Control a PC from a Mac over the Internet
|
|
|
|---|
|
Most recent news first. |
|
Windows Server 2003 set for release in a few weeks. March 31, 2003 -- CNET reports that Microsoft will be releasing Windows Server 2003 in April, and PC manufacturers will be offering it installed on new hardware. Microsoft will offer five versions of Windows Server 2003.
During the past few years, Microsoft has had several names for this successor to Windows 2000 Server, including Whistler (a code name), Windows 2002 Server, Windows .Net Server, and Windows .Net Server 2003. Windows Server 2003 will be the release name.
More reports of problems with Mac OS X 10.2.4 security update. March 31, 2003 -- A number of users have verified some of last week's reports about various problems with the the latest Mac OS X Security Update from March 24. Two readers, however, say that MS RDC is not affected.
10.2.4 problem with SMB file locking
Tony Swash also has the 10.2.4 problem with SMB file locking, which readers have attributed to the Security Update:
I too have had this problem. I couldn't connect to my Windows XP machine using my new 1.42 duel processor Mac running 10.2.4 until I actually typed the name of the PC into the Connect to Server dialogue box.SMB problem with printers, Gimp-Print
Mark Morris
I am also having SMB problems following the latest security update. I had connected to a Win2K printer via SAMBA for months with no problems. Since installing the update, I can no longer connect to the printer. Checking my error log, I see an NT_Signon error. I have noticed others have posted a similar problem on other bulletin boards.
Benjamin Iseman indicates that the printer problems readers have with Security Update is specifically related to Gimp-Print. (See our Jaguar Reports page.) He also offers a workaround:
Previous to the 3/24/03 security update, I had been happily printing to a number of old (i.e., non-postscript), networked HP LJ 4 printers by sending jobs to a Windows NT 4 server via CUPS/GIMPprint/Ghostscript. (There is an excellent tutorial on this Gimp-Print method.)I, along with several other people who are posting in various threads at http://discussions.info.apple.com, lost the ability to print using the method described above after applying the 3/24/03 Samba security update. When I attempted to check the Samba connection to the Windows server after applying the update, I got the following results:
% smbclient -L server1 -U biseman
added interface ip=192.168.0.49 bcast=192.168.0.255 nmask=255.255.255.0
added interface ip=192.168.0.56 bcast=192.168.0.255 nmask=255.255.255.0Got a positive name query response from 192.168.0.2 ( 192.168.0.2 )
Password:
session setup failed: NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILUREI got the same NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE when I use the server's administrator
userID and Pass so it wasn't a permissions issue.
Although very unsatisfying, the only solution to the problem that I found was to downgrade /usr/bin/smbclient and /usr/bin/smbspool to the pre-security update versions. Since Samba is open source, I have uploaded the older versions of /usr/bin/smbclient and /usr/bin/smbspool to my iDisk and they can be downloaded from here.
Obviously, using these files will most likely reintroduce the security bug that the update was designed to fix. Accordingly, proceed with caution.
The procedure I followed was to delete all of the samba printers on my machine via http://127.0.0.1:631/printers. I then logged in as root and made a copy of the newer SMB files and saved them to the root desktop.
Finally I replaced the SMB files mentioned above and restarted. When I added the printers via http://127.0.0.1:631/printers everything worked right away.
RDC seems to be okay
Two readers say unlike one report from last week, the Mac OS X Security Update is not affecting Microsoft Remote Desktop Client. Andrea Mariottini wrote:
No problems for me. My Win 2000 server has latest services packs and fixes. RDC is latest version.
Douglas Mclaughlin also find RDC okay:
I am able to connect to terminal servers via RDC using "names" in the connect window. I do not have to use the IP address (in fact I do not know the IP address) when I am in the office and even through the VPN via my DSL account at home. I am at home right now with my iBook and I am connected to our corporate Exchange server through a terminal server and I connected with the server's name. Michael must have some other kind of issue going on rather than the security update itself. My iBook is up-to-date via the Software Update System Preferences with Mac OS 10.2.4.
How to set up a PPTP Server on Mac OS X Server 10.2. March 31, 2003 -- Joel Rennich has an article describing how to set up a PPTP Server on Mac OS X Server 10.2 at his AFP548.com web site. (Thanks to Matthew McGraw for the tip.)
Suggestion for Software Update and IE with proxy servers. March 28, 2003 -- Jamie Loeb has a suggestion for people having problems with Mac OS X Software update and Internet Explorer getting through proxy servers, a problem recently reported on our Proxy Server Reports page. Loeb says:
The problem with Macs and ISA servers or even any Windows Proxy servers has a lot to do with the way Macs communicate with the proxy servers. Macs are not recognized as NAT clients on any MS proxy or ISA server. If the IT department goes into the ISA server and "opens" the Mac IP address to have full access through the ISA server than Software update works. Remember that with ISA servers the Proxies address in the network preferences must be set to port 8080 and not 80.Some have said that if the Mac's IP address is opened to the ISA or Proxy server then in OS X the Mac's firewall should be enabled.
This will allow all programs- Software Update, Fetch and other like programs to fully work through the ISA server.
Printing from a Win 2000 machine via Airport Extreme USB. March 28, 2003 -- Rob Meredith sent a detailed report on how to print from Windows 2000 to a printer plugged in to an AirPort Extreme Base Station. We've posted it on our Cross-platform AirPort Report page.
More on SMB file locking in Mac OS X 10.2.4. March 28, 2003 -- Two readers wrote about the Mac OS X 10.2.4 problem with SMB file locking. John Duffy confirms the problem:
Our company develops a relational database that runs cross platform, and we've experienced the same problem. Just wanted to confirm that this is a problem in 10.2.4.
Debra Sawyers sees another problem, possible related, possibly not, with Mac OS X 10.2.4
I'm not sure if the problem we're having is related to the one mentioned on your site, but we'd been file sharing quite nicely with our PC server for quite a while. We have several levels of sharing, one with AppleShare works fine, the SMB share we have no longer connects when trying to access from 10.2.4 using Go -> Connect to server and pulling it from the list by IP we get an error = -36. However, if we connect by using the name of the computer it works fine.so: error occurs for SMB://192.168.1.1
But not for SMB://tamaserver
Same machine. Correct IP. No explanation. This only occurred after the recent security updates
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
Free Citrix seminar: take MetaFrame XP beyond application access. March 28, 2003 -- Citrix is offering free seminars called MetaFrame: Beyond Application Access about the Citrix MetaFrame XP Serve application server, which the company says can also be used to deliver content and services. The date and locations:
You can also call 1-800-437-7503.
MassTransit Version 4.1 adds SSL encryption. March 26, 2003 -- Group Logic has released MassTransit 4.1 (free upgrade from v4.0), a new version of the cross-platform file transfer and remote workflow software for Windows and Mac OS. The new version includes over 20 new features, including:
Group Logic Knowledge Base. March 26, 2003 -- Group Logic has added a Knowledge Base to its web site. It contains articles about Mass Transit, ExtremeZ-IP (the AFP-IP file server for Windows), and other products.
Solutions for Rendezvous and .local host name problem. March 26, 2003 -- Two readers responded to Monday's report on Mac OS X 10.2 being unable to resolve .local names that are handled by traditional (non-Rendezvous, non-Zeroconf) DNS. Monday's report was the latest in a long discussion, saying that turning off Rendezvous didn't work. Jason Prell updated a report he sent us last September with some additional information on turning of Rendezvous:
I have noticed that the mDNSResponder (Rendezvous) process is still running after unselecting it in Directory Access. You can avoid having the process running by removing (or moving and backing up) the startup item.If you want to prevent Rendezvous from running on the system, move /System/Library/StartupItems/mDNSResponder directory to a backup location and restart the system. Just don't muck around with settings that depend on it, like the Rendezvous plug-in in Directory Access after removing the startup item.
Larry Paxton sent a solution that used the Terminal application:
I experienced the same problem of OS X Macs not being able to resolve .local addresses on my internal LAN. After scouring the net, I found this fix that worked:
- Open the Terminal Application
- Type the following (Must have root privilege or sudo account): sudo pico /etc/resolver/local
- You will see three lines in the file: nameserver ipaddress, port 5353, timeout 1
- On the nameserver line, replace the current IP address with the address of your local DNS server: for example nameserver 10.0.0.1
- On the port line, replace 5353 with 53.
- Save your changes and quit pico.
You should be able to resolve .local names properly.
TIP: Software Update and IE with proxy servers. March 26, 2003 -- Dan Foshee reports a problem with Mac OS X's Software Update getting through a proxy server, and that Authoxy from HR Softworks fixes the problem, as well as problems with Internet Explorer. He says:
We've long had a problem in OS 9 with the irritating "proxy box" that flashes up ALL the time in IE here; has something to do with the ISA server. Anyway, we'd also had a problem with using Software Update. Out of curiosity, I checked out Authoxy. Lo and behold, now Software Update worked flawlessly, and I no longer got the proxy box in Internet Explorer (Granted, my use of Internet Explorer for Mac OS X was rare b/c of its incessant crashing, and the proxy box doesn't show up in Camino or Safari or OmniWeb or...sorry, got carried away.) Per an Apple tech, using Authoxy is the best way to get past the proxy for Software Update.On the down side, with Authoxy, using Internet Explorer 5 in Classic doesn't work past our intranet. However, it works flawlessly and speedily with any of the Mac OS X browsers.
Reader verifies SMB file locking issue in Mac OS X 10.2.4. March 26, 2003 -- Jørgen Straarup responded to Monday's report that file-locking on Windows 2000 SP3 servers doesn't work when Mac access them with SMB. He said "Yes, we have the same problems. We can't use our 10.2.4 server."
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
Aladdin AES ActionPoint for cross-platform, enterprise system management. March 26, 2003 -- Aladdin Systems announced AES ActionPoint System, software to automate the management and control of multiplatform environments. Aladdin calls it a "platform-independent policy-based computing environment designed to align business objectives with IT infrastructure and resources."
Apple OS X "Panther" delays WWDC; Enterprise Track included. March 24, 2003 -- Apple has delayed its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) by one month so that it would coincide with the first developer preview release of "Panther," the next major release of Mac OS X. WWDC 2003 will now occur in June 23-27 at Moscone West in San Francisco, California. Apple did not provide details of the new version, but did say that the conference would include "a first-ever Enterprise IT Track," consisting of 27 sessions plus four feedback forums.
Suggestion for Win clients not working with LDAP-to-AD. March 24, 2003 -- Carib Mendez responded to Friday's report of a problem with Windows clients getting LDAPv3 authentication with Microsoft Active Directory through a Mac OS X Server:
I had the same problem. I then tried joining my Mac to the Domain via smbpasswd (smbpasswd -j Domain -r PDC) and setting up domain security for the SMB stuff. This allowed my Windows clients to connect to the server using domain password information. More info can be found in the O'Reilly book Using Samba on all Mac OS X clients.
Exchange 2000, auto-archiving, and Mac Outlook 2001. March 24, 2003 -- Jeff Daigle sent in a problem his group discovered, and the solution they found regarding Outlook 2001 for Mac:
At my institution we spent the better part of Friday troubleshooting a strange Outlook:Mac 2001 problem. Since we weren't able to find any documentation on this particular problem online, I decided that it'd be good to pass our experiences along to your site, which we all use frequently. Below is a description of the problem and of the solution by my colleague, Mike King.Problem/Symptoms:
Since sometime Tuesday, if a user had a Mac and used Outlook 2001 they would be able to login to their email and then a short time later the computer/Outlook would hang. Shutting down OS 9 is the only way out unless you want to wait 5-30 minutes until the calendar does come up. There is no error message and it is not due to an account lockout.
The other symptom is that is the user tries to a view a calendar we can get the freeze/hang. It can be the user's calendar or another calendar, like one in a public folder.
We tried changing the date back on the workstation and that did not resolve the issue.
So it looks like something with the calendar on the Outlook 2001 client is causing the problem.
Solution:
On a Windows PC, login as the user and set up Outlook. Open Outlook. Right click on the calendar folder and choose properties. DO NOT ARCHIVE the calendar. Macs do not support this. For some reason, since the servers were shut down due to lack of power, this appears to have been set globally. On each Macintosh user this needs to be removed.
SMB file locking fails on Mac OS X 10.2.4 clients. March 24, 2003 -- Bill O'Connell reports that file-locking on Windows 2000 SP3 servers doesn't work when Mac access them with SMB:
The Mac SMB client does not lock files when it opens them read-write, and it ignores existing locks on files opened read-write by Windows clients. For example, an Excel document on a Windows 2000 server is opened by a Windows client. A Mac client (10.2.4) can open the same file read-write without any warning that the file is in use. The same problem occurs when the file is opened by the Mac client first. On the Windows 2000 server management console, under open files, the entry for the Mac SMB client shows 0 locks, while the entry for the Windows client shows 3 locks. If the file is opened on the Mac using AFP, the file is correctly locked and this problem does not occur.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
Turning off Rendezvous doesn't help .local host name problem. March 24, 2003 -- Bill O'Connell also responded to an issue about Active Directory, saying that a previous suggestion of turning off Rendezvous doesn't fix the issue:
As others have noted, Mac OS X 10.2.4 does not resolve any .local host names that are handled by traditional (i.e., non-Rendezvous, non-Zeroconf) DNS. Unfortunately, turning off Rendezvous as described by Jason Prell in the September 27, 2002 Jaguar Reader Report does not resolve the problem. If you open a terminal session and use the tcpdump utility, you can see the Mac sending multicast DNS (i.e. Zeroconf) requests on UDP port 5353 when you try to resolve any name that ends in .local.
Workaround for IE and Proxy problem. March 21, 2003 -- Johan Kustermans responded to the recent report of a problem on our MS Proxy Reports page regarding a connection problem that occurs with Internet Explorer for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9, but works fine with Mac OS X Classic. We had one suggestion yesterday, and Kustermans sends another:
We have a similar problem with our Mac machines. OS 9.x with IE 5.x hangs or quits with password authentication enabled on MS ISA server 2000 without password authentication it works fine.(Same for OS X.) The Mac logs on, starts to load the web page, then IE hangs or quits. Windows PC's are working OK with this.
We found a workaround. It seems you need to uncheck integrated authentication in the ISA server and activate basic authentication for the Macs to work. It seems a bug in IE 5.x for Mac since it works with integrated checked with IE 5.0.
Workaround for Outlook address book problem. March 21, 2003 --Leigh Chambers has sent an update to a previous report about an Outlook problem where contacts and address books can't be accessed. (The problem is described on our Outlook for Exchange Server Reports page.) Chambers found the cause of the problem:
Just to confirm that our problem was caused by the accumulated address views on the various Exchange servers, as we suspected. The Macs now have working address books again. Here's hoping this is resolved with the to-be-released Exchange-compatible Entourage!
If you can comment on this, please let us know.
DAVE 4.02p1 fixes OS X problems. March 21, 2003 -- Thursby has released DAVE 4.02p1, a maintenance patch to its cross-platform SMB file and printer sharing program for Mac OS 9 /OS X. Included in the update are the following fixes for Mac OS X:
Macintosh Explorer 3.5 adds a dozen new features. March 21, 2003 -- Rage software has released Macintosh Explorer 3.5 (US $15) an update to its utility that brings Windows Explorer-like file browsing to Mac OS 9 and OS X. The new version offers over a dozen new features, including:
Problem with Mac OS X Server, Windows AD client. March 21, 2003 -- Christian Raymond can get Mac LDAPv3 authentication with Microsoft Active Directory through a Mac OS X Server, but not for Windows clients:
We have a AD domain with a few Mac clients. We try to use OS X server as a file server for both win and Mac clients, having them connecting with their AD username/password. here is what we have so far.We use OS X server 10.2.4. After the initial setup, I ran Directory Access, and configure LDAPv3 with the standard Active Directory mappings, and edit the config to connect using a valid DN. to get the DN, I used ADSI edit on my windows server (available on the Server CD, in the support folder). My DN looked something like this :
DN=craymond,DN=Users,DC=dept,DC=company,DC=com
But, this is different for each AD schema. I then added the LDAPv3 to the authentication search path, on the main window of the Directory Access app. Now when I launched the Workgroup Manager, I selected the LDAPv3 in the At: popup, and unlocked it, and there it was, all my AD users and groups.
So now Macintosh clients can connect using AD username/password. But not the Windows clients. After reading a few comments, I launched Open Directory assistant to start the Password server. This got the Windows clients connecting with OS X server's username and password. But I still can't connect the Windows boxes with AD accounts. I could re-created users in the Netinfo database, but I don't want to do it for 200 or so users.
If you have a suggestion, please let us know.
Al Gore gets elected -- to Apple's BoD. March 20, 2003 -- Yesterday, Al Gore joined Apple's Board of Directors. Apple's press release quotes Gore:
"Steve and his team have done an incredible job in making Apple once again the very best in the world," said former Vice President Al Gore. "I have been particularly impressed with the new Mac OS X operating system and the company's commitment to the open source movement."
Thursby Software offers DAVE discount to DoubleTalk users. March 20, 2003 -- Thursby Software Systems today announced that owners of Connectix DoubleTalk users can purchase DAVE for US $99, $50 off of the usual price for the Mac-Windows file and print sharing software. The DoubleTalk-to-DAVE offer is only available directly from Thursby. Customers will need a proof of purchase for DoubleTalk. DoubleTalk runs only Mac OS 9, while DAVE runs on both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. DAVE also has feature not found in DoubleTalk, including the ability of Windows PCs to access Macs, NT Domain Login, more robust printer-sharing printers, and support of Windows shortcuts .LNK files.
Suggestion for IE Proxy problems in Mac OS X. March 20, 2003 -- David Schmitt sent us a suggested fix for a problem on our MS Proxy Reports page from earlier this week regarding Internet Explorer for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9, but works fine with Mac OS X Classic.
Charlie Karno's problems with proxies in IE sounds similar to the problems I had. My company uses an MS proxy server and requires MS-specific NTLM protocol to log in. I don't know the big details about NTLM except that it uses Windows domain server authentication (where you provide the domain, username, and password for the windows network). IE is the only Mac browser that supports this proxy.With Mac OS X, I too had many 407 errors as well as instability. Basically it rendered my browser useless.
Desperate, I searched for a solution. Here's what I did:
I discovered "NTLM Authorization Proxy Server", or APS for short. Its a freeware proxy server that you run on your own machine that communicates with your corporate proxy server using the NTLM protocol. Its written in python, which is an object-oriented language. Mac OS X 10.2 comes with python built in. So all you have to do is download the APS program from the author's site http://apserver.sourceforge.net/ and edit the configuration file to include your domain and username. Then configure your network settings to use the APS as your proxy server. The
With APS running on my PowerBook, it now handles all the communication to my corporate proxy server. And now I can use many more Internet apps (Safari, Camaro, Windows Media Player, Real Player, Sherlock, etc.) that cannot work with an NTLM server.
The downside is that it isn't very fast for web browsing. File downloads seem to work just fine, but complicated web pages tend to stall. However, that beats unstable IE. Rumors are that IE 6 will fix this problem, but I'm not holding my breath.
TIP: Setting Up VPC with broadband ADSL. March 20, 2003 -- A reader who identified himself as Shooter sent this tip for getting Virtual PC to work with a broadband Internet connection.
After a desperate struggle with VPC when it didn't automatically detect my broadband, I found an answer. (I use Blueyonder from Telewest, but this will work for all ADSL connections too). Here is a step-by-step tutorial of how to configure it properly:First, make sure VPC preferences are set to "Shared Networking" and "enable networking" is ticked. Now configure the Windows version you have to the following. I'm using Win 98 SE.
- Open Control Panels.
- Network
- TCP/IP PCI Ethernet DEC 21041 Based Adapter
- Properties
- IP Address (Obtain an IP address automatically should be ON)
- WINS Configuration (Use DHCP for WINS Resolution should be ON)
- Gateway (leave blank)
- Advanced (leave blank)
- NetBIOS (is de-highlighted on mine although 'I want to enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP' is still checked.)
- Bindings (Client for Microsoft Networks is ON)
- DNS Configuration (Disable DNS is ON)
- Apply and OK everything till all windows are gone, and you should be prompted by Windows or VPC to restart, then launch Internet Explorer when the desktop shows again after restart and test your connection by typing a simple web address such as www.google.com and should should be up and running!
I'm using VPC 5 and 6 and it works on 4 too. Mac OS 9.22 and OSX 10.1.5. Hope this works for you as it did me. Send me a thank you if it did!
Terra Soft ports Red Hat to Mac with Yellow Dog Linux 3.0. March 20, 2003 -- Yesterday, Terra Soft Solutions announced Yellow Dog Linux 3.0 (US $55), a major upgrade to its Linux operating system for Macs. The company said that Yellow Dog 3.0 is the first complete port of Red Hat's operating system to Macintosh hardware. (Red Hat is the most popular Linux for Intel-based PCs.) Terra Soft terms the installer graphical installer as "smart and friendly." (See this screen shot of the installer.) Yellow Dog Linux 3.0 includes the XFree86 4.3, GNOME 2.2, and KDE 3.1 graphical windowing systems, and Mac-On-Linux 0.9.68, which allows you to run Mac OS X 10.2 and classic Mac OS in Linux. Yellow Dog Linux 3.0 runs pre-G3 PowerPC hardware, as well as new Mac models, including eMac, the GeForce 4-based Power Macs, and the new 12" PowerBook.
Terra Soft is now shipping new Macintosh models with Yellow Dog Linux 3.0 preinstalled. Members of Terra Soft's YDL.Net Enhanced can download Yellow Dog Linux 3.0 now. Individual Linux packages will be available for pre-order on March 31 with an expected ship date of April 16.
A Better Finder Rename 5.4 released. March 19, 2003 --PublicSpace.net has released A Better Finder Rename 5.4 (US $15), an update to the Mac Finder contextual menu plugin for changing file names for multiple files, and for converting Mac file names to legal Windows file names. The new version includes improved numbered file lists and character replacement, minor interface improvements and bug fixes. The software is available for Mac OS 8/9 and Mac OS X.
More on the Outlook/Address problems. March 17, 2003 -- Leigh Chambers reports seeing Outlook problem where contacts and address books can't be accessed. (The problem is described on our Outlook for Exchange Server Reports page.
We look after the Macs on behalf of a large company and have recently suffered exactly the same problems as Tony Perialis. Unfortunately we do not have access to the Exchange Server, as this is managed by the internal IT team. We are assured that no changes have been made to this server, which is running NT4 and Exchange 5.5.However, every Mac on the network is suddenly having the Global Address and Personal Address problems. From the Microsoft technote Tony posted, our problem would point to the first cause of too many address book views set up on the server, as the chances of dozens of Macs simultaneously running out of resources seems very unlikely.
IE proxy issue: okay in Classic, not in Mac OS X. March 17, 2003 -- Charlie Karno reports a problem proxy server issue that occurs with Internet Explorer for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9, but not with Mac OS X Classic:
We have a proxy server and I have always had problems connecting to the Internet. With Mac OS 9 and IE 5.0 I can connect and if I leave "pictures off" it works fine. With "pictures" on, I will get locked out of the server on sites with a substantial number of pictures. IE 5.2 usually just crashes.In Mac OS X, IE 5.2 worked fine for a few days and then came up with a http error 407. I thought I was locked from the server; but wasn't. In frustration, I started IE 5.0 in Classic and it worked fine, pictures and all. No other browser works in either environment.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
NT share and file permissions. March 17, 2003 -- John Parnaby reports that an older MacWindows solution works with more recent software:
On our remaining NT4 servers, *some* Mac users could open a file on the SFM share, could Save As... but couldn't do a simple save over the existing file.I remembered reading about this on MacWindows about the Temporary Items folder (at the root level of the volume) came up. Turns out this was the problem and it affects Microsoft Word 2001 as well as Photoshop (listed in your article ).
VPN Tracker 1.6, IPsec client for Mac OS X released. March 17, 2003 -- Equinux has released VPN Tracker 1.6 ($US 80), an update to its IPsec virtual private network client for Mac OS X 10.2 and later. Among the improvements:
TextSpresso 2.2 improves speed in Mac OS X. March 17, 2003 -- Today, Taylor Design released TextSpresso 2.2 (US $30, free upgrade), a new version of its text cleaner,a text cleaning utility with 95 filters for automatic text processing, including converting text files between Mac and PC formats. The new version offers performance improvements to filter "up to twice as fast on Mac OS X as they did with prior versions, according to Taylor. Version 2.2 also fixes several bugs.
Mac-on-Linux, upgrade to open source effort. March 17, 2003 -- Last week, Mac-on-Linux.net releases Mac-on-Linux 0.9.68, and open source solution for running Mac OS X natively on Macs running PowerPC Linux. The new version supports MacOS X 10.2.4, adds support for Mac OS X audio, and offers performance enhancements.
Integrating Mac OS X with Novell LDAP updated. March 14, 2003 -- MacOSXLabs.org has updated a paper on Integrating Mac OS X And Novell eDirectory, which describes using LDAP lookups within Mac OS X to authenticate to Novell NetWare. John Endahl describes the paper:
The new documentation uses LDAPv3 and secure SSL lookups. This allows Macintosh users to map their "Home" directory to a directory on a server rather than on an individual workstation.
The paper starts this way:
This document describes how you can use information stored in Novell's eDirectory to authenticate Macintosh users and provide file services and home directories for them on NetWare 6. To do so, you'll take advantage of the Mac OS X directory services architecture. This setup would be similar to a Windows PC setup with Novell's Client 32 including "roaming profile" support.NFAP (Native File Access Pack) for Macintosh and UNIX need to be installed on your NetWare 6 Server, which is the default installation setting. This document also assumes that eDirectory 8.7 is installed and properly licensed for NetWare 6. The Mac OS X client is Mac OS X 10.2.2 or greater.
Suggestions for Outlook 2001 problem with Address Book menu. March 14, 2003 -- Several readers sent in suggestions for a recent reader problem about an Outlook 2001 pulldown menu that would not pull down. Tony Perialis, who reported the problem, told us that he thinks he found the answer to the problem in a Microsoft knowledge base article called Outlook for Macintosh May Lose Connectivity.
Peter Durkee suggested this:
Since the Personal Address Book and Contacts are considered services in Outlook, maybe they were somehow lost when the server was upgraded. Tony should go into Tools -> Services to see if they're still listed there along with the Exchange server.For what it's worth, I'm using Outlook 2001 with Exchange 5.5 on a Windows 2000 server, and it works fine for me.
Kelvin Tsang had this suggestion:
We never have this problem. We have our Exchange 5.5 running on a Win 2000 server for 1.5 years and everything is fine. The difference I can see if we do a fresh install of Win 2000 and Exchange 5.5, not an upgrade from NT as Tony pointed out. That could be the culprit.
TIPS for Mac OS X Mail, SMB. March 14, 2003 -- Wayne Folta sent us a tip on Mac OS X Mail, the Internet Connect act, and a report of yet another issue with SMB:
I've spent quite a bit of time troubleshooting after my employer totally revamped our intranet. Some issues to save others time and effort:1. One guy's email would receive but not send. Had two other MacOS X users working, so why him? Poking around with tcpdump showed that his Mail program was sending his Rendezvous hostname to the MS SMTP server, and the server was rejecting the name.
Turns out the guy was still on OS X 10.2 and that's what Mail did. Updated to 10.2.4 and it works.
2. Two guys tried mounting directories from an XP server using SMB. The directories mount, but appear empty. Further investigation reveals that permissions are not set properly on the XP side. The XP admin had to change a permission, then run something that took quite a while to run that updated all the files. (Sorry, I didn't have time to inquire exactly what he did.)
Another guy, it turned out, was not in the proper group and needed to be given access separately. It's puzzling why his mount request wasn't rejected, though. Instead, it appeared to mount but was empty.
3. The Internet Connection app runs pppd with a boatload of commands. You can run ps -axlww to see and copy the command, then modify it for your own use. (Either to put into a shell script, etc, or to customize the options.
If you can add anything, please let us know.
Utility enables Mac OS X to read Linux drives. March 14, 2003 -- Brian Bergstrand's Mac OS X Ext2 Filesystem (free) enables Mac OS X to read, write, and format Linux Ext2 formatted hard disks, floppies, and CD-ROM's from within Mac OS X.
Jaguar users can't access folders created on Win AFP shares. March 12, 2003 -- Apple Knowledge Base article 107481 describes a problem where users of Mac OS X 10.2.3 and 10.2.4 can't access folders they create on Windows AFP servers. Apple says the wrong permission get created, that of the Administrator user instead of the Administrators group. The article says that the solution is to change the permissions on the server, like this:
At the Windows 2000 Server, follow these steps:
- Choose Start > Programs > Administration Tools > Computer Management.
- Choose Shares from the Tree section of the Computer Management window.
- Double-click the Macintosh share to view the properties for the share.
- Click the Security tab in the Properties window for the share.
- Click the Advanced button to view the Access Control Settings for the share.
- Click the Owner tab in the Access Control Settings window for the share (Figure 1).
- Set the owner of the share to be the Administrators group, not the Administrator user.
The article also includes a screen shot of the Windows server.
XPlay 1.1 iPod tool for Win, improves performance, new features. March 12, 2003 -- Mediafour has released XPlay 1.1 ($30, free upgrade), a new version of its iPod software for Windows. XPlay is the only software that enables Windows users to access both the Windows and the Mac-formatted iPod from Windows. XPlay 1.1 includes the following improvements:
(For a list of new features, click here.)
NetOctopus 4.2 for cross-platform networks. March 12, 2003 -- Netopia has released NetOctopus 4.2, a new version of its cross-platform network asset management and remote software installation and configuration system. The version includes these improvements:
White paper explores cross-platform file sharing on Mac OS X. March 12, 2003 -- A white paper on Mac OS X cross-platform file sharing is available at the Network Appliance web site. The paper discusses Mac OS X NFS file sharing (Unix) and SMB/CIFS, as well as Thursby's DAVE. From the abstract:
Network Appliance and Ball State University undertook extensive integration and performance testing of OS X's native NFS, native CIFS, and DAVE--a third-party implementation of CIFS from Thursby Software Systems. Although, native NFS and CIFS were found to have file size limitations that might be significant in some environments, they are more than adequate for many common applications. Under the conditions tested, DAVE was found to offer the best performance, and may be the preferred file sharing choice for the most demanding environments.
(Thanks to George Colley for the tip.)
Reader Outlook 2001 problem with Address book drop down menu. March 12, 2003 -- Tony Perialis report this problem:
I'm having a problem with Outlook 2001 Mac and Exchange 5.5 on Win 2000 Server.The menu will not "pull down" so that I can select Contacts, Personal Address book, or Global Address book basically the drop down menu has become static.
This started happening after the Exchange Server computer was upgraded to Win 2000 from NT. Never had this problem with NT. Nothing was done to Exchange Server software.
If you have any suggestions, please let us know.
Xtools 1.2, X11 desktop for Mac OS X. March 12, 2003 -- Tenon Intersystems is now shipping Xtools 1.2 (US $199, or $99 for academic and government) a free update to its X Window server for Mac OS X. Improvements include:
Sharing an Internet connection with wireless Windows. March 7, 2003 -- We found this article on in the Mac OS X Help system. We've had similar reports on our Cross-Platform AirPort page, but we'd thought we reproduce Apple's version:
Sharing your Internet connections with Windows and other wireless computersWhen Internet Sharing Over AirPort (commonly referred to as a Software Base Station) is on, you can use an ASCII (quoted) or hexadecimal (hex-escaped) password to provide compatibility with Windows computers or other wireless clients that require an equivalent network password. For example, you can specify "apple" or "applecomputer" as an ASCII password, and $0102030405 or $010203...(26 hexadecimal digits) as a hexadecimal password.
For more information on the WEP encryption key or password you are using, see your network administrator.
To use a quoted or hex-escaped password for sharing your Internet connection:
Open System Preferences, click Sharing, and click the Internet tab. Select the "Share your Internet connection with AirPort-equipped computers" checkbox. Click AirPort Options and select the "Enable encryption (using WEP)" checkbox.
To find the equivalent network password, open the AirPort Admin Utility, select your base station, click Configure, and click Password.
Solutions Update: VectorFileConvertor, WMF-PDF converter for Jaguar. March 7, 2003 -- We've added Lindesay Electric's new VectorFileConvertor 1.01 (US $25) to our list of product on our File Solutions page. VectorFileConvertor is a conversion utility for Mac OS X 10.2 or later that converts Windows WMF graphics files into PDF format. It can also export to EPS format.
Mac OS X Server SMB file copy yields files with strange names. March 7, 2003 -- Apple Knowledge Base article 107325 describes a problem with Mac OS X Server and SMB file copies that results in the the resource fork getting split out. The article describes the symptoms, as did a reader:
I recently came across a weird problem moving files from a Win 2000 Server SP3 to a Mac OS X Server 10.2.4 on Xserve. I have a Win 2000 Server SP3 as a file server. When I log in to an XP or OS9/OSX box, I proceed to move files from the 2000 server to my new OS X server and it creates multiple files of the original.Let's say I have a TIF file named "dinner with.tif." Two more files will appear after I transfer the original "dinner with.tif" file. One is called "DINNE~JA" and the other one as "DINNE~TJ" (this is looking at it on network neighborhood from a PC)
Looking at the transferred files sitting inside the Mac File Server (Mac OS X) I get the following file names:
dinner with.tif
dinner with.tif/AFP_Afpinfo/$DATA
dinner with.tif/AFP_Afpresource/$DATAWeird thing is...when I move files from my WIN XP Pro machine to the OS X File Server I don't get multiple files.
Novell RConsoleJ for Mac OS X. March 7, 2003 -- John Endahl reports a port of Novell's RConsoleJ for Mac OS X:
Jeffrey Sessler of Scripps College has successfully ported Novell's RConJ utility for remote access to the console of a Novell server to Mac OS X. Those that frequent http://www.macosxlabs.org will recognize his name. At any rate, here is his post about the utility, and the link to the download.For those of you out there who would rather administer your NetWare boxes from Apple's Mac OS X, I've managed to get Novell's Java-based remote server console "RConsoleJ" running on Mac OS X. I've only tested it on 10.2.2-10.2.4 but it should run on any version that supports Java 1.3.1.I tested RConsoleJ OS X against my NetWare 6 and 5.1 servers with perfect results. You can download a Disk image w/ readme from the following URL. The package is about 5.5 MB.
For those of you interested in running ConsoleOne on Mac OS X... I have succeeded in getting it to run, load snapins, etc. but without the support of an underlying client it is not of much use. I'm going to take a look at the Linux/Unix versions to see if they are more client-independent.
Many thanks to Jeff for making this available to those of us in Novell shops!
Cross-platform problems with Now Up-to-Date on NetWare. March 7, 2003 -- Blake McCormick reports problems with Macs and Windows using Now Up-to-Date calendars stored on a Novell NetWare 5.1 Server. He has problems with fonts, with Macs crashing, and problems with PDF files. You can read his report on our NetWare Reports page.
Lismore Blue Label PowerEmulator 1.7.2 fixes eMacs bugs. March 7, 2003 -- Yesterday, Lismore Software released and Components Update 1.7.2, and upgrade for its Blue Label PowerEmulator (US $35, free upgrade), a PC emulator for Mac OS 8.6-9.x. (BLPE does not run on Mac OS X or in Classic mode.) The update includes these fixes:
Lismore recommends the update for all users.
PPP Connection via Windows NT callback. March 7, 2003 -- Mitch Sink confirms a older problem we reported from 2001 getting Windows NT to call back a Mac to establish a PPP connection, and provides some links:
I have the same problem. I think callback might be possible using a modem connect script, but its over my head. Maybe this information will help someone else figure out a solution.There is a little information on modem connect scripts here and Apple documentation in this PDF.
If you've come up with an answer, please let us know.
Microsoft releases RDC 1.0.1. March 6, 2003 -- Microsoft has posted Remote Desktop Client 1.0.1, the Mac OS X client for running Windows applications on Windows PCs running Terminal Services or Remote Desktop Services over a network. (We've previously reporte that Mac OS X 10.2.3 fixed a bug that crashed RDC on dual-processor Macs.)
Let us know what you think.
Cisco 3000 VPN Client v3.7.3a for Mac OS X released. March 6, 2003 -- Cisco has released version 3.7.3a of it's Mac OS X client for the Cisco 3000 VPN system. Fergus Hammond has tried it and has had good results:
We've been using this client for the last ten days and it has proved to be very stable. It's a major improvement over older versions of the Cisco 3000 client for OS X, particularly on computers that have multiple network interfaces (such as PowerBooks). Speaking of PowerBooks, the new client also handles coming out sleep much better. It is compatible with OS X 10.2.x.
VPC 6.0 Virtual Switch conflicts with AirPort Extreme. March 6, 2003 -- Raj Shah describes a problem with Virtual PC 6.0 and Apple's new AirPort Extreme wireless cards, which have been reported at the Connectix forums. Shah reports:
Connectix VPC 6.0 has a problem with the new AirPort Extreme cards. As you're aware, there are two network emulation modes for VPC - Shared Networking where the Windows instance essentially uses NAT and the Mac's Network connection, and Virtual Switch where the Windows instance is capable of contacting a DHCP server and getting an IP address.Under VPC 6.0 with an Airport Extreme card installed, there is no way to configure Virtual Switch. VPC does not believe there is a valid Ethernet device installed on the machine. My 12" PowerBook has both built in Ethernet and an Airport Extreme, along side a Bluetooth device and a modem, and no device is configurable.
This doesn't mean you can't get network from the machine - Shared Networking still works, but there are performance implications. Connectix is aware of the problem, but has no ETA on a fix.
Font problems with Virtual PC 6. March 6, 2003 -- Mark Hoffmann reports a problem with displaying fonts in Windows 2000 on Virtual PC 6:
The following is a description of strange behavior noticed since installing VPC 6 on Jaguar, v 10.2.4. I used to run Win 2000 Pro with zero problems on VPC 5, which I later upgraded to VPC 6 (6.0.1). Emulation does indeed run much faster and overall the program seems to hog less processor time that VPC 5, so I'm a satisfied customer. BUT certain Windows fonts have mysteriously stopped appearing ever since upgrading to VPC 6. They come up blank in font lists (i.e. no character data, hence no font, even though the font file is there and is not empty), as if the Windows TrueType rasterizer couldn't make sense of the data. I have downloaded some of these fonts again (they are all standard MS fonts).This does not cause any crashes, just garbles email messages and documents that use the affected fonts. A notable example is the American Airlines Timetable software, in which the flight lists are now invisible given that the font it uses is affected by this malady.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know .
SSL Authentication for Mac browsers on Novell networks. March 6, 2003 -- Sandy Bizjak told us about Novell Technical Information Document 2965091, which describes a patch that enables Mac web browsers to use SSL authentication on Novell networks. Bizjak reports:
The patch is Proxy.nlm v3.71e and a minor change to Sys:Etc\Proxy\Proxy.cfg.I've just installed it on BorderManager 3.7 SP2 (on NetWare 6 SP2) and tested it with Internet Explorer 5.2.2 (on Mac OS X 10.2.4).
It worked OK, only problem is an IE warning about an untrusted certificate (now if only I knew how to tell IE for Mac to trust my Certificate Authority which is used to create certificates for BM).
(We've added this to our NetWare and Macintosh Issues report page.)
Workaround for Mac OS X and Win 2k Server and Omnis datafile. March 6, 2003 -- David Blaymires a long report about a problem with Mac OS X and the Omnis 7 database running a Windows 2000 Server SP3. He describes the problem and a workaround he came up with, which you can read on our Jaguar Reports page.
Aladdin brings StuffIt X technology to Windows. March 6, 2003 -- Aladdin Systems has released StuffIt Deluxe 8.0 for Windows ($40, upgrades $15 ), a new version of its cross-platform compression utility. Among the new features:
CDFinder 4.0.3 maintenance upgrade released. March 6, 2003 -- Norbert M. Doerner released CDFinder 4.0.3 (US $25, free upgrade), a new version of a disk cataloging tool for the Mac OS 8.6 - 10.2.4. CDFinder can work together with CDWinder 1.7 for Windows as a cross-platform, network solution to catalog disks and CD-ROMs on a Macintosh and a PC. CDFinder 4.0.3 fixes some bugs, improves importing from Disk Recall, and adds a new Kind column to the main window.
Webcast course about Workgroup Manager. March 6, 2003 -- Apple and the Mac OS X Labs Project are hosting a live webcast about Workgroup Manger, with presenter John DeTroye of Apple Computer. It will be held Tuesday, March 18 at 10:00 am - 11:30 am Pacific.
Mac OS X Finder locking with SMB drives is a known problem. March 4, 2003 -- Dozens of readers, as well as Apple, have verified the problem we reported last week of the Mac OS X Finder locking when an SMB volume goes off line after a server volume is mounted. (One reader describes the problem as a "VERY extensive after the lock up, at times over 15 minutes." Apple posted Knowledge Base article 107407 five weeks ago acknowledging the bug, but offered no real fix. (Thanks to Garrett Kline for the tip.)
We've posted a sampling of the volume of e-mail we've received on the issue on our Jaguar Reports page, where we've arranged the reports into four categories:
It appears that Thursby Software's DAVE does not have this problem. We asked Thursby Systems' Randy Phillips about it. Phillips responded:
With DAVE, if the connection is broken, DAVE will try to reconnect. If that is not successful, DAVE will simply relinquish the Finder. This could take several seconds, but it will not crash the OS.
Reader verifies QuickTime for Win 98 freezes in VPC 6, offers tip. March 4, 2003 -- Jonathan Chapman has verified a previous report that QuickTime for Windows causes Windows 98 to freeze in Virtual PC running on Mac OS X 10.2.x:
I too observed the reported behavior on a PowerBook G4 running Virtual PC 6.0 under Mac OS X 10.2.4; any use of QuickTime on Windows 98 (and Windows 95) was freezing Virtual PC 6. I fixed the problem by setting QuickTime (in the virtual environment) to use the "GDI Mode" for its video display. This can be done from the "Video Settings" section of the QuickTime control panel.
We've had many previous reports of Windows 98 freezing or crashing with Virtual PC 6. If you've tried this fix, please let us know your results.
VPN Tracker 1.5.3, IPsec client for Mac OS X released. March 4, 2003 -- Equinux has released VPN Tracker 1.5.3, an update to its IPsec virtual private network client for Mac OS X. Improvements include:
Equinux also announced a beta version of VPN Tracker 1.6. It will present the standard Mac OS X authorization dialog, and will allow you to specify multiple remote networks in one connection.
Cross-platform database fax plug-ins. March 4, 2003 -- Soft Solutions has announced two new cross-platform fax plug-ins for 4-Sight FAX 5. FaxPack for 4th Dimension and 4SightTalk for Omnis database let Mac OS X and Windows users fax from these two databases. FaxPack for 4th Dimension allows a 4D programmer to automate the creation and sending of faxes through 4-Sight FAX 5 servers from any 4D application. The 4SightTalk for Omnis provides Omnis developers with Omnis client connectivity to 4-Sight FAX v5 servers.
Solutions update: free file sharing method based on FTP in Java. March 4, 2003 -- AnomicFTPD is a new cross-platform file sharing application that implements FTP in Java for Windows and Macs. It's also free. The server includes its own firewall that can blocking access attempts from unwanted clients identified by their IP numbers.
Free Apple Seminar for Mac OS X in mixed networks. February 28, 2003 -- Apple is hosting free seminars around the country to teach how integrate Mac OS X into cross-platform networks, aimed at education. A description:
The morning session entitled a Multi-Platform Approach to Directory Services Implementation will showcase how easily Mac OS X can be integrated into a variety of directory service architectures. In this highly interactive workshop, you will see demonstrations on how Unix-based Mac OS X integrates with major directory service infrastructures, including: Active Directory, iPlanet, eDirectory, and Open LDAP v3.
Finder hangs when mounted SMB volumes are not available. February 28, 2003 --Andrea Mariottini reports this problem that locks up Mac OS X:
I found this problem on MacOS X 10.2.4: if I mount an SMB volume, then shutdown the PC hosting that volume, I'm not able to unmount the volume from the Mac: the maleficent wheel appears and there's nothing I can do. Even shutdown is not possible, nor launch Terminal or other applications or restart the Finder.
If you've seen this problem, pleas let us know.
Clarification on VPC 6, Win 98, and QuickTime. February 28, 2003 -- Several readers wrote to ask for clarification to Gilles Combe's February 24 report about solving the Windows 98 crashing problem in Virtual PC 6 by removing QuickTime. They asked, was he removing QuickTime from Windows or Mac OS X. The answer is, from Windows 98, but using the Mac OS X Finder. Combe's response:
I had to remove QuickTime from Windows 98 with Mac OS X, using a new disk mount feature in VPC 6. I didn't succeed in removing QuickTime inside Windows because it froze each time. So I stopped the Virtual PC, double-clicked on the disk image, and it appeared on my desktop. I searched for every trace of QuickTime (3 folders, some files whose name began with QuickTime and some "qt" files (those who seemed to be from Apple). The most important files are the ones that launch at the start (in the task bar). I also removed the uninstaller from WISE, which didn't worked.Then I restarted. And everything went fine!
The question that I ask myself is why QuickTime is in fault here. It did work in the past (in VPC 5).
In fact, I also removed Win Media Player, which uninstalled quickly and fine.
VPC 5.04 hangs at Save All and Quit, or Shutdown the Virtual PC. February 28, 2003 -- Brian Aljian reports a problem with Virtual PC 5, as well as a workaround:
I'm having a similar problem as discussed on your web site. I have Virtual PC 5.04 running Windows 2000 (128 MB RAM allocated). When I save and quit VPC hangs for a minute. Sometimes it frees itself after the minute, but sometimes it hangs forever.I was running in full screen mode and this caused severe frustration because I couldn't switch to anything else to end the task.
A workaround for me was to switch backed to windowed mode. Now if it does hang I can still use the system until VPC finally quits, or I can force-quit VPC.
V-Connect, a secure Internet file transfer service. February 28, 2003 -- Vertex Network Solutions Inc. introduced of V-Connect, a secure subscription service for file transfer using the Internet. Specifically designed for the graphic arts and digital media marketplace, V-Connect transfers files of any size or format can be sent, with e-mail notification at the same time. V-Connect can be accessed from a web browser or using Vertex's file transfer client application for both the Macintosh and Windows.
Apple releases iDisk Utility for Windows XP. February 26, 2003 -- Apple has posted iDisk Utility for Windows XP (free download), a Win XP version of the Mac utility that enables any user to easily access upload or download files from an iDisk Public folder. It also gives a .Mac account holder complete access to his/her iDisk while sitting at a Windows XP machine.
Mac OS X Server 10.2.4 fixes some cross-platform issues. February 26, 2003 -- Apple released Mac OS X Server 10.2.4, which has a number of bug fixes and improvements, including fixes for AFP, SMB and NFS file services, and Open Directory, as well as cross-platform problems with Microsoft Word. Some of the improvements in the upgrade (which requires Mac OS X Server 10.2.3) include the following cross-platform issues:
If you find this upgrade to the Server software solves any of the cross-platform problems listed on our Mac OS X Server Reports page, please let us know.
More on Win PCs crashing when Macs open Word on OS X Server. February 25, 2003 -- Andrea Mariottini has a theory about our previous report of Windows machines crashing when Macs open a Word file on Mac OS X Server:
As I mentioned in the past it seems Mac OS X doesn't have the same mechanism of file locking for AFP and SMB, so a file locked by an AFP session is free for a SMB session and vice-versa. This could cause problems.
Our above report on Mac OS X Server 10.2.4 makes reference to improving abilieties with Word files, which might indicate that this problem is fixed. If you can verify this, please let us know.
Mac OS X 10.2.4 fixes Word X/Win2K bug; another bug remains. February 26, 2003 -- Dave Dalton adds to previous reports of Mac OS X 10.2.4 fixing problems with Word and Windows Servers.
As far as I can tell, updating to Mac OS X 10.2.4 seems to have eliminated this bug where you cannot save a file back to a Windows 2000 server. Hopefully other readers of MacWindows will have successful results. This is a description of the problem from MacWindows:To edit from, and then saving to, a MS Word file on a Win2K server results in an error indicating that you have to save the file with a different name, and that there is not enough space to complete the operation. "
Dalton finds that the 10.2.4 update doesn't fix another problem:
This update did NOT resolve the bug with Mac OS 10.2.x and Eudora 5.2 when users have their folders located on a SNAP server. Eudora reports I/O errors when it tries to write to the History file , and Nicknames file. The Eudora Settings file can be changed. Very strange but looks like some kind of permissions issue. The same Eudora folder when located on a Win2K server behaves fine. The folks at Eudora have not been very responsive. They probably cannot replicate the client server environment necessary to reproduce the problem.
However, Mark Wellard reports that he still has a problem with Word:
The update to 10.2.4 did not solve the AFP sharing and Word problem on my new 867 MHz G4.
(For previous reports on the recent Mac OS X 10.2.4 release and its affect on cross-platform bugs, see the MacWindows Jaguar Reports page.)
Deleting prefs fixes problem with Citrix ICA Client for Mac OS X. February 26, 2003 -- Klaus Thibault reports that deleting preference files fixes the connection problem for Citrix ICA Client for Mac OS X:
I´ve got the same symptoms using Mac OS X 10.2.4 and Citrix Client 6.30.314. Reinstalling the Citrix client did not solve the problem. Finally, I deleted the Citrix preferences -- now it works.
If you've tried this fix, please let us know how it worked for you.
Report of VPC 6 Win 98 crashing Mac OS X. February 26, 2003 -- Dorian Mattar reports that Windows 98 in Virtual PC 6 crashes Mac OS X:
I am running, OS X 10.2.3. My dual 1 GHz Power Mac G4 crashes even on wake up if VPC is running with Windows 98.I called Apple and asked them to explain how an OS with "Protected Memory" can be brought down by Virtual PC. They did not have an answer other than saying that VPC 6 might not be compatible.
On our VPC 6 Reports page we've had reports of Windows 98 crashing as well.
Reader problems with Mac-to-Pocket PC syncing. February 26, 2003 -- Roger Baerwolf having trouble with PocketMac, the software that enables Macs to sync to Pocket PC handhelds:
I have version 2.0 of Pocket Mac, as do a lot of other people you can find in the newsgroups on the PocketMac web site. I have not been able to get it to work satisfactorily. While I can sync, it is extremely slow and duplicates entries every time you sync.ActiveSync [under Virtual PC] is not really a possibility since my company uses Entourage.
The use of ActiveSycn under Virtual PC refers to a recent reader report.
Disconnected net drives on real PCs. February 26, 2003 -- Last month, we had some reports of Virtual PC 5 disconnecting from network drives. A couple of readers reported seeing this with real PCs. Dan Warne also sees this:
In reference to your report of disconnected network drives, I have seen this too, on my Windows 2000 machine at work (real PC).It mainly seems to happen when I leave the machine on overnight, so I can only assume that the network disconnects network clients overnight for some reason. It's a bit hard for me to find out since we are a very large company with a huge computer network -- not easy to know the right person to ask.
ODBC Router updated to support Jaguar. February 26, 2003 -- August Software has released what it called a "major update" to ODBC Router (starts at US $99), its cross-platform software for enabling Macs, Windows, and Linux to access Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) network-based databases. August Software didn't mention a version number, but said then new release adds "full support for the new ODBC features built-in to Mac OS X 10.2 and FileMaker Pro." There were also performance improvements, enhanced network database browsers, and "special support for applications that pass images as SQL query-parameters."
File renaming utility adds text insertion. February 26, 2003 -- PublicSpace.net is shipping A Better Finder Rename 5.3 (US $15), a Mac Finder contextual menu item that lets you rename groups of files, including the removal of characters that are illegal on Intel-based PCs. The new version ads a feature that lets you insert text into the file name based on to a number of criteria. You can now choose to change the extension, or the name before the dot, or the entire file name.
Suggestions for problems connecting to Citrix server with Mac ICA client. February 24, 2003 -- We've received several more suggestions for working the problem of being unable to connect to a Citrix Server. Roy Long feels it's a configuration problem:
We use Citrix quite extensively at our site (which is 95% OS X on the desktop). I have seen this problem that Brad Stewart mentions a few times. The main reason we have problems like that is due to installations of new software rewriting the PATH variable on the Citrix boxes. If you go to Properties from the My Computer on the server (right-click) you can see what the PATH variable is set to. If this starts with anything other than %SYSTEM% or similar (i.e. has something like M:\Applications\winword\) then we just take this front portion of the PATH variable and paste it onto the end of the line -- ensuring that all the relevant semicolons separate each particular directory path...
Long goes on with examples and further recommendations, which you can read on our Citrix Reports page. He also says this:
After trying the release version of Citrix Client I had problems with full screen mode and other stuff -- I went back to the Preview Release and use that all the time still.
Tomas Fischer offers another suggestion:
I don't know that this is the answer, but I have seen this before.To connect and authenticate to to Citrix without Microsoft Terminal Server License is possible only using Windows 2000 or Windows XP. If the OS is anything else it require Terminal License on the Terminal server. However, the first time connection is made, a temporary license is issued which will last for 90 days. After that all connections from the client will be denied unless the OS is reinstalled.
Tony Tingen is another user confirming the problem:
I have the same problem connecting to our Citrix server at work as previously described. The splash screen says I am connected, but never goes away. The problem comes and goes with no apparent rhyme or reason, so I never know when or if I'll be able to connect. I am also unable to print to a local home network printer when connected. The local printer does not show up in the "print" menu of the client. When I go to add a printer it does show a local network printer, but if I try to open it, the program refuses saying the printer does not exist. It won't let me create a new local network printer.
If these suggestions work for you, please let us know.
Citrix/NFuse over Web/OS X client. February 24, 2003 -- Rich Frueh reports that suggestions for problems with Citrix ICA Client 6.30 and NFuse Server aren't working for him:
This is not working for me as well, and it appears for a different reason than other people are having. Instead of just the Network Protocol/Transport Driver problem, we're also getting an error where the server address is being replaced with
Address=;10;STA01;AAC<blah><blah><blah>And of course the client barfs on that address. <sigh> Like others, I've spent a bunch of time with the Citrix knowledge base and gotten no where. Citrix still doesn't admit that the .asp files are incorrect, and definitely don't mention this problem.
VPC 6 freezing with Win 98--a QuickTime conflict? February 24, 2003 -- Gilles Combe says he has found the culprit behind the problem of Windows 98 freezing or crashing in Virtual PC 6:
I had the same problems, and I solved it by uninstalling QuickTime! In fact, when I launched any component of QuickTime, Windows froze. After I uninstalled it, everything was fine.
If you can confirm or refute this, please let us know.
Suggestion for better VPC performance. February 24, 2003 --PC Magazine calls enditall2 "A true killer app" because is kills unnecessary processes running in Windows. (The free utility was written by PC Magazine Contributing Technical Editor Neil Rubenking. So what? Georg Feil suggests using it on Virtual PC for Mac to improve performance of the emulator. If you've tried this, please let us know what you think.
VPN Tracker 1.5.2 released, IPsec for Mac OS X. February 24, 2003 -- Equinux has posted an update to it's VPN Tracker, an IPsec virtual private network client for Mac OS X. It first released version 1.5.1 a few days ago, but has since replaced this with version 1.5.2 due to a bug. The new version includes the following fixes and improvements over VPN Tracker 1.5:
Mounting a UDF Volume in Mac OS X. February 24, 2003 -- Brian Barnsley can't mount a CD in Mac OS X that was created in Windows. The CD is formatted in UDF, the format used for DVDs. His problem:
I'm trying to hunt down a way to mount a Windows CD in Mac OS X. The CD was created in Roxio's Easy CD Creator for Windows. Evidently, Roxio/Adaptec uses UDF version 1.5 for their CD formats. Mac OS X supports an earlier version of UDF (ver 1.2 I think). Roxio makes available an extension for OS 9 that lets you mount UDF 1.5 disks. Also, Thomas Templemann's Joliet Volume Access works, but only in OS 9. These don't work in the OS X/Classic environment though.Are you aware of any fixes for OS X to mount these disks?
If you have a suggestion, please let us know.
Database text "transcoding" for Mac and Windows. February 24, 2003 -- 24U Software is shipping 24U Transcoding Table Utility, a support file for 24U Transcoding Plug-In for FileMaker Pro. The Utility can translate text between text encodings for multiply platforms in databases.
Address Office updated, free cross-platform PIM. February 24, 2003 -- Centromedia is offering a new version of the free Address Office 3.9 for Macintosh and Windows. Address Office is an address book and personal information manager that stores addresses, phone numbers, URLs, AIM, ICQ and Email addresses. Address Office is integrated with the Internet, allowing you to connect with Web pages and send Email using your favorite Email and browser software. It's available in English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian.
Microsoft says future is bright for VPC Mac. February 21, 2003 -- Microsoft's purchase of Virtual PC from Connectix (see yesterday's story) may have been driven by the Virtual Server product still in beta, but Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MBU) is glad to add Virtual PC to its product line.
Microsoft MBU's Tim McDonough, director of marketing and business development told MacWindows that there will be future new versions Virtual PC for Mac.
"Virtual PC is the perfect product to be part of Microsoft in the Macintosh Business Unit,"said McDonough. "Who would be better to guarantee a long term future for the product?"
Microsoft's plan is to not change anything about how Virtual PC is sold for the time being. Microsoft will retain the Virtual PC product name with the same pricing. Microsoft will continue to offer OS Packs, special versions of Windows prepackaged for Virtual PC. It will continue to offer Virtual PC bundled with Windows 98, 2000 Professional, XP Home, XP Professional and PC-DOS. "We'll look at the bundles and make decisions based on what customers want" said McDonough.
Virtual Server Customer Preview Program
Virtual Server will allow you to run multiple versions of Windows servers on one host PC. Microsoft is looking at it as a way to help transition users of NT 4 Server to Windows Server 2003. Connectix says that 100 users are currently beta testing Virtual Server, but Microsoft is planning a wider Customer Preview Program on April 15. (You can apply to join at a Connectix page.) Connectix also has a transition FAQ document with some information on Virtual Server and Virtual PC.
The transition period
McDonough said that it would take between three to six months to completely transfer the Virtual PC operations from Connectix to Microsoft. During this time, if a maintenance release of Virtual PC 6 were needed, it would be done by either Connectix or Microsoft, depending on how far the transition had moved along. McDonough said that it will take from 3 to 6 months for developers, product support, packaging, and other groups to migrate Microsoft. "Each one will transition to Microsoft at its own schedule."
An Associated Press story quoted Connectix vice president for Macintosh products Kurt Schmucker as saying that 30 out of 100 of Connectix employees would move to Microsoft. McDonough said that "These are people that were core to producing and shipping the product. We got everybody we need." The ex-Connectix employees will work in Microsoft's Silicon Valley office in Mountain View, which produces the Mac versions of Entourage, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, and the upcoming MSN for Mac OS X.
Connectix has set up a web page for fielding questions about the Microsoft acquisition during the transition period.
The Future of Connectix
We asked a Connectix representative what the company without VPC. "The bottom line is that we don't know what the future will bring after the six month transition period."
This is is not the first time that Connectix has sold off a major asset to a larger corporation. Connectix sold QuickCam to Logitech, and, after some legal maneuvering, sold Virtual Game Station (a Playstation emulator) to Sony.
"The founders of Connectix are entrepreneurs--one possibility is that they could very well reinvent the company in a new direction, and this is being actively discussed," said the Connectix rep. "Then again, another possibility is that the company goes away in late 2003. Today, we just don't know yet."
Using Virtual PC and ActiveSync for Pocket PC. February 21, 2003 -- Bruce Miller sent us an analysis of using the Windows program ActiveSync on Virtual PC for Mac to sync the handheld devices with Macs. He also makes come comparisons to PocketMac 2.0, a Mac OS X-native application for syncing to Pocket PCs.
With the dramatic fall in Pocket PC prices recently, that platform's features are becoming more attractive to Mac users, yet the specter of syncing and installing Windows-only software using the Mac platform makes only for the brave (or foolish) to venture into. Activesync already has a reputation, justly earned, as one of Window's crankiest applications, frustrating even veterans of the platform.PocketMac shareware and soon-to-be released MissingSync for Pocket PC provide some integration of the Pocket PC for Mac, yet only a full Windows OS environment offers all the features of the wide array of software applications for the Pocket PC, including MP3 players, MPEG video and WMP movies, WiFi net access and other goodies the Palm platform yet features in mature offerings.
The obvious answer seems to be to use Virtual PC to run Activesync and Outlook natively in a Windows OS environment, yet getting useable or consistent USB connections to trigger the Activesync process can be elusive at best.
I have found, through trial and error, a process for getting VPC and Activesync to be totally reliable, allowing for daily Activesyncing and installation of a very large number of applications on my iPaq 3955 that matches what any native Windows user could achieve.
It is extremely simple, and is based on compensating for VPC's inherent slowness and what often appears to be frozen and unresponsive/failed actions. The key is to use several freeware utilities to monitor and display what is actually occurring in the background, following a very specific sequence of USB plugging/unplugging to "trigger" VPC's Window's OS to respond and activate Activesync and how to prepare the saved state to see the USB connection consistently.
Details and discussion are in Connectix' forum.
If you have an opinion on PocketMac vs. Virtual PC, we'd like to hear it.
Another reader with Citrix problem OS X problem. February 21, 2003 -- Brad Stewart is having the same symptoms with being unable to connect with the Citrix ICA Client for Mac OS X. The splash screen says he is connected, but it never goes away, and the Windows screen never appears:
I have been having this problem, too. I have been connecting to Citrix server at work from home for months, but when I tried to set up two different OS 10.2 machines at work on the LAN, I had the "connected to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" message on the splash screen that never goes away, as described by Brad Lachel The Citrix server log shows that it was unable to authenticate. I thought maybe it had something to do with our Active Directory rollout, but my home machine connected just fine. However, this morning my home machine failed to authenticate and I can't get around it. Perhaps it's an Active Directory issue after all.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
Microsoft Buys Virtual PC. MS will rollout new Virtual Server. February 20, 2003 -- Microsoft Corporation announced late yesterday that it had purchased the entire Virtual PC product line from Connectix. (See the Microsoft press release.)The purchase for an undisclosed sum includes Virtual PC for Mac, Virtual PC for Windows, and a not-yet-released server product called Virtual Server. A Connectix representative would not comment, but a Microsoft representative told us that it would continue to offer Virtual PC for Mac OS X and that there was no plan to change pricing at this time. Microsoft said that during an unspecified transition period, Connectix will continue to sell and support Virtual PC through its current channels.
Microsoft seems most interested in the Virtual Server, which the company will offer as a preview release on April 15, and would be finished before the end of this year. Microsoft said Virtual Server will help its server customers migrate from Windows NT 4.0 Server to new server platforms, such as the upcoming Windows Server 2003. Using Virtual Server, NT users could run legacy server software on new server platforms. Microsoft also said Virtual Server would let users run "multiple Windows NT 4.0 servers and their applications onto a single Windows Server system."
Microsoft said there were 1 million users of Virtual PC for Macintosh, which will go to the company's Microsoft Business Unit, which now produces Office for Mac and Internet Explorer for Mac. The MBU division will take over development of VPC for Mac from Connectix.
The future of Connectix Corporation, however, is unclear. Contrary to some reports on the Web, Microsoft is no acquiring Connectix, but is only buying the Virtual PC product line. However, without Virtual PC, there isn't much left for a Connectix product line, other than a handful of aging Mac OS 9 utilities. Virtual PC for the Mac is the company's main revenue source, according to a CNET report. A number of Connectix employees are joining Microsoft, including Kurt Schmucker, vice president of Mac products.
More on VPC 6 with Windows 98 crashing. February 20, 2003 -- David Bivans confirms yesterday's reports that Virtual PC 6 running Windows 98 crashes on Macs:
We use VPC 6 on 5 G4s, all with Win 98 to generate tax returns and other Win software. Since upgrading to VPC 6 about 50 percent of the time upon shutdown of the win 98, the whole G4 freezes!
Snap server and disappearing files. February 20, 2003 -- Tony Pires is another user reporting the problem of server-based files disappearing when the name is changed with Jaguar clients. Like one other user, his problem occurs with Snap Server, not a Windows server:
I have seen the same exact problem where, one moment the file is there and the next, it is gone! Only by unmounting and remounting the drive will it return. I have had an OS X and OS 9 machine side by side and one will show the file (OS 9) while the other (OS X) will not. Strange.
Making Mac OS X Server 10.2 into a LDAP-based PDC. -- February 20, 2003 -- afp548.com has updated it's web page describing how to use Mac OS X Server as a primary domain controller in an LDAP network. Joel Rennich writes:
Just a note to let you know that we have massively updated our OS X as a PDC article. It now covers the latest version of Samba combined with Open Directory.
Apple updates X11 for Mac OS X Public Beta to v0.2.1. February 20, 2003 -- Apple has posted X11 for Mac OS X Public Beta v0.2.1, a new prerelease version of the X Window System for running X11-based applications in Mac OS X.
Tutorial on installing X11 and OpenOffice on Mac OS X. February 20, 2003 -- O'Reilly's Mac devcenter has a tutorial called "X11 and OpenOffice on Mac OS X" that instructs how to install X11 and OpenOffice on Mac OS X.
Mac OS X 10.2.4 update: SMB and AFP fixes promised; Word problem fixed. February 19, 2003 -- Apple released a Mac OS X 10.2.4 update at its web site and through Mac OS X's Software Update feature. Although it promised improvements for SMB and AFP file sharing, readers are reporting that some of the problems reported on our Jaguar Reports page have not be fixed. However, other readers report that the 10.2.4 update does fix problems with Word X that we've reported.
Here is what Apple says is related to AFP and SMB:
Jarl Sobel says that the SMB file corruption problem is still present in Mac OS X 10.2.4:
I just downloaded 10.2.4, and the problem with SMB corruption still persists.Apple claims that the Mac OS X 10.2.4 Update "Improves results when copying large files (4 GB or larger) to a Windows file sharing (SMB) server", so it seem to address only a part of the problem.
I've experienced problems with files less than 300 kb in size. Also, I experience no difference depending on if a directory is in icon view or in list view, as posted by Lawrence You, on Dec 20th. My machine is a 1.25 GHz dual G4.
However, three readers report that problems with Word X have been fixed. Arthur Visser:
My Microsoft Word (v.X) no longer crashes when saving a file on our Win2K file server over an AFP connection, after I updated OS X 10.2.3 to 10.2.4 (Software Update).The workaround of using a SMB connection to the Windows server is no longer needed.
Daniel Foshee:
The OS X problem of not being able to save Word or Excel files on AFP shares of a Win2K (it would report a corruption problem, and wouldn't save, though Office 2001 in OS 9.x had no problems) have disappeared with the 10.2.4 update on our G4 setups.
Jack Stoller:
Regarding the following issue when editing MS Word docs on an AFP file server that first appeared in 10.2.3:"There is an unrecoverable disk error on file Word Work File D_9. The disk you're working on had a media problem that prevents Word from using it. Try the following: - Try formatting another disk. - Save the document to another disk."
It appears this issue is resolved in 10.2.4.
Please let us know whether 10.2.4 fixes or doesn't fix any of the Jaguar file sharing problems.
Win machines crash when Macs open Word X on OS X Server. February 19, 2003 -- Per Thörnblad reports a problem with Mac OS X Server where Windows clients can crash when sharing a Word X file with Mac users:
We have a Mac OS X Server 10.2 and mixed clients, Mac OS X 10.2.3, Win2K and Windows 98 SE. On the Mac OS-machines we use Microsoft Word X ,10.1.3, and on the Wintel machines we use Word 2000. If one of the Mac-users opens a Word document from the server and then one of the Wintel-users tries to open the same document, Word 2000 on the Wintel-machine crashes after a delay of some 30-60 sec.If the same operation is done by two Wintel users the number two user gets a message that the document is already opened by user xx and that the document will be opened in write protected mode, then the document opens OK.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
More on Virtual PC 5.x kernel panics, and a suggested fix. February 19, 2003 -- We've had more reports of crashes and kernel panics with Virtual PC 5.0.4 running in Mac OS X. Robert de Bie offered a fix:
I had the same problem before. I solved the problem by rebuilding the disk via the VPC menu.
If you've tried this fix, please let us know.
Several other readers reported having problems. Michael Cowdroy says Windows 98 crashes the Mac OS X freezes:
I'm running a G4 dual 1 GHz MDD and I've had Virtual PC 5.04 crash running Windows 98 and Mac OS X (10.2.3) after I save all and Quit. After VPC quits the Mac freezes. The only way to restore is to Shut down by continually pressing the Start Up Button. This has happened twice in about 3 weeks.
Kevin Spencer is having kernel panics:
I've lately experienced kernel panics while using Virtual PC 5.0.4 running with Virtual Switch active Windows 2000 and Windows XP. When I turn off the Virtual Switch, things are OK except that VPC becomes useless to me--I cannot authenticate my PC environment to the domain or use VPN software installed there. Recently, when I last experienced this, Classic was running, but so were a few other Mac OS X applications. Classic wasn't running during the earlier panics, but a few other applications were.This is a recent development. Before things started to go awry, I installed the Netlock Contivity VPN client for Mac OS X, which uses a kernel extension, as well as a demo of Extensis Suitcase 10. I found the Netlock client to have stability issues and it caused kernel panics when applications were in full screen mode and had network access.
My system was connected by normal Ethernet and not using the VPN at the time of the crashes. I'll have to uninstall the VPN software to see if Virtual Switch kernel panics remain to make it my prime suspect. As a precaution, I switch off other apps such as Microsoft Entourage, Internet Explorer, and Safari beta before using VPC in hopes this avoids conflict. However, aside from the point that Virtual Switch is definitely the catalyst in the kernel panics with VPC, I haven't a pattern. I am definitely wary of applications that add kernel extensions like Netlock and Norton Utilities 7.
VPC 6/Win 98 freezing problem, suggestion for improving performance. February 19, 2003 -- Two readers report problems with Virtual PC 6 with Windows 98 crashing. G Feil reports the problem and has a suggestion for improving performance in Mac OS X:
My VPC 6.0.1 crashes running Windows 98 SE after a few hours, no matter what. This is on Mac OS X 10.2.3, iMac 333 MHz. I believe I've also had crashes under OS 9 also but I hardly ever run VPC there.In terms of performance, a 333 MHz G3 is definitely underpowered for VPC 6 on OS X, but still usable for many apps. To boost performance I use two utilities you might want to mention to your readers:
1) ProcessWizard on the OS X side to boost the Unix "nice" level of VPC to the max.
2) PrcView on the Win 98 side to boost the priority of the Windows app, in my case KaZaA.
These two things make a difference of up to a factor of two in download speeds. PrcView can cause problems though because a high-priority app can starve Windows Explorer, etc., out of almost all CPU time, so bumping several Win 98 processes is sometimes needed--including PrcView itself so you can get back in!
Michael Bennett:
Since I changed from VPC 5 to VPC 6.01 on my dual 1 MHz G4, 512M, running OS X 10.2.3, I've had Windows 98 crashes occurring once/week.
If you're seeing crashing with VPC 6 and Windows 98, or have tried these methods for improving performance, please let us know.
4-Sight Fax 5.0.4r2, cross-platform API kit released. February 19, 2003 -- Soft Solutions has released 4-Sight FAX 5.0.4r2 (free upgrade), a new version of its network-based fax solution for Windows Mac OS X. Among the new features include the ability to sent faxes through an Internet connection.
The company also released a new cross-platform application program interface (API) that allows both the Macintosh and Windows developers to create custom fax clients and tools, and the beta release of an AppleScript Developer kit for Mac OS 8.6 and 9.
PC-Mac-Net FileShare 2.2 released, cross-platform file transfer. February 13, 2003 -- Lava Software is now shipping PC-Mac-Net FileShare 2.2 (US $25), software for Windows and Mac OS 8.6/9 and Mac OS X that enables cross-platform file transfer over the Internet or a local network. New features include improved connection reliability and network performance and enhanced support for MacOS X with a more readable display font.
Lava Software is also offering two licenses for the price of one.
PC-Mac PasswordVault v1.1 adds new services. February 13, 2003 -- Lava Software also released PC-Mac Password Vault 1.1 (US $15), software that stores encrypted website access information, Internet banking data and software registration details for Windows and Mac.
HELIOS LanTest now available for Mac OS X. February 13, 2003 -- HELIOS Software GmbH has released HELIOS LanTest for Mac OS X 3.1 (a download), the first Mac OS X version of the benchmarking tool for AFP (Apple File Protocol) network file servers. This first Mac OS X version, which also runs in Mac OS 9, can be controlled by AppleScript.
Backup Exec 9.0 released with OS X agents. February 13, 2003 -- Veritas has released Backup Exec 9.0 for Windows containing Mac OS X agents. With this version, Veritas has dropped support for Classic agents has been dropped. Veritas offers a fully functional 30 day evaluation.
(Thanks to Mark Duling for this item.)
Workaround for connecting to Citrix 6.30 with the Mac OS X. February 13, 2003 -- Brad Lachel comments on a suggestion for a problem with the Citrix client for OS X:
I tried the suggestion of restarting, but that did not seem to work. I did find something, and I don't know if this fixed it or not. I recreated a new connection, and instead of saving it to the desktop, I saved it to the folder containing the Citrix Application. The connection now works fine. I tried moving the connection file to the desktop, and it still worked.
Updates to broken Net connections in Windows, VPC 5. February 13, 2003 -- Daniel Foshee sent an update to his report about broken network connections in Virtual PC 5. Other users have reported seeing the same problem in real Windows PCs. Here is Foshee's update:
This is an update to the problem I originally posted. I hesitate to call it either a solution or a workaround, though. In talking to the users, preparatory to re-creating the image, I noticed that they were leaving their Virtual PCs up and running 24/7; I had told them to leave their Macs on during the night so that they could do that OS X maintenance thing at 3-4 am.My theory (at the time) was that there was some sort of timeout was going on while the VPC was on in the wee hours, and the Win2K server disconnected the VPCs after a period of inactivity. I advised the users to shut down the VPC every night and keep the Mac running. It's been a little over a week and so far no errors on any of the machines.
Bryan Walls is another user who see this on a real Windows PC:
I see this all the time on my Win 2000 system on a Wintel box. Sometimes it won't happen for days, sometimes I'll have 40 dialog boxes piled up. Having one or two over night seems common. Have figured out the cause.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
VPC 5.0.4 crashing. February 13, 2003 -- Miguel Rosado has the same problem of Virtual PC 5.0.4 crashing that we've previously reported, except in Mac OS 9 instead of OS X Classic:
I am running on a g4-450 upgraded computer, running OS 9.2.2. 352 RAM. I was able to use VPC 5.0.4 until recently, when I experienced the same problem as you reported. The launch of Windows gets to the desktop but right before it loads all of the icons, Windows freezes up and I lose control of the Macintosh. I end up having to Force Restart the computer.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
Disappearing files on servers seen with SnapServer. February 13, 2003 -- Kate Fitch reports that she's seen a the Jaguar problem where Jaguar can't see files on servers when the file name has been changed, except she's seen the problem with SnapServer, and the name doesn't have to be changed:
Thought I'd report on a similar issue we are seeing with Mac OS 10.2.3 and a SnapServer. The Macs are connecting to the SnapServer (running the latest OS) using the latter's AppleShare emulation. Occasionally, when clicking on a file to open or preview it, the file "disappears." Unmounting, then remounting the volume seems to fix it. Because of this, I am keeping my Mac OS X test group small so I don't have to deal with unnecessary panicking!I am wondering, perhaps the fact that Windows networking is also enabled has something to do with it? We have two PCs, both running Win 98 SE, that require this be turned on.
If you can add anything to this discussion, please let us know.
Microsoft to deliver Exchange client in Entourage X. February 11, 2003 -- Microsoft announced that this summer it will release a version of Entourage X that will include Exchange client functionality. The new version of Entourage will allow Mac OS X users to share calendar on networks of PCs and other Macs, as well as handle the email, address book, and tasks functions that it now has. Other features, according to Microsoft:
Additional updates include a directory service lookup feature allowing searching of global address lists, the ability to synchronize the Entourage X calendar and address book with the Exchange server for offline use, and improved text rendering in mail received from users of Outlook for Windows.
This first Mac OS X native Exchange client will be compatible with Exchange 2000 and later. Outlook 2001, which runs in Classic mode, will continue to be Microsoft's Exchange client for Mac OS 9. (Entourage for Mac OS 9 will not have Exchange client capabilies.) The new Entourage X solution will be available this summer in English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish and Swedish. Since January, Entourage X has been available as a standalone product ($99) as well as being a part of the Microsoft Office X bundle.
Suggestions for Mac OS X Citrix problems. February 10, 2003 -- Paul Crawford addresses two problems with the Citrix ICA client for Mac OS X. Responding to Friday's report of being unable to make a connection, Crawford has seen the problem and offers a workaround:
I have seen Brad Lachel's problem on occasion. But if I restart the client the client again, normally it will then connect.
Crawford also has a suggestion for accessing Citrix over virtual private network connections:
BTW I am normally directly connected to the network that the Citrix Server is on, but I have been able to overcome the problem that others have seen with a VPN connection by using SSH Tunnel Manager to reroute the IP traffic that Citrix sends and receives. It works beautifully. Sometimes again though I have seen the above problem but never more than once. Trying again always succeeds.
Another report of VPC 6 on older Macs: a Pismo. February 10, 2003 -- Tom Glover adds a report of running Virtual PC 6 on a Mac that is below Connectix' recommended hardware specifications.
I'm currently running VPC 6.0.1 on my PowerBook G3 (Pismo) 400 MHz with 640 MB RAM and Mac OS X 10.2.3. I had previously used VPC 5 but it was so painfully slow that I was actually getting ready to go back to using a real PC. I decided to give VPC 6 a try as a last resort. I've been pleasantly surprised. VPC 6 does run faster than 5 did, though still no speed demon on my machine. I've got 332 MB RAM allocated to WIN 2000 and I still notice the hard drive writing almost constantly, even when I'm not doing anything. While, VPC 6 is not all that speedy on my machine, it still is faster than VPC 5, by a long shot and is still worth using for me.
We have other reports of running Virtual PC on older Macs on our Virtual PC 6 Reports page.
Net connections dropping in VPC 5.0.4 occurs with real Win clients. February 10, 2003 -- Locatel Sabana Grande responded to our January 29 report of Virtual PC 5.0.4 with Windows 2000 dropping network connections. This reader sees one of the three error messages:
Regarding the error "Windows An error occurred while reconnecting F: to \\tysona\pdflables Microsoft Windows Network: The local devices name is already in use. This connection has not been restored"I am having the same problem, but I am running a Windows 2000 Pro PC Pentium III, with a Windows 2000 server. PC vs PC, no Mac installed. It has nothing to do with OS X. I have not found the solution to this problem.
If you are seeing this, with either Virtual PC or real Windows client, please let us know.
Suggestions for Mac OS X Citrix problems. February 10, 2003 -- Paul Crawford addresses two problems with the Citrix ICA client for Mac OS X. Responding to Friday's report of being unable to make a connection, Crawford has seen the problem and offers a workaround:
I have seen Brad Lachel's problem on occasion. But if I restart the client the client again, normally it will then connect.
Crawford also has a suggestion for accessing Citrix over virtual private network connections:
BTW I am normally directly connected to the network that the Citrix Server is on, but I have been able to overcome the problem that others have seen with a VPN connection by using SSH Tunnel Manager to reroute the IP traffic that Citrix sends and receives. It works beautifully. Sometimes again though I have seen the above problem but never more than once. Trying again always succeeds.
Another report of VPC 6 on older Macs: a Pismo. February 10, 2003 -- Tom Glover adds a report of running Virtual PC 6 on a Mac that is below Connectix' recommended hardware specifications.
I'm currently running VPC 6.0.1 on my PowerBook G3 (Pismo) 400 MHz with 640 MB RAM and Mac OS X 10.2.3. I had previously used VPC 5 but it was so painfully slow that I was actually getting ready to go back to using a real PC. I decided to give VPC 6 a try as a last resort. I've been pleasantly surprised. VPC 6 does run faster than 5 did, though still no speed demon on my machine. I've got 332 MB RAM allocated to WIN 2000 and I still notice the hard drive writing almost constantly, even when I'm not doing anything. While, VPC 6 is not all that speedy on my machine, it still is faster than VPC 5, by a long shot and is still worth using for me.
We have other reports of running Virtual PC on older Macs on our Virtual PC 6 Reports page.
Net connections dropping in VPC 5.0.4 occurs with real Win clients. February 10, 2003 -- Locatel Sabana Grande responded to our January 29 report of Virtual PC 5.0.4 with Windows 2000 dropping network connections. This reader sees one of the three error messages:
Regarding the error "Windows An error occurred while reconnecting F: to \\tysona\pdflables Microsoft Windows Network: The local devices name is already in use. This connection has not been restored"I am having the same problem, but I am running a Windows 2000 Pro PC Pentium III, with a Windows 2000 server. PC vs PC, no Mac installed. It has nothing to do with OS X. I have not found the solution to this problem.
If you are seeing this, with either Virtual PC or real Windows client, please let us know.
Fix for Win 2000 NTFS and files embedded with EPS. February 7, 2003 -- Patrick Marechal reports a solution to a problem reported on our Windows 2000 Reports page, in which files embedded with EPS graphics yield error message when a user opens and saves the file. Marechal says:
Adobe has an update 10.03 for Illustrator to fix this bug. It's described in the readme file.
A pair of reader Citrix problems. February 7, 2003 -- A couple of readers have written with problems that we couldn't help them with. Brad Lachel can't connect Citrix 6.30 with the Mac OS X client:
W are not using NFuse or Java. I have been unable to connect. I set my client up exactly the same way as with OS 9, the published Apps even show up. When I attempt to connect, the splash screen says I am connected, but it never goes away, and I never get a Windows screen. If I quit the Citrix Application, it asks me if I want to disconnect the current session.
Jason Chapin reports:
MacOS 9.x systems using the Mac ICA Client 6.20.142 which connect to a Citrix MetaFrame 1.8 server running on Windows 2000 Server report a minor annoyance - which is they have to press the num lock key every time they connect to use their keypad. I have not been able to find any information on how to get around this issue.
Correction on workaround for Cisco VPN 3.7.2. February 7, 2003 -- We've corrected a Unix command we presented in our February 5 item on a workaround for the Cisco VPN Client 3.7.2 dropping connections. The correct command is "sudo ifconfig en1 up mtu 1500" (our spell check erroneously capitalized a portion).(Thanks to Claude Wacker for pointing that out.)
Update on SMB problems in Mac OS X. February 7, 2003 -- A reliable source (who wishes to remain anonymous) sent us a correction regarding a news item from February 5 called "Theory on SMB problems in Mac OS X," in which the reader claimed that the SMB problems on the MacWindows Jaguar Reports page were due to a buggy version of samba
Just as an important FYI, this just doesn't make very much sense. Apple does not use Samba for their client, only for the server software. Most of the bug reports that I have seen are related to the client.I prefer not to be quoted as your source, but feel like this is important for your readers to know before they go out and start hacking at Samba for no reason.
We've removed the original Feb. 5 post.
Non-Apple 802.11b cards connecting to AirPort Extreme Base Station. February 5, 2003 -- Apple Knowledge Base article 107427 warns that the new AirPort Extreme Base Station has a problem connecting to computers with 802.11b wireless cards from Cisco, Compaq, and the Farallon SkyLINE, as well as Epson wireless printers and Hewlett Packard WP100 print servers. The article says:
Some third-party 802.11b wireless cards do not connect to the base station when it is in Compatibility mode. The 802.11b Only
