X-optimized ExtremeZ-IP . February 14, 2001 -- Group Logic has responded to our report of slow Mac OS X Public Beta file sharing performance with the ExtremeZ-IP server for Windows. From Group Logic's Reid Lewis:

As we have proven in the past, we consistently upgrade ExtremeZ-IP to handle new OS versions and Service Packs and maintain not only our high performance but also our reliability, stability under load, and compatibility with applications on both Mac and Windows.

We fully expect that ExtremeZ-IP will provide the fastest transfer speeds possible with OS X clients.

Reader prefers Win2K SFM. February 14, 2001 -- Gary Heinonen hasn't tried ExtremeZ-IP and MacServerIP, but he describes why he feels safer with Windows 2000 Services for Macintosh on our AFP-over-IP Servers for Windows page.

REALbasic 3 compiles for OS 9, OS X, and Windows. February 14, 2001 -- Real Software has released REALbasic 3, a new version of the programming environment for Macintosh that can compile for both Macintosh and Windows. The new version runs natively in Mac OS X (as well as OS 9 and earlier) and can compile OS X native ("carbon") applications. There are a number of other improvements, including exporting a project file in XML format. Pricing starts at US $99.95.

Thursby to ship MacSOHO for Japan. February 14, 2001 -- Thursby Software Systems announced that it will ship a Japanese version of MacSOHO, its cross-platform file sharing solution for the home networks. The distributor in Japan is SRINET. (See the Thursby site for other international distributors.)

BrainForest 2.2 Palm organizer for Mac and Windows. February 14, 2001 -- Aportis Technologies has released of BrainForest 2.2, an organizer/planner/project manager for Palm OS devices with synchronizing software for Windows and Macintosh. A CD-ROM with the Windows, Macintosh and Palm software is US $49.95 (plus shipping and handling). The new version increases compatibility with Palm OS 3.5 and the future Palm OS 4.0, enhances a few features, and fixes bugs.

OS X slows Win2k SFM, ExtremeZ-IP, but not MacServerIP. February 7, 2001 -- Austin Williams sent us a report on performance testing of three AFP-over-IP file servers for Windows 2000: Group Logic's ExtremeZ-IP, Cyan's MacServerIP, Microsoft's Services for Macintosh. He found that with Mac OS 9 clients, ExtremeZ-IP and MacServerIP produce similar performance results, which were faster than Services for Macintosh. However, with Mac OS X Public Beta as a client, Williams found that Microsoft SFM and ExtremeZ-IP slowed radically. (MacServer IP access didn't.) You can read his report on our AFP-over-TCP/IP Servers for Windows NT/2000 special report page.

Reader confirms FTP/MS Proxy cutoff problem. February 7, 2001 -- Christian Carranza reports having yesterday's reported problem of FTP connections thru MS Proxy dropping after 15 minutes:

I can confirm this problem. We spent hours testing this very issue for a client through their MS Proxy and our own, but, after many hours, we were unable to find a setting on MS Proxy to alter anywhere. Furthermore, I tried every FTP client I knew (including NetFinder [our preferred client], Fetch 3.x, Transmit, the Vicomsoft client, and Interarchy, as well as trying to use the SOCKS app from Interarchy with the clients). Eventually, we had to set up a Mac outside the proxy for FTP. The FTP servers we were trying to upload to were MS FTP and ASIP 6.3. I can also confirm that this doesn't affect downloads or Windows.

Of course, many months later, another engineer in the office found a mention of this issue while looking for something else on MS TechNet! Neither of us can find the article now, but he recalls that it required modifying a Registry setting on the Proxy (which seemed like what would be necessary at the time, though we couldn't determine what the setting was).

See our MS Proxy special report for more on configuring Macs and MS Proxy Server to work together.

VPC-Palm synching via IrDA: problem with Palm Desktop 4. February 7, 2001 -- Luis Raposo sent us an update to his report about hot synching a Palm device with Virtual PC 4 via a wirless IrDA (infrared) connection in a PowerBook. He reports trouble with using the new Windows Palm Desktop 4.0 application. You can read his report on our Virtual PC 4 special report page.

Workaround for problem with Outlook 2001 Beta and IE5. February 7, 2001 -- Leland Jory reports a workaround to the problem with Outlook 2001 Beta and Internet Explorer 5 reported by Simon Gibbs yesterday. Jory's workaround:

I seem to have found a fix/workaround. The whole issue seems to be related to the Microsoft Office Manager running. Disable MOM, and the problem goes away. 

I've been able to consistently recreate this issue, so I'm assuming it is simply an incompatibility between the two products (hopefully MS will fix it before shipping Outlook 2001 "Final"). 

When I receive an email with a hyperlink in it, clicking the hyperlink without launching IE first will result in a solid lockup (rock solid, not even force quit will work). However, if IE is already running, the link works fine.

NameCleaner 2.1 supports Internet Config mappings February 7, 2001 -- Sig Software has released NameCleaner 2.1 (US $ 20, free upgrade), a new version of its Mac utility for Macintosh that can remove PC-illegal characters in Mac file names. The new version adds support for Internet Config or Internet control panel mappings of file extensions, recognition of case, among other things.

Aladdin offers StuffIt rebate. February 7, 2001 -- Aladdin is offering a US $25 rebate for StuffIt Deluxe 6 (US $79), the Macintosh utility for cross-platform compression and encoding tasks. First-time buyers can mail-in for the rebate when they purchase StuffIt Deluxe 6.0 through a retail store before June 30, 2001.

Information Week looks at OS X in a Windows environment. February 7, 2001 -- Information Week has a story called Mac Suits up for Business that discusses interoperability with Windows, including Outlook 2001:Mac for Exchange Server and Mac OS X.

Whistler formally named--Windows XP. February 6, 2001 -- Microsoft announced that the name of its next version of Windows, the successor to Windows 2000 code-named Whistler, will be Windows XP. (XP stands for "experience.") Microsoft said that Windows XP will ship during the second half of 2001. The company also said that the next version of MS Office will be called Office XP.

Readers report: no problem with Outlook 2001 Beta and Office 98. February 6, 2001 -- In response to yesterday's reader report about a possible problem with beta version of Office 2001:Mac for Exchange Server and Office 98, half a dozen readers wrote in to say that they did not see the problem. The readers were all running Mac OS 9.1.

Steve Minard points out a similarity of this report with another problem, and offers a workaround:

This sort of problem has occurred before with users of the ancient MS project or FoxPro products. The workaround I've used in the past was to move the MS specific shared library file to the application folder immediately after each product installation. Keeping none of the libraries in the Extensions folder allowed each application to use the libraries that it shipped with, avoiding the problem described above. Outlook 2001 seems to insist that the common libraries be in the Extensions folder, hopefully this is only a characteristic of the beta. Even so because my systems do not depend on anything in the Extensions folder, simply moving the Outlook installed shared libraries to the Extensions Disabled folder restores full function of the older products even MS project 4.0.

Simon Gibbs brings up another two issue:

It appears that since Outlook 2001 has been installed Internet Explorer 5 constantly crashes out with memory errors when downloading files or receiving pages with large images - I have had IE5's memory allocation set to between 15 and 25 MB but still the problem occurs.

I assume that this has something to do with Microsoft's shared libraries, but we have another Mac on 9.1 running all three programs OK so maybe it's an OS problem.

Also, has anyone else noticed that if Outlook is left running for an amount of time it slowly starts using up system resources. Programs which run simultaneously to Outlook when it's first launched will not run later on in the day.

FTP connections thru MS Proxy drop after 15 minutes. February 6, 2001 -- Jason Chiovitti sent in another problem with FTP and MS Proxy Server :

I am trying to ftp from my Mac through an NT server running NT4 and MS Proxy Server 2 and SOCKS. I've tried both Interarchy and Vicomsoft FTP clients and they both work. So what's my problem? I can't upload for more than 15 minutes. Download is fine. But uploading quits every time at 15 minutes. I figure it's a timeout setting within the server but neither myself nor my IT guy can seem to find that setting.

...I don't experience this with ftp from any of our PCs on the same network. Also, our Macs can connect to the web indefinitely with no dropped connections.

If you've seen this problem, please let us know.

Another possible cause for NT disappearing files. February 6, 2001 -- We describe a number of causes for the problem of Mac files disappearing from Windows servers on our Windows Server Tips page. Reader Nick Collingridge thinks he may have found another:

One of my clients has a problem when files are copied to a Win2K volume that they momentarily appear to have copied over before the files just disappear!

When I added the AppleTalk Seed Routing to the Win2K server without thinking I set the network range to be 1 to 65,000-odd - as much as anything because Win2K lets you do this. I have now modified the range to be 1 to 253 and as a result all nodes appear now to be able to communicate without problems. I suspect that the answer is that when being seeded the systems were given random numbers from all over the shop, which meant that they ended up essentially being in different zones. As a result they could mount the Win2K server and everything looked OK, but when files were copies over the copy actually failed.

This was a rather odd problem because on face value nothing was wrong &endash; but when you actually tried to do anything across the connection it didn't work.

TIP: Synch VPC-to-Pocket PC devices. February 6, 2001 -- In response to previous reader reports on the inability of Virtual PC to synch with Pocket PC handheld devices, David Calco wrote to say that he has succeeded on his PowerBook running OS 9.0.4. You can read Calco's solution on our Virtual PC 3 special report page.

Response to VPC/OS 9.1 Palm sync issue. February 6, 2001 -- Andy Wolber sends this Virtual PC tip:

After I'd installed OS 9.1, I also had a problem syncing with my Palm via the USB connection to my Lombard PowerBook.

I discovered that the install had automatically set AppleTalk to "Ethernet" and "On." Turning it off worked for me.

NEW TIP: Synching Outlook 2001 with Palm using an Ethernet cradle. February 5, 2001 -- Michael Perbix wrote to say he found a way to synch a Palm device to Outlook 2001:Mac Beta for Exchange Server. It involves using:

• The Palm Ethernet Cradle
• A Palm V-to-III adapter made by Solvepoint
• Server software called XTNDConnect Server from Extended Systems
• Network synching software from 3COM

You can read the Perbix method for synching Palm devices with Outlook 2001 on our Outlook 2001:Mac Beta special report page.

Outlook 2001 Beta problem with Office 98. February 5, 2001 -- Ray Kloss reports that the Outlook 2001 Beta has rendered parts of Office 98 unusable by adding newer versions of extensions files. He writes:

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the problem with using Outlook Beta with Office 98. I think the new beta is very nice and stable, but when I tried to start Excel, I started getting OLE and memory errors. Outlook Beta adds newer versions of:

Microsoft Component Library
Microsoft Internet Library
Microsoft OLE Automation
Microsoft OLE Library
Microsoft Structured Storage

If you've seen this problem, please let us know.

More Outlook 2001 Beta reader reports. February 5, 2001 -- We've posted several additional user reports about Outlook 2001. One reader wishes for user-defined fields in the task list (for workflow tracking). Another reader can't see his address book when not connected to the server, even though the reader downloaded it. You can read these and other comments on our Outlook 2001:Mac Beta special report page.

Reader has no problems with MacServer IP. February 5, 2001 -- Matthew Brown writes:

I've been reading comments on your site regarding problems with MacServer IP and don't quite understand why. I've been using MSIP in our business for 8 months or more and I am not experiencing any of the problems I see on your site. Per my success, correct configurations is needed to make MSIP operate to one's business satisfaction. Nonetheless, I have nothing against ExtremeZ-IP, but I've heard from others that it has failed them and therefore MSIP was adopted.

I think both ExtremeZ-IP and MacServer IP are both good products, but they must be configured correctly.

We have reader comments on both products on our AFP-over-IP Servers for NT special report page.

CDFinder/CDWinder, X-platform disk cataloger. February 5, 2001 -- Developer Norbert Doerner told us about his CDFinder (US $20) and CDWinder (US$10), cataloging software for Mac and Windows respectively:

A cross-platform solution to catalog CD-ROMs, Zips, hard disks, and all the other media. In contrast to all other similar tools on both platforms, this combo will save the catalog data in simple files on a network disk in a common file format. So one catalog database can be used by both platforms on many different computers.

Getting iTunes to work with Virtual Game Station. February 5, 2001 -- In response to our report of problems with the CD/DVD driver supplied with iTunes and Connectix Game Station for Mac, Ronald Leroux wrote in with this:

I checked Connectix's knowledge base. They suggest to use the driver that comes with Mac OS 9.1 instead. The driver with iTunes seems to cause problems with some games.

Server update fixes OS 9.1 and Citrix bug. February 1, 2001 -- Ty Stein reports that an upgrade to the Citrix server resolves the video conflict between Mac OS 9.1 and the Citrix client:

I just tonight finally got around to installing Citrix Feature release 1, SP2 on my Metaframe Server (WIN TSE 4.0, SP6). The problem with the Mac client has vanished. The FAQ on their update talks about new support for 32 bit video, etc. It looks like the issue with Mac OS 9.1 is that the Metaframe Server Service Pack needs applied, and all is then well.

Reader report on ExtremeZ-IP. February 1, 2001 -- Nathan McBride sent us an account of using ExtremeZ-IP:

I bought two copies back in November and set them up on two identical Compaq Proliant DL 380's running dual 833's each with 512 MB's of Ram. They are sharing a 180GB cluster running on a MetaStor. The only problems I have had have been with encryption and password sharing which I solved with the help of one of the forum contributors on this web site. I also had a problem with servers unmounting on the Macs after a period of inactivity but with the AppleShare Client Setup utility I was able to correct that easily enough by adjusting the timeout connect to 0 seconds for AppleShare. Other than those issues the software has been one of the best purchases I have ever made and has helped us so much with with cross platform server issues.

We are almost done moving our final Mac servers over and once we are done things should be smooth from here on in. I have been talking with the engineers at GroupLogic a bit over the past few days regarding maximizing my dual processors and we are currently researching a way to get the most out of a dual and quad processor with ExtremeZ-IP.

Apple posts AppleShare IP 9.0.4 Update. February 1, 2001 -- Apple has posted AppleShare IP 9.0.4 Update (free). According to Apple, the new update for the cross-platform server for Mac OS improves compatibility with AppleShare IP 6.3.1 and Macintosh Manager 1.3 running on Mac OS 9.0.4.

Conflict with MacLinkPlus, Mac OS 9.1, and AutoTextTyper. February 1, 2001 -- A MacFixIt Forum discussion describes a three-way conflict with MacLinkPlus from DataViz, Mac OS 9.1, and AutoTextTyper. The Finder crashes when the user tries to open a MacLinkPlus 12.001 contextual menu.

Microsoft stops resellers from bundling Windows 95. February 1, 2001 -- Microsoft has not renued Windows 95 bundling licenses to PC manufacturers, including Dell and Connectix. (See this ZDNet report.) The bundling license expired on December 31. Connectix has verified that this licensing termination is the reason it is no longer is selling Windows 95 with Virtual PC, which is considered PC hardware in terms of Windows licensing. Additionally, FWB no longer offers Windows 95 with SoftWindows.

January 2001

ExtremeZ-IP 2 adds IP print spooler option. January 31, 2001 -- Today GroupLogic released ExtremeZ-IP 2.0 (starting at US $1178 for 10 clients--upgrade pricing unknown). The new version of the AFP-over-TCP/IP file-sharing server for Windows NT/2000 (server or workstation) includes an option called IP Print Support (EZIP w/IP Print starting at US $1999 for 10 clients).

IP Print Support is a print spooler that can hand Postscript jobs to a printer or to the Windows Server print queue. IP Print Support does not use the LPD/LPR IP printing of Mac OS, but uses a method a faster method that also enables browsing for printers and print servers via a Mac utility and the Services Location Protocol (SLP). GroupLogic President Reid Lewis told MacWindows that IP Print Support is 10 to 15 times faster than LPD/LPR of Mac OS IP printing.

The drawback to using TCP/IP to print is the lack of the Printer Access Protocol (PAP), which can report much more printer status information back to the user or Mac software than can IP.

Also in ExtremeZ-IP 2 are speed improvements, according to GroupLogic, which also said that performance is better on faster on Windows 2000 than on Windows NT 4.

Workaround for Win 2000 clients problem with ASIP Server. January 31, 2001 --Erik Wieland sent us a workaround for the problem where Windows 2000 clients can't see inside folders of an AppleShare IP Server. The fix involves adding the AppleShare IP servers to the lmhosts file on the Windows 2000 client. Wieland says that drawback to the fix is that the you can no longer use DOS or Windows programs that rely on a drive letter. You can read details of the fix on our AppleShare IP Server Cross-platform Issues page.

More Mac utilities for joining/decoding PC Usenet files. January 31, 2001 -- Responding to yesterday's report of a utility that can join segmented files posted at Usenet groups by PC users, two more readers have reported additional Mac utilities that accomplish the same. Chris Toppan says that YA-Decoder (short for Yet Another Decoder, US $15) can combine and decode MasterSplitter files on a Mac. YA-Decoder is intended as a helper application for decoding Usenet binary attachments.

Joe Ashear says that MT NewsWatcher by Simon Fraser (free) is a newsreader for Mac that can rejoin segmented usenet binaries. However, he says "I'm not sure if the "MasterSplitter" kind are different somehow from the ones MTNW joins."

We've added these utilities to the product listings on the MacWindows Compression/Encoding Solutions page.

Update on Quark files corrupting. January 31, 2001 -- Two readers responded to our last report earlier this week on Quark files corrupting on cross-platform networks. Bryce Steiner doesn't believe opening the files on any AFP Server, as previously suggested, causes the problem:

I've been running Win 2000 server for nearly 2 years now and have not had this problem with Quark on the Mac at all. I have those same file permissions at the top of the article. I don't think it effects all AFP servers.

Mike Hughes saw the problem on a Windows NT Server running Services for Mac, but not with ExtremeZ-IP running:

With PC's running NT 4.0 connecting to an NT 4.0 server using standard [SFM} NT file sharing, we would see 1-2 Quark files per day corrupt. Markztools was usually able to repair the files.

We have since installed over 100 new Macs, and during testing between Extreme Z-IP and Thursby Systems Dave Client, we saw a pattern develop. The Macintosh computers that were using Dave still saw the same file corruption.

The Macintosh computers that were using ExtremeZ-IP saw no file corruption. Given that the ExtremeZ-IP software produced better benchmarks and did not cause file corruption, we have setup all users to connect Via ExtremeZ-IP. We see maybe 1 file every 2-3 weeks that corrupts, and this is usually caused by a users that has crashed will saving.

Basic Outlook info: profile password vs. Exchange Server log-in. January 31, 2001 -- Luis Antezana sent us a note about the difference between a profile password and an Exchange Server log-in, which might be useful to people new to Outlook for Exchange Server.

The password for the *profile* is a locally set password used for situations where there may be multiple users on one machine, each with their own separate Outlook setups, while the UserID/Password/Domain request is a request to the Exchange server (via the domain's PDC) for access to the individual's mailbox account on the server. These are two discretely different things that present themselves sequentially to the user and can thus be confusing.

Outlook 2001 Beta comment. January 31, 2001 -- We've updated our Outlook 2001:Mac Beta special report with comments from John Willis, who is not as happy with the new Exchange Server client as some other readers.

Melissa virus for Word 2001 for Mac. January 31, 2001 -- MessageLabs reports an "minor outbreak" of the Melissa virus, which comes in a Word 2001 for Macintosh document.

New Mac utility can join segmented PC Usenet files. January 30, 2001 -- TechSono Engineering's PixMachineMac (US $49) is a new utility for the Mac that can join segmented files posted at Usenet groups by PC users. Windows users often segment files using a program call MasterSplitter before posting them to Usenet newsgroups. There is no version of MasterSplitter available for the Mac. Mike Trivisonno of TechSono describes it:

PixMachineMac is primarily a Usenet download utility that can detect MasterSplitter files, save them to a Mac, and decode them using the handy MasterSplitter Widget.

We've added PixMachineMac to the listing of products on our Cross-Platform File Compression and Encoding Solutions page.

Connectix re-releases VPC 1.0.1 in 4 languages. January 30, 2001 -- Connectix has once again posted the Virtual PC 4.01 updater, this time in English, French, and and German versions. For more on VPC 1.0.1 updater, see our Virtual PC 4 special report.

Virtual PC 3 Printout Bug Confirmed. January 30, 2001 -- David C. Stewart confirms the Virtual PC 3 and 4 printing conflict with Mac OS 9.1

I am running an iMac DV SE networked through an AsanteTalk box to a 6100, an 575 and a DeskWriter 600 using AppleTalk. I could print to the printer before I upgraded to OS 9.1 and the black strip of frustration appeared when I went to print an important document. Fortunately I can still print it from the 6100/DOS compatible which is running on OS 8.1 until they issue the bug fix.

Keyspan serial-USB adapter works with VPC. January 30, 2001 -- Scott Coté reports success using a new USB-to-serial adapter with Virtual PC:

As a network administrator I have a constant need for a 9 pin PC COM port to configure routers, access points, etc... So I figured I would try and get an adapter for my PB2000 to load on VPC.

To my surprise, Keyspan's latest USB to Serial converter, advertised as PC only, COMES WITH MAC Drivers, which even recognize under VPC 2.X (which doesn't directly support USB to COM conversions under the com setup found under the preferences menu). Once I loaded the Mac software, the serial port was available to both Mac and PC (via VPC) and has worked flawlessly with Hyperterm for configuring devices!

...The adapter only costs $59.90 from Outpost.com (that price included overnight delivery...)

Handheld devices and Virtual PC. January 30, 2001 -- Readers keep asking about Virtual PC synching with various handheld devices. We have an answer on how to synch to Palm devices, but others still allude us. Joseph Babiak Jr. describes failure with the Pocket PC:

Has anyone had success getting a Compaq