Control a PC from a Mac over the Internet
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ExtremeZ-IP 3.1 file server adds Win 2003, XP; IP printing. September 26, 2003 -- Yesterday, Group Logic, released ExtremeZ-IP 3.1 (free upgrade from 3.0), an upgrade to the file and print server for Windows hosts for access by Mac clients (using AFP over TCP/IP.) The new version adds support for Windows 2003 Server and Windows XP and adds support for Mac OS X client features. New features include:
Advice for using USB within VPC. September 26, 2003 -- Sebastian Soyka (of Copenhagen) responded to our reports of problems with using USB with Virtual PC, and had a few suggestions:
I haven't seen this mentioned yet, but VPC will only allow access to 1 USB device at a time. Make sure to deselect any other active USB device before a new one is selected.Also, try playing with two of the options in the Scripts Menu (hidden by default, made visible by means of "Settings" option). Enabling Compatibility Mode is one possible solution. (I haven't tried it yet as I found no need to do so). Or, try changing Networking type (remember default setting, you'll get a warning that your system may go haywire if you change this). "Share Sockets" setting finally let me connect to the Internet from Windows through VPC on my Mac.
If you've tried any of these suggestions, please let us know.
Office 10.1.5 conflict with FontReserve. September 26, 2003 -- Barry Shapiro notes that FontReserve could be the cause of many readers' problems with the Office 10.1.5 update:
Another possible cause for Office apps to quit on start up is font conflicts. We had this problem while running FontReserve. The fix was to turn off Font Reserve before launching Office. I did not take the time to find the offending font. This problem is noted on Mactopia. It can also prevent the installers from running correctly.Please note that it is almost never necessary to reinstall system software and very time consuming. The core system files are well protected as applications (for the most part) do not install items in the system directory. The Console app should show something to clue in to what has gone wrong.
Firmware for LinkSys box breaks Mac VPN connections. September 26, 2003 -- Gabriele de Simone reports that updating the firmware to his LinkSys BEFSR41 created problems with Mac virtual private network connections. Installing older firmware fixed the problem.
I just wanted to give a heads up to fellow owners of the popular LinkSys 4 ports Cable/DSL router (BEFSR41 v1/v2 but I could not verify v3). Yesterday I had the unhealthy urge to upgrade the firmware of the router in a perfectly working configuration. The latest firmware available on the LinkSys website is 1.45.7. After the upgrade, I was unable to connect to my usual VPN (PPTP) server. A PC behind the same router had no problems connecting (naturally the right option has to be on on the router for either platform to work).Luckily there is still a version 1.44.2z available on the website which dates back to 2002. By reinstalling the older firmware I am now able to create VPN tunnels without problems.
This quirk may only affect earlier models of the BEFSR41, as the latest version of this product (v3) has a different firmware upgrade path.
VPN Tracker 2.2 adds new connection status info. September 26, 2003 -- Equinux released VPN Tracker 2.2 (US $90 and up, free upgrade from 2.0), a new version of the IPSec virtual private network software for Mac OS X. The new version adds a detailed connection indicator in the main window of VPN Tracker. VPN Tracker's dock icon now indicates the connection status of IPsec.
AppleK Pro lets you use Apple's keyboard with Windows. September 26, 2003 -- Masaki Kouda (in Yokohama) has created an Apple Keyboard Driver for Windows called AppleK Pro. The software is a kernel-level driver, and lets you use Mac-specific keys on Windows, including the Media keys, the power key, as well as screen shot, force quit, task switching - all of them work just as you are used to.
Updated KMremoteControl for OS X. September 26, 2003 -- Derman Enterprises released KMremoteControl 1.20 (US $20, free update), a new version of a cross-platform program that lets you use one keyboard/mouse to operate multiple PCs and Macs, without a KVM switch. The new version adds several new features, including:
Apple yanks 10.2.8 Update: Ethernet bugs, kernel panics. September 24, 2003 -- Yesterday, Apple pulled the Mac OS X 10.2.8 update off of it's web site with the explanation ""This update is temporarily unavailable." The update is also no longer available from Software Update.
Yesterday, MacFixIt and MacInTouch were reporting problems with Ethernet networking, as well as a number of other incompatibilities and problems. Yesterday, we reported reader problems with PowerPoint. We at MacWindows have seen several kernel panics in the Finder on a Power Mac G4 since the update.
icWord 3.0 opens PowerPoint files; icExcel 2.0 adds XML. September 24, 2003 -- Panergy Ltd. has released icWord 3.0 and icExcel 2.0, new versions of the inexpensive Mac utilities that let users open, export, and print Word and Excel files without having Microsoft Office.
The major new feature of icWord 3.0 is ability to open and view PowerPoint presentations. It also improves opening and saving capabilities with AppleWorks files, gives more conversion options, and can now open and save NisusWriter files. icWord 3.0 has a number of other improvements including the way it handles RTF documents, font substitution, and large tables.
icExcel version 2.0 adds the ability to show and save spreadsheets in Excel XML format. It can display Excel text boxes, works better with AppleWorks files, and includes other functional improvements.
More on USB problems with VPC 6 and USB. September 24, 2003 -- Jeff Franklin is another user reporting problems with Virtual PC 6 and USB:
I too have experienced the non-USB functionality of VPC 6. The ONLY thing I use VPC for is running a tiny little DOS app that brings edit lists into my Quantel Edit Box (a somewhat bizarre online editing system made in England and completely proprietary-hardware, OS and software all made by Quantel).This DOS app connects the iMac to the Edit Box via RS-232. I use a Belkin RS-232 to USB converter and then USB into the iMac running OS X and VPC 5 or 6. I have both because 6 won't make the USB connection, 5 will. VPC 6 seems to know there is a USB device there, I can select it and it does seem to stay selected. However, the USB activity light never blinks when Windows launches. Of course 5 runs a slow as a turtle, but it does work. I was thinking about updating to 6.1 but if as I have read here it does not fix USB then I guess I'll keep using 5. The company did pay for 6, too bad it is useless to us.
Of course I had none of these problems when I was using VPC 3 on OS 9...
Reader problem with Macs and Win 2003 File Server. September 24, 2003 -- Brad Murray can't get his Mac OS 9 or X clients to work with Windows 2000 Server:
We still can't get any Mac clients to talk to our new Windows 2003 file server even after disabling this policy everywhere we could find it. Mac OS X 10.2.6 returns a SMB -5000 error, OS 9 just says the authentication method required by this server isn't available.
Thoughts? Please let us know.
Invisible Quark files on W2000 server. September 24, 2003 -- Bart Scholten is another user having the invisible Quark file problem on Windows 2000 Server.
We are a publishing company with a W2000 SP3 file server connected to a SAN solution. Recently we have also seen the problem of invisible Quark files and thanks to your site, we were able to resolve the issue quickly by moving the file to root and back into the folder again.We are planning a SP4 upgrade to try to resolve some other issues, which we have also seen, like file corruption and randomly locked files.
Another Mac permissions problems with Win Servers. September 24, 2003 -- Jay Christianson reports another permissions problem with Windows servers and Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. (We've had other reports of permissions issues, which you can read on our Windows 2000 Server Reports page.)
In building some student storage space at our university we found an interesting little problem between the Macs and their Windows storage servers. The students mount a master share on the server, and then traverse to their personal folder. Within that personal folder are two more folders: one for their web site, one for storing private, non-web materials.These two folders' permissions are set so that the folder, subfolders, and files give the student modify permissions so they can read and write at will in the folders. The folders are also marked at the "this folder only" level, to deny delete, write attributes, write extended attributes, take ownership and change permissions. This is to prevent them from removing the actual root folders from the server.
So, from PC's connecting to the servers, everything works like a charm, students can read, write, delete, or whatever within the root levels of their web and private folders. Macs, on the other hand, see the folders as read only.
In playing with the deny settings at the "this folder only" level, we found that denying any of these three items - write attribute, write extended attribute, or delete, will cause this problem for the Macs. (We've done tests and know that this affects at least Win2K and Win 2003 servers).
If a student logs into a PC, creates a subfolder within the web or private folder, they can then read, write, delete etc. within that subfolder from a Mac.
So, we're trying to figure out why the Macs (both 9 and X) can not understand the folder vs inside-the-folder permissions while the PC's can.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
Mac OS X 10.2.8 update adds USB 2.0 support. September 23, 2003 -- Apple released Mac OS X 10.2.8 update for most Macs except the Power Mac G5. (It's also available through the Software Update utility.) Among the enhancements are support for USB 2.0 devices, "including PCI and PC cards for computers that do not include USB 2.0 hardware." The Software Update utility listed LDAP as having "enhanced functionality and improved reliability," but the Knowledge Base article did not mention LDAP.
There was no mention of any of the cross-platform problems with file sharing reported on our Jaguar Reports page. If you notice that this upgrade fixes a cross-platform problem, or creates a new one, please let us know.
Reader problems with PowerPoint 10.1.5, OS X 10.2.8 and earlier. September 23, 2003 -- We've had a few more reports of problems with PowerPoint since the Microsoft Office 10.1.5 update.
David Petrou reports of a problem with PowerPoint 10.1.5 that began when he installed the Mac OS X 10.2.8 update:
PowerPoint crashes for me on Mac OS X 10.2.8. PowerPoint worked for me before upgrading to 10.2.8. I've tried reinstalling Office for X to no avail. I have tried applying all the Office patches up to 10.1.5 (the latest) one by one to no avail.I can open PowerPoint if I double click on a PowerPoint presentation. PowerPoint fails to open for me if I try to start the application itself.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
A reader named Burkhart reports has a similar problem:
Office v.X running at 10.1.3. Installed 10.1.4 and 10.1.5 then installed each. Now Excel and Power Point Crash after the splash screen. You can see the Excel and Power Point menus briefly before it crashes. I've tried:
- Rebooting
- First Aid to repair permissions
- Unchecking the "gallery" option in Word
- Reinstalling 10.1.5
Still doesn't fix it.
Previous discussions are on our Entourage report page.
Reader gets Entourage X.1.5 to work with Exchange 5.5 SP4. September 23, 2003 -- Michael Backlund told us that he is running the Entourage X 10.1.5 client with Exchange Server 5.5, at least for email. Microsoft says that the client requires Exchange Server 2002 SP2 or later, and a reader previously said that he could not send email to Exchange Server 5.5. Backlund says he can send mail:
Went to your page last night and saw a report that said Entourage X 10.1.5 won't work with Exchange 5.5 ... I am composing this email with just that configuration. I have applied Service Pack 4 to my Exchange Server and I have updated Entourage to version 10.1.5 so the user who posted the incompatibility may wish to try applying the patch to his Exchange server.
Backlund didn't mention if he can use any calendar functions.
Fix for OS 9 clients authentication problem Win 2003 Server. September 23, 2003 -- A pair of readers responded to our report of a problem with OS 9 and Windows 2003 Server. Guenther Alka:
There is a simple solution. Go to computer management and right click on shared folders. Now you can setup Service for Macintosh file services. Choose Apple unencrypted authentication instead of Microsoft UAM.Now you can login from each OS 9 computer without any problems at a reduced security level.
Ernie Franic had a more generic suggestion:
Did Eric Garneau have the Microsoft UAM software installed on his Mac OS 9 machine? Seems like a good place to start troubleshooting.
If you've tried this fix, please let us know.
Microsoft VPC support page is up. September 23, 2003 -- We noticed that Microsoft has a Virtual PC Support page up and running. The page has links to articles on top issues and step-by-step instructions, and includes a search field for Microsoft Knowledge Base articles.
VPC 6--NT is fast, but has sound problems. September 23, 2003 -- A reader identifying himself as JR. reports improving Virtual PC 6 performance with Windows NT running, but has some problems with sound:
I have been using VPC 3, 5 and 6. On G4 - 466 892 meg ram and have found that VPC 3 under OS 9 much faster than VPC 5-6 under OS X. VPC 5-6 under OS X has been slower that VPC 3 but bearable for opening and doing basic work i.e ACCESS WORD and even Visual Basic 6 etc.Also I found a solution to my slow VPC speed under OS X. By loading Windows NT 4 Work Station and the Service Pack 6, speed increased dramatically. Programs run almost as fast if not faster than my sisters Compaq 266MHz. I have loaded all MS office VB 6 and others on NT and to date no problem. Windows open and programs execute at a very good (very acceptable) rate. In addition web browsing is much much faster. Faster load rate that under Windows 98 with VPC. Almost as fast as surfing under native OS X Safari.
I just have one problem and maybe you might be able to direct me. Under Windows NT, I cannot get Sound from movies or programs that provide sound or sound files. This is only under NT. I only get the basic NT sound (buzzer sound). Iget a message that states no sound card. Under Windows 98 sound is ok. Is there a generic sound card file or setting that may resolve this?
If you've seen this, please let us know.
Open source Cisco configuration manager runs on Mac OS X. September 23, 2003 -- Mark Duling has posted directions on how to get a Cicco configuration tool running on Mac OS X:
There is an open source program for keeping Cisco switch and router configurations automatically backed up called RANCID (Really Awesome New Cisco confIg Differ). It isn't new but I recently discovered it and found it works well and I just finished a HOWTO for installing it on OS X if anyone is interested. I don't guarantee it to be error free of course.
Aladdin Ships StuffIt 8.0 adds CD/DVD backup, new formats. September 23, 2003 -- Yesterday, Aladdin Systems begain shipping StuffIt Deluxe 8.0 (US $80, upgrade $30 until March 31 2004), a new Mac OS X version of the cross-platform compression utility. The biggest new feature is the Archive Assistant, which has the ability to schedule backups and to burn to CDs or DVDs. Archive Assistant can split a large backup archive across multiple CDs.
Other new features include:
Mac OS 9 clients authentication problem Win 2003 Server. September 15, 2003 -- Eric Garneau reports a problem and a solution with Mac OS 9 and Windows 2003 server, which he says has to do with authentication:
Here is a problem related by a friend with Mac OS 9.2.2 computers trying to access Windows 2003 Server file servers. Through the Chooser and AppleShare they see the server volumes but they can't log on to them. With Mac OS X 10.2 there is no problem accessing the volumes.I suggested he try this solution I found with Google on Mac-forums.com.
I have FINALLY figured out what the hell is going on.There is an issue with XP, that requires all authentication to be digitally sealed, or encrypted. Samba does not yet support this "feature" as it is an Active Directory thing.
So what you need to do is go into the Local Policy for XP Pro, or the Domain Policy for Win 2003 Server (which is basically XP server), and change the policy named Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communications (always) to disabled. There is also one for server, I would disable that as well. You MUST reboot for the changes to take effect. Or you can stop and start some services which isn't as reliable, to me.
Keep in mind this is reducing the security on your XP / Win 2003 machines ( if you have any ). So do this at your own risk..."
And it did work. Maybe someone can offer an explanation or alternative, confirm or deny this problem.
If you can confirm or deny, please let us know.
Creo Licenses ExtremeZ-IP for it's prepress systems. September 15, 2003 --Creo, the largest supplier of prepress equipment and software, will be including Group Logic's ExtremeZ-IP with some of its products. Group Logic announced last week that that Creo had licensed ExtremeZ-IP for inclusion in its products. ExtremeZ-IP is a file sharing and print server replacement for Microsoft's Services for Macintosh.
Reader USB printer problem with VPC 6. September 15, 2003 -- Charles Frean reports a printing problem he is having with Virtual PC 6:
I am having trouble printing from VPC 6.0.2 to my USB Epson printer under OS X 10.2.6 on a G4 Dual 1 GHz with 1 GB memory. The problem is that, while small files print fine, any file that is more complex than a page of text or a small graphic hangs up after about 15 seconds; printing stops, followed by several seconds of nothing, then an error message appears stating that the printer has timed out or is no longer connected (or words to that effect). It seems as if VPC loses connection to the printer after sending one or two salvos of data to the printer. Is there anything I can do?
If you have a suggestion, please let us know.
USB smartcard reader doesn't work with and Virtual PC. September 15, 2003 -- Responding to last week's reports about Virtual PC 6 and USB, Troy May relates another problem:
Just saw the VPC article regarding USB devices. I have one friend whose bank requires that he use a USB smartcard reader. We've tried configuring this thing over and over again in VPC 6.1 (Windows 98) but it simply fails to stay selected in the VPC settings panel and is not visible to Win 98.We set the smartcard reader up on a PC no problems at all as we thought it might have been a driver thing.
He was a very recent switcher from PC to Mac, bought a 15 inch PowerBook 800. Now he's forced to switch back in less than a week as he absolutely must be able to connect to his Citibank account to conduct business.
Suggestions for Office 10.1.5 reader problem. September 15, 2003 -- Several readers offered suggestions for last week's reports of problems with the Office 10.1.5 update.
Dave Gifford thinks it's an old problem related to the Project Gallery:
I recently had problems with Excel and PowerPoint crashing at startup. Word would startup without a problem. After removing all Microsoft preference files I still had the same problem. I then remembered the original version of Office v.X had problems with excel and PowerPoint crashing on startup if the project gallery was set to launch at application startup. So I launched Word (project gallery launched) and I unchecked the "show project gallery at startup" box at the bottom of project gallery. Excel and PowerPoint now launch without any problems. Some bugs just refuse to stay dead.
Joseph Bruni suggests logging in as a different user:
At any rate, reinstalling OS X to fix a broken MS app seems a bit extreme. To make sure that it isn't a preference thing, try logging in as a different user.Also, if the user has the crash reporter enabled, the crash logs might give a clue as to what is happening.
John Lockwood, however, does attribute the problem to the update, and did have to reinstall OS X:
I experienced the same problem on one machine (others were okay) immediately after applying 10.1.4 update to a 10.1.3 copy of Office. Only Word would launch.I 'fixed' it by putting a fresh copy of 10.1 on and updating it to 10.1.3. However I then found I could not successfully run the 10.1.4 updater (under any user account). I got round that for the moment by copying a 10.1.4 already installed and updated from another machine. I now find that on this particular machine I can't run the 10.1.5 updater (same error as before).
I intend to wipe and rebuild the machine completely (waiting for a new PowerBook before doing it as I will copy my files to the new machine).
I have a suspicion that it is do with a) which user account did the original Office install, b) which user account you try running the updater from. In theory as long as you authenticate the updater with an Administrator level account it should not matter. I would therefore advise using the same account to run the update as you originally installed with.
MacInfoTip 1.0.4 displays Mac info in Win Explorer. September 15, 2003 -- Soft Experience has released MacInfoTip 1.0.4, an update to the free shell extension to Windows 2000 or Windows XP that enables the Windows Explorer tooltips to display Mac information. (Tooltips are yellow balloons that pop up over a file.) MacInfoTip can reveal a file's Mac type and creator codes and Data and resource fork sizes.
The new version adds a feature that suggests a filename extension that you can add to the filename. It also now works for files managed by MacServerIP. Previous versions support Mac files stored on NTFS volumes managed by Microsoft Services for Macintosh and ExtremeZ-IP.
Correction: Garmin PDA is a Palm device. September 15, 2003 --Caleb Clauset sent us a correction about the Garmin iQue 3600 handheld device:
The Garmin iQue 3600 is Palm-based, not Pocket PC. Also note that while it allows you to HotSync with Mac OS X, it doesn't add support for the map generation software which is Windows only (but should run within VPC).
Missing Sync for Garmin (US $30) adds some Mac integration features.
Suggestion for to VPC 6 and USB problem. September 11, 2003 -- A pair of readers responded to a problem we reported earlier this week concerning an Agfa digital camera not working with Virtual PC:
A reader who didn't give his name offered this suggestion:
Without knowing details, I'm betting the problem he's running into is that the device in question will appear in the USB settings panel, but the moment he closes it to make use of the device within Windows, the device 'unselects'.I've seen this behavior with a number of devices and it seems to have started somewhere in the Mac OS X 10.2.3 timeframe. Microsoft should fix this, but my guess is that this is actually a result of an Apple bug. Reverting to earlier versions of OS X, or back to classic certainly helps.
PC only digital camera? I didn't know there was such a thing.
We didn't either, but Richard Siegel mentions another PC only USB device that doesn't work in Virtual PC:
We use Sony Digital Voice Recorders with Memory Stick media, software for which is only available for Windows. Their software works fine in VPC 6.1 and Windows XP: Pro, but when the recorder is connected to the Mac, Windows fails to recognize that "new hardware" has been attached. The device mounts fine on the Mac desktop, but that's it. After spending an hour with MS support, the MS guys concluded that VPC 6.1 just doesn't offer very much USB support.
One more Office 10.1.5 reader problem. September 11, 2003 -- A reader named Dorian describes another problem with the recent Office X 10.1.5 update:
On a PowerBook 400 Ti, after going thru all the updaters, nothing but Word will launch. I had tried trashing all of MS's prefs and the problem persisted, I just tried your suggestion, which actually I had done by trashing the entire MS folder in the prefs, and the same results. Excel actually booted originally, but stopped as well.Today I trashed the com.apple.LaunchServices.plist as well as, LSApplications, LSClamedTypes, and LSSchemes. It did not work. I will have to reinstall Office and if that doesn't work, I will have to reinstall OS X.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
Missing Sync for Garmin connects iQue 3600 to Macs. September 11, 2003 -- Mark/Space, Inc., announced Missing Sync for Garmin (US $30), a version of the company's handheld-to-Mac syncing software that works with the Garmin iQue 3600 handheld, a Palm device. (Mark/Space has versions for four other PocketPC devices.)
The Mac OS X software enables syncing with Macs and well as other integration features, including:
Iogear mini-USB KVM switch shares keyboard, monitor w/Mac, PC. September 11, 2003 -- Iogear released the MiniView Micro (US $60), a USB KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch that allows multiple Macs and PCs to share a single PS/2 keyboard, monitor, and PS/2 mouse. The unit measures only 2.5" x 2.25" x 0.875" and weighs 0.75 lbs.
Office 10.1.5 problem and a fix; LDAP still broken. September 8, 2003 -- We have two reports on the Microsoft Office X Update 10.1.5, released last week. Paul Reading had a problem, but Microsoft Support directed him to the fix:
I installed the 10.1.5 upgrade and Word, PowerPoint and Excel all refused to start, Entourage was okay. The all froze during the splash-screen display of loading modules. I called MS Support and together we trashed the "Carbon Registration" preference in the user Library/ Preferences/Microsoft directory. That solved the problem.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
John Lockwood reports that the new update did not fix a previously reported problem with LDAP:
The recent 10.1.5 update did not restore the ability to search LDAP version 2 servers (i.e. you still cannot, whereas 10.1.3 and earlier could).Indeed after installing the Office v.X 10.1.5 update the Entourage application remains unchanged at version 10.1.4 so this is not surpassing.
VPC problem with USB in Mac OS X. September 8, 2003 -- Paul Keeble reports a problem with Virtual PC 6 and USB that only occurs with Mac OS X:
My daughter has a PC-only USB Agfa Digital Camera that we use VPC to download photos from. Try as I might I could not get VPC6 in X to recognise that camera. I got a detailed 'how to' from Connectix involving reinstalling VPC and Win 98 and a very precise order of installing the camera software and plugging it in... which didn't work (interestingly when I emailed back and told them so, the response was more or less: "Er, we know..."). In the end I booted up in OS 9, ran VPC from there and the camera worked fine first time... and faster. So I'm back to booting into OS 9... There is an issue with VPC6 and OS X's implementation of USB - admitted by Connectix Tech Support.When Microsoft took over Virtual PC and released 6.1 I hoped at least the USB issue would be addressed, but it hasn't. Anyone had a similar experience, or, better still, found a way to fix it?
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
FileMaker releases two business apps. September 8, 2003 --FileMaker announced two FileMaker Applications, ready-to-use business applications for Mac and Windows based on the company's cross platform FileMaker database software. FileMaker Recruiter (US $299) is geared toward recruitment functions, helping to network building, getting an introduction, the communication flow, and making the placement. FileMaker Meetings (US $49)
(See also this press release.)
KMremoteControl for using one keyboard on all Macs, PCs. September 8, 2003 -- Derman Enterprises announced KMremoteControl 1.0 (US $16) PCs and Macs on your desk, without having to buy a KVM switch. KMremoteControl works with Windows 2000/XP and Mac OS X 10.2 and newer.
Microsoft updates Office/Entourage 10.1.5 for "stability issues." September 4, 2003 -- Yesterday, Microsoft released the Microsoft Office v. X 10.1.5 Update, which the company says "addresses several stability issues with PowerPoint®, Excel, and Visual Basic for Applications for Office v. X." Last month, Microsoft released the 10.1.4 update, which added some Exchange client features. However, many readers reported problems with many of the Office applications after updating (see the MacWindows Entourage for Exchange Server report page).
If you find that the 10.1.5 update fixes some of these problems, please let us know.
Technical resource for Entourage X for Exchange. September 4, 2003 -- Evan Williams sent us a link to an FAQ about Entourage that might help people get their Entourage 10.1.4 or later working with an Exchange server. He also describes how he fixed his problem:
Well it took a little time but I finally got all of the Entourage pieces to work. I found most of my answers on the MS newsgroups, here is a great document to troubleshoot with.My final problem was accessing the Free/Busy server. I was already using the "server-ip/public/" setup but it would still fail when trying to see someone else's schedule. It turns out that if the Exchange server is using SSL on this "/public/" (can find this under the IIS control snap-in) directory that Entourage cannot read it--turning off SSL just for this directory fixed my problems...the above link has all the info needed for this step.
Suggestions for Word Double clicking problem with Office 10.1.4. September 4, 2003 -- Adrian Fry
This sounds like a fairly common OS X install/upgrade problem - here are two tips which may solve this:1. Highlight a Word document in the Finder and Get Info for the file. In the 'Open With:' pop-up menu, re-select Microsoft Word as the application to open the file, and click on 'change all...'. The Finder may have forgot where MS Word is !
2. Repair the Disk Permissions using Apple's Disk Utility - I do this after every install or update.
NTFS support for Mac OS X. September 4, 2003 -- Jeff Hogan describes NT Filesystem for Mac OS X, a free utility that enables Mac OS X to use Microsoft's NTFS disk file system. This is the first time that NTFS has been supported on a Mac. Hogan describes the utility:
NT Filesystem (now at 1.0d2) is an implementation of the NT filesystem (NTFS) for Mac OS X. Currently it only supports read only access (can't write to the drive), and does not support compression or encryption.However this is good news as this has never been available before. For example, if you have a FireWire drive formatted on Windows NT, 2000, or XP as NTFS, you can now simply plug that drive into your Mac and access the files (just like you currently can do with FAT and FAT32 formatted drives).
I've been waiting for someone to pull this off since I was running OS 9, since I have a 120 GB drive formatted as NTFS that would be so convenient to share between my Mac and PC simply by plugging it in to either machine. Granted, you can access NTFS drives by setting it up on a network, but that is slow and a pain in the neck!
Of interest, is that this nice, free utility was created by Brian Bergstrand, who appears to have been the lead Software Engineer at Prosoft that created the NetWare for OS X client. He has also created a Linux EXT2 filesystem driver for OS X, and made minor contributions to such noteworthy efforts as the Fire Instant messaging client, and the Darwin kernel. Great work Brian! (I do not have any connection to Brian Bergstand. Just acknowledging his excellent contributions to the Mac community)
More on MS IAS Proxy server; browsers that work. September 4, 2003 -- Several readers wrote to comment on the problem of Safari and other Mac OS X browsers being unable to connect to secure web sites through Microsoft's proxy server running on a Windows IAS server. A few people found other browsers that did work. John Olson said Netscape 7 works:
Similar to Muthir Kharusi, I also cannot browse https sites through an IAS proxy server. However, if I switch to Netscape 7, no problem. In Netscape you configure the proxies in Netscape's Preferences. It doesn't use the Network System Preferences settings.
Glenn Cole is now the second reader to say that OmniWeb (from the Omni Group) does not have the problem:
Overall, I am VERY happy with Safari, but I have been wholly unsuccessful in connecting with it to a secure site from behind the corporate firewall. Chimera (Camino) has this problem as well. OmniWeb, however, works fine.Unlike IE, though, OmniWeb does not have its own proxy settings, so I assume it's using the same values that Safari should be, set in the Network control panel.
Previously, I was also unable to access a web site on the machine as 'localhost', but a solution was posted to MacOSXHints.com.
Another reader said that this problem is fixed in the prerelease builds of Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther), scheduled for an autumn release:
The Panther builds I have seen have fixed several of the Safari/HTTPS issues. I'm not sure about QuickTime or Mail issues, though.
Peter Murphy describes and issue with e-mail:
This issue has cropped up in a number of forums. My experience is with a Win2k network. Browsing of https sites is possible with IE with proxies set manually and with Camino which relies upon the network pane settings transparently. Safari can browse https sites from the same domain as the proxy server but not from subnets. Some browsers need a program called "Authoxy" to get through proxies that require authentication. None of the browsers I have tried can download java apps through the proxy. This restricts my access to my bank. Mail.app will not send or receive - unless it is set to log into the Exchange Server on the network and relay through that server - which is how I am sending this email.
Danny Butt also describes problems with email:
Just a note to say that I've been trying to get answers on this issue for months. We run Novell Border Manager and cannot access secure sites on Safari, or use Mail. IE and Netscape work fine.My main concern is that I can tunnel POP3 access through the proxy server using Entourage (adjust the settings in Mail and News preferences), but can't do this using Mail. I'd like to use Mail/iCal/Address Book rather than Entourage but can't until it can use the proxy.
These issues are long-documented on Apple's forums and I'm not sure I understand why they aren't being addressed.
William Howard says that Squidman helps:
Some of the problems we've had here relate to using OS X in an environment where an authenticated proxy mediates all network access to the outside world, as at my university. For that situation the free Squidman (available on Version Tracker) runs on the Mac and fixes the problem, EXCEPT for https requests from Safari (don't know about Camino).https works fine on Safari from my home dail-in ISP, which does not use an authenticated proxy.
CrossIPTC exchanges image metadata between Win and Mac. September 4, 2003 --Soft Experience has released CrossIPTC (US $130$, Special $65 price until end of October), a new a cross-platform conversion tool for exchange digital images between Windows and Macs. CrossIPTC runs on Windows PCs. The utility exchanges IPTC metadata using extended characters. Soft Experience describes it like this:
CrossIPTC enables automatic stock photography conversion during migration from one platform to another executing a mass repair on IPTC File Info fields added to JPEG or TIFF pictures: it translates Macintosh accents to Windows accents or Windows accents to Macintosh characters.With CrossIPTC, publishing organizations, photographers and Ad agencies easily convert IPTC-NAA fields of JPEG/TIFF pictures to the appropriate target environments.
CrossIPTC works with all standard IPTC fields and with customized (nonstandard) fields. The program allows also to display IPTC metadata information for each image and a copy of whole IPTC data set to clipboard.
Extended characters are used extensively in European languages, such as French, German, Portuguese and Spanish texts.
New MacWindows Entourage X page. September 2, 2003 -- We created a new Entourage for Exchange Server special report page. It includes information and links about Office/Entourage X v10.1.4, and most of our coverage from the past month. The reports are organized by topic:
Another instance of Office 10.1.4 problems. September 2, 2003 -- Bart Scholten has seen the Word double-clicking problem caused by the Office 10.1.4 update.
On my MacOS X 10.2.6 with Office 10.1.4 I now also have the problem that Word files don't open on double-click, but open normal through the File menu.I did not have the problem before I upgraded Office to 10.1.4, but I also upgraded Virtual PC to version 6.1. Ever since these updates I have a more unstable system (lock-ups and crashes) and the Word file problem.
Microsoft delays Longhorn, next version of Windows. September 2, 2003 -- eWeek reports that Microsoft has delayed the introduction of "Longhorn," the next major version of Windows, possibly until after 2005.
Win XP client log on problem to Mac OS X server. September 2, 2003 --Brad Kaplan is having a problem with Windows XP clients logging onto a Mac OS X Server, a problem that does not occur with older versions of Windows:
I am running a MacOS X server (10.6) in a school. I have 60 Windows clients (50 Windows XP and 10 Windows 95 or 98). I have a mapped drive on each user's computer. The Windows 95-98 machines work flawlessly, BUT the XP machines take a couple of seconds, up to a minute after double clicking on the mapped drive.This is obviously a Windows XP issue because it only happens on those computers. After open/accessing the mapped drive the next several times accessing it no problems, BUT if I leave it and do not access the mapped drive for a while the delay is returned. It appears to be an authentication issue.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
Active Directory authentication problem and fix with VPC. September 2, 2003 -- Bart Scholten describes a problem he had with authenticating to Microsoft Active Directory from Virtual PC on a Mac. He also sent us his fix:
We are a publisher with a mixed environment of Macs and PC's. Authentication and file serving is done by W2000 servers. Some users are using Mac OS X, but the majority is still on Mac OS 9 because of Quark XPress.Some users use Virtual PC to access a PC-only application and some users use both Mac and PC.
A problem arose when a Mac user was trying to authenticate in the Active Directory in Virtual PC. The same user could successfully login to mail and file serving using the same AD account. Windows users could successfully authenticate on the Mac using Virtual PC, just not the Mac users.
The solution was to have the Mac users authenticate on a PC (in this case a NT4 workstation), creating a valid profile. After that authentication in Virtual PC on the Mac worked as it should.
There were no records of this Active Directory error to be found in Microsoft's database.
If you can verify this fix, please let us know.
VPN Tracker 2.1.1 fixes Check Point and NetScreen issues. September 2, 2003 -- Equinux released VPN Tracker 2.1.1, a maintenance update of the IPSec virtual private network client for Mac OS X. The new version fixes some problems that prevented connections with Check Point and NetScreen devices.
Mouse keyboard sharing with OS X and Linux. August 28, 2003 -- Jeff Burdges describes an open source program called osx2x, a program that lets you used Mac OS X to remotely control a Unix system running and X Window server. His goal is to share several monitors between a PowerBook and a Linux desktop PC, so that you could slide the mouse across all three monitors and the keystrokes would go to the relevant places. He hasn't quite found it.
osx2x is a small Mac OS X application that lets you control an X Windows server using your Mac's mouse and keyboard. So if you happen to have a Mac and an X Windows machine on your desk you only need to use a single keyboard and mouse.There's another program, x2vnc, that allows you to have X pass its mouse and keyboard events to a VNC server when the mouse "appears to be off the left/right/etc. side of the screen."
The program x2x allows you to do the same thing with two X windows systems (an X windows VNC server is a funky beast).
... It would obviously be preferable to use x2x as Mac users often leave X11.app running 24/7 anyway and no one usually runs a VNC server on a desktop while they are sitting there... Any VNC server can relay keyboard and mouse events, but X11.app needs to support some less well used pieces of the protocol to reproduce these things.
Both x2x and xc2vnc "work" to link a PowerBook with a Linux desktop, but x2x does not work well, as it only allows the manipulation of X11.app windows. x2x does handle the cut and paste buffer correctly however, so it should be the recommended solution for those who only ever run X11 software on their Mac. Now x2vnc + OSXvnc works as expected, but vnc based mouse movements can feel sluggish at times and vnc does not handle the cut and paste buffer correctly. Win2VNC + OSXvnc would provide the same solution to users whose primary desktop is a Windows machine.
There are two other relevant pieces of software: First, there is an osx2x program that would work for users whose desktop is running OS X. There is no way to use two Mac OS X systems side-by-side, unless the second one only runs X11 applications. Second, there is a program called Synergy which allows linking of more then two Unix or Windows systems and handles the cut and paste buffer correctly. Sadly, there is no Mac OS X / Cocoa port of Synergy, so it would have all that same difficulties as x2x. A Mac OS X / Cocoa port of Synergy would be the optimal solution to all these problems.
If you have any comments on this, drop us a line.
Virtual PC 6 doesn't run on G5; FWB discontinues Real PC. August 28, 2003 -- Microsoft says that Virtual PC does not run on Apple's new Power Mac G5, according to eWeek. The story says that Microsoft plans to include G5 support in the next version of the PC emulator.
Meanwhile, FWB announced yesterday that it was discontinuing Real PC, a PC emulator for Mac OS 8/9 that it had once acquired from Insignia Solutions, but had never developed for Mac OS X.
LDAP problem in Entourage explored. August 28, 2003 -- Responding to our report earlier this week of an LDAP problem with the Entourage Exchange client, Paul Bielski reports having seen a similar problem:
I have a similar situation to what John Lockwood is reporting. It appears that if Exchange support is enabled, Entourage always attempts to authenticate to the Exchange LDAP server even if it does not require authentication. I have set up a separate non-authenticated LDAP entry for our Exchange server in Entourage, and I can successfully search the global list through that Directory Services entry (in Tools->Directory Services).The really bad part is that using "Check names" when addressing a message apparently always checks the LDAP server defined by the Exchange support, yielding the error message "Directory server denied access." The "Check names" function will properly work if Exchange support is disabled, since the second non-authenticated LDAP server entry does work. Unfortunately, there is no way to disable the LDAP lookup associated with the Exchange support without disabling all of the Exchange support.
Evan Williams says he has the same problem as Jeff Weitzman reported with Entourage earlier this week:
I emailed you guys shortly after the release of the Exchange update for Entourage and have had some progress. Mail, Calendar, and Contacts now work okay (I had some SSL settings wrong) but checking Free/Busy meeting data still fails along with pulling email addresses from the GAL. It's the same problem as Jeff--when I type in a user that's in the GAL it will simply transplant the user's full name in front of our domain ending (i.e. - selecting Evan Williams from the GAL comes up with the email address EvanWilliams@domain.com, while it should be ewilliams@domain.com).I'm wondering if the GAL email address problem is related to the Free/Busy server not working correctly? I'm using the recommended settings for the Free/Busy server (servername-ip/public/) and that seems to fix it for most people. Maybe when trying to receive the Free/Busy data for someone it looks up the wrong username (EvanWilliams instead of ewilliams) just like when using the GAL?
Help for problems with Outlook Web Access with IE 5.2. August 28, 2003 -- John Parnaby comments that the reports of problems with Outlook Web Access may not all have the same cause, but he does have a suggestion:
I think the problems described for Outlook Web Access (OWA) aren't necessarily all the same problem, but I think we can shed some light on the issue relating to specific user accounts.It has to do with authentication by IIS which is serving the OWA web pages. Dan Merriott here has tested it in IIS5 and IIS4: When an Active Directory account has 'password does not expire' set, IIS ignores this and continues to check when the password actually expired. If, according to the password age the password has expired (eg max password age = 30 days and the password was changed > 30 days ago) then IIS disallows access.
The effect is that you can login to Exchange via the Outlook client, but using OWA will give you access denied. The way to check that this is the issue affecting OWA for you, is to reset, or change, the user's password (and make sure the change has replicated to all the DCs that Exchange might query).
More on no double-clickable Word files. August 28, 2003 -- Two more readers responded to our previous reports of Word files failing to open with a double click after installing the Microsoft Office 10.1.4 update. Gary Smith has seen the problem:
Hi, just adding my experiences that are similar to the described Word files not being double-clickable.About a month ago I had the exact same thing affect anything I double-clicked in my OS X Finder on a new 12" PowerBook. It seemed to coincide with the installation of Acrobat 6 Professional. I booted from my install DVD and Repaired Permissions and ran Repair Disk. I ran MacJanitor and Cocktail. Nothing would work.
I tried to see what I could find at Apple's Forums, but they went down that day, and as it turns out for about twelve days. Searches at MacFixit yielded nothing. The problem persisted and I was chomping at the bit for Apple's Forums to come back on-line. Well, the day Apple's forums came back on-line the problem fixed itself.
Since then I had this problem with another Mac. I was successful running Apple's Disk First Aid Repair Permissions, Repair Disk, and DiskWarrior. I didn't have DiskWarrior when my Mac was acting up, but it had arrived by the time the second Mac had this problem. Perhaps that is the element that repaired the problem on the second Mac.
Andrew Cunningham reports that the problem is not widespread:
I certainly do NOT see the problem with double-clicking word documents not opening on 10.2.6. The reader must have some other problems.
More on the mystery of invisible Quark files on Win 2000 Server August 28, 2003 -- Marc Juffkins has seen the problem of Quark files becoming invisible, reported here by several readers.
I have a client with this problem. If they search for the file they can find it but it is not listed in the folder structure. These are random events and it is not all Quark files but I don't know how many it affects or why it happens.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
Citrix iForum 2003 to be held in Orlando. August 28, 2003 -- Citrix announced that the 6th annual Citrix Business nad Technology Forum, Citrix iForum 2003, will be held on October 13 - 16 in Orlando, Florida. The event offers demonstrations, exhibits, and access to Citrix engineers. Citrix will describe its Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite.
Office X 10.1.4 update breaks LDAP in Entourage? August 25, 2003 -- A pair of readers have report problems with the recent Entourage 10.1.4 update and LDAP. John Lockwood thinks there was a change:
It looks like Microsoft has made a major change to LDAP support in Entourage with the recent 10.1.4 update to Microsoft Office X.I can now no longer access the LDAP server I used to be able to from within Entourage but CAN from Apple Mail (on the same computer). Note: the previous versions of Entourage X also worked (with exactly the same settings).
These and other tests lead me to conclude that Entourage 10.1.4 now only supports LDAP version 3 servers and not LDAP version 2.
Unfortunately, the LDAP server I am currently using is only version 2 and Entourage does not give any option to configure which version it should use (some other LDAP utilities e.g. LDapper can do both).
As far as I can see Microsoft have NOT documented this change!!!
While I can see why version 3 support has been added to Entourage (to better support Exchange servers) it is inexcusable for them to remove version 2 support especially without telling people!
Jeff Weitzman sees another symptom of "broken" LDAP:
So far I've not had many problems with the Exchange for Entourage update (other than being disappointed that the Mail protocol is still only cumbersome IMAP), but one thing is weird: The email addresses of employees in our LDAP server come through wrong. For example, an entry for Bob Jones with email address bjones@coupons.com is often inserted into the To: field as BobJones@coupons.com. We're using Exchange 2000.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
Proxy server issues for browsing in OS X. August 25, 2003 -- Muthir Kharusi reports a variation on the problem of Mac OS X getting through a Windows proxy server:
I have the same problem, but a bit different from the user reporting. I can access secure sites using Internet explorer but I have to enter the proxy server settings in Internet Explorer in the Explorer>>Preferences menu.The problem also exists with email, however when I enter the settings in Microsoft Entourage's mail preferences I can receive email.
What I have problems with is that I cannot access email using Apple Mail through a proxy server, or access secure sites using Safari. Finally I can view QuickTime content from some sites, but not from the apple site through a proxy server using either Explorer or Safari. In OS 9 I could view the QuickTime content from any site through a proxy server.
These problems are a real headache, and make me worry when I see that MS is discontinuing the development of Explorer as 90 percent of my web surfing is through a proxy server.
If you've seen theses problems, please let us know.
Reader problem with Mac OS X and Active-FTP server. August 25, 2003 -- Eric Grégoire is having problems getting an FTP connection through a Windows server with Mac OS X, but doesn't see the problem with Mac OS 9:
I'm trying to login to our FTP server... which is set to Active mode by our ISP (Microsoft FTP Service Version 5.0).I am able to connect to it if I boot in Mac OS 9. But when I switch back to Mac OS X 10.2.6 and try to connect to the server all I get is "Retrieving list of files..." and it hangs there.
I tried different software to connect to it: Transmit, Fetch, NetFinder, the Terminal and even Connect to server from the Finder. Same result.
At first I thought it was our Router/Firewall. But it can't be that if I'm able to connect to it when booting Mac OS 9. Also, I can't connect to any Active-FTP server using the ClassicMode in OS X.
That problem only occurs with Active-FTP server -- everything is fine with Passive-FTP server (PASV). I'm connecting to the Internet via Ethernet.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
More on Outlook Web Access with IE 5.2. August 25, 2003 -- Craig Hesson adds to the discussion of problems with Outlook Web Access with IE 5.2:
My school district is experiencing the same problem as reported by Jay Craft on April 18, 2003. Some users are getting an "access denied" message when trying to use Outlook Web Access (on Exchange Server 2000). This is when they are using IE 5.2 under OS X. Using their same login credentials when booted in OS 9 or from IE 5 in Classic works fine. On the same Mac, you can log on with another user's logon credentials and get in fine. So it seems to be something strange with certain user accounts, that only causes a problem when logging in with IE 5.2 under Mac OS X.
Net_Clipper II shares clipboards with PCs. August 25, 2003 -- Net_Clipper II 1.0 from Script Software is a new cross-platform utility that can share clipboards containing graphics and formatted text between Macs and PCs over a network. When you open Net Clipper, you'll see the other Net Clipper II users on the network who are within 3 routers. Net Clipper also supports cross-platform chatting.
Two-year delay for Aqua version of OpenOffice. August 22, 2003 -- eWeek reports that OpenOffice.org is delaying by two years the projected release of the Aqua-native version of the open source office suite. OpenOffice currently runs in the X11 windowing environment on Mac OS X. A Mac OS X native version was originally scheduled for in early 2004, but has now been delayed to 2006, due to a lack of developers volunteering, according to eWeek.
Sobig virus flood may get worse before it subsides. August 22, 2003 -- If you've been getting flooded with hundreds of e-mail messages with subjects like "Re: Approved," "Thank you!" and "My details," you may not have yet seen the worse. CNN/Money reports that the message, caused by the Windows SoBig.F virus, may spike again next Monday, as users return from vacations and start using infected PC. The virus does not infect Macs, but Mac users still receive hundreds of the messages per day from infected Windows PCs. Windows machines become infected when users open the attachments, which have names such as "thank_you.pif" and "movie0045.pif."
Calling SoBig.F the worst mass-mailing computer virus ever, CNET reports that AOL alone has found 23 million copies of the Sobig.F virus during the past few days, and that it's daily email traffic has quadrupled. As with some previous viruses, Sobig sends itself to the address book of infected computers. It also uses false "From" fields, using addresses it finds in Microsoft Outlook address books. This causes users who are not infected (such as Mac users) to receive large volumes of automated email from email systems warning them that they have sent infected email.
Microsoft assumes sale and support of Virtual PC. August 22, 2003 -- The transition of Virtual PC sales and support from Connectix to Microsoft is now complete. Microsoft has different product web pages for Virtual PC for Mac , for Virtual PC for Windows, and for Virtual Server (not yet released).
More Office 10.1.4 problems and suggestions. August 21, 2003 -- We continue to receive reports of problems with Microsoft Office 10.1.4 update, as well as some suggestions. The main reason for the update was to add a WebDAV-based client for Exchange server in Entourage. However, the updated seems to have cause server problems in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. (See Monday's report.)
A reader (who did not give his name) reports this issue with Excel:
Copying from Excel and pasting in Mail.app causes both applications to hang with the spinning beach ball.
Richard Rodriguez is seeing a problem with PowerPoint quitting:
I too am having problems with PowerPoint. Although it doesn't lock up like some of the other readers describe, it unexpectedly quits on me. I haven't been able to duplicate the problem, but it seems to be similar to what others have described after choosing a background. A couple of times, the first background selection caused it to quit, while other times it quits after adding a new slide.One of the reasons I switched to Mac was because of so many problems with Windows, and MS Office for Windows. Now, I'm wishing that I hadn't bought Office for Mac.
Bruce Bowden confirms the previously reported problem of double-clicking Word files:
I was also having a problem with double-clicking on Word files. Nothing would happen except that Word became the active application. I had to go to Word's File menu to open the document. This only happened when Word was already running. If Word wasn't running double-clicking on a Word document always worked.This was happening before the office 10.1.4 update while running Mac OS 10.2.6. Since then I have had to reinstall my system and drop back to 10.2.4. Word has behaved itself since both before and after the Office 10.1.4 update, probably due to the system reinstall rather than particular system versions.
Xavier Jubier reports a problem with all Office apps:
Since I updated, when I try to quit any of the MS Office apps I get the spinning wheel. The only way to quit is to do a force quit!
If you've seen these problems with 10.1.4, please let us know.
Suggestions
Two readers had suggestions. Patrick Ellis has a general suggestion:
I count myself lucky that I have not experienced the crashes in Office following the application of the 10.1.4 update. I did, however, experience regular "the application has unexpectedly quit" errors with Office prior to updating. I ran fsck but no problems were reported. Reinstalling the package and trashing the personal preferences didn't help.That being said, my crashes were resolved after trashing the Microsoft User Data folder that resides inside the Documents folder of my home library. I can't say for sure that this will resolve your readers' issues that occurred following the update but trashing the user preferences and this specific folder may be worth a try.
Andrew Hendrycks also has a suggestion for dealing with these problems:
I am not saying this is in any way related to the issues that some are having with Office apps crashing or even failing to launch at all.But, what I have worked with on a constant basis as a System Administrator for 10 years is that fonts cause the most amount of grief. At the first sign of major application issues I go directly to my font folder(s) and check the Creation Date of all fonts.
As a general rule I will remove any font over 4-5 years old and then check the apps again.
Microsoft has many times in the past been one of the most stringent in regards to having their apps "check" fonts at launch time. If it finds any it doesn't like it tends to "crash". I wish they would offer a better error message than that, but hey Ö what can you do.
People should check their fonts on a more regular basis as old fonts WILL cause major system headaches. It may also directly help these Office issues.
If you've tried these suggestions, please let us know.
NodeScan--cross-platform file sharing and communication. August 21, 2003 -- Darren Saunders has a share product called NodeScan, a cross-platform file sharing and communication system, and can play music over the Internet. A new version 1.0b16 was just uploaded for Mac O S9 and OS X, Windows, and Linux.
Reader has Windows IIS server problem with cache. August 21, 2003 -- Bruce Bowden reports a problem with Mac OS X 10.2.6 and Windows files servers:
I recently dropped back to Mac OS 10.2.4. Our web servers are running IIS on NT. They have not yet upgraded to Windows 2000 Server. There is a problem with IIS caching file handles while serving files. On a Windows 2000 machine running DreamWeaver, this means that files cannot be saved or published if they have been recently browsed. The Macs were immune to this until I upgraded my machine past 10.2.4. From then on, I had the same problems as the Windows users - I couldn't save or publish files that had been recently browsed. Now that I have dropped back to 10.2.4, these problems have gone away.There are a couple of MS Knowledge base articles that offer registry edits to fix the problem at the server end but they had no effect on our set up.
If you've seen these problems, please let us know.
Data Viz releases MacLinkPlus Deluxe 14 file converter. August 18, 2003 -- DataViz has released MacLinkPlus Deluxe 14 (US $80, US $40 upgrade), a new version of the Mac OS X file translation package that converts files between Windows and Mac formats. Among the new features:
Office 2003 for Windows is expected to be released in October, according to eWeek.
Reader says Jaguar the cause of Safari proxy problems. August 18, 2003 -- A reader who wishes to remain anonymous reports that the problems with Safari and Camino accessing secure (https) web sites through Microsoft ISA Server's proxy server is caused by Mac OS X itself:
I believe the problem with safari and https, proxy issues is actually caused by OS X itself. One way you can see this is trying to get your iDisk info from system preferences (Internet pane) and get an error. I followed the traffic with a network sniffer and found that any packets from Safari or the finder or system prefs to SSL based sites tried to connect directly to the site instead of going through the proxy. This would then cause the connection to fail. The other browsers that I have used Mozilla, IE, uses their own proxy settings and therefore bypass the system wide proxy settings. I too can confirm this has been fixed in Panther.
Readers find Entourage update affects Word, PowerPoint. August 18, 2003 -- A pair of readers report that the recent Office/Entourage X 10.1.4 update has affected Word's ability to launch when Word files are double-clicked. Another reader reported a problem with PowerPoint.
Michael Wilmar finds Word files are no longer double-clickable:
Since I downloaded the most recent update of Word with Entourage for Exchange Server, I find that, from time to time, I cannot open Word documents created in WinWord except from within Word. In other words, double clicking on the icon doesn't open the document.
Don Crowell also has a Word problem:
I installed the update, and now I can't get Word to open. Excel and PowerPoint open fine, but Word gives a message that Word has unexpectedly ended.
Rich Tanksley has seen multiple instances of PowerPoint problems:
We've got a few clients that updated Office X to 10.1.4 so they could use Entourage. 10.1.4 includes some fixes to PowerPoint also. Since the update, PowerPoint crashes often. Just locks up with a spinning color wheel.You can duplicate the problem by opening a new document, inserting a picture as a background. Putting an image on top of it, then going back and changing the background to the green marble background included with PowerPoint.
This locks up two different machines with the 10.1.4 update. Before the update, they worked fine.
We have reinstalled Office, trashed the prefs, etc.
If you've seen any of these problems, please let us know.
Iogear to ship cross-platform memory mouse. August 18, 2003 -- In September, Iogear will ship the Memory Mini Mouse (US $50), an optical mouse that contains 32 MB of storage that will work on Macs and Windows. The storage is formatted as a FAT partition that will mount on the Mac desktop as a hard drive, and can be mapped to a Windows drive letter. The idea is to enable users to carry their files in the 800 dpi optical mouse when traveling, enabling travelers to leave their laptops at home. The Memory Mini Mouse will will work with Windows 2000, ME, XP and Mac OS X without the need to install software. (Windows 98 will require driver installation.)
Readers verify Win2K SP4 fixes Office bugs with ASIP. August 8, 2003 -- A pair of readers have verified yesterday's report that Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 fixes a problem with Win 2k clients accessing Office files on AppleShare IP servers. Matthew Sullivan says:
I had several Windows 2000 clients unable to access a shared Clients and Profits database that was on an ASIP Server. The access problems occurred with SP3. I had to downgrade them to SP2. SP4 has fixed the problem.
Todd Wesley said "SP4 for 2000 appears to have resolved the issue!" He also corrected his earlier report, saying that his machines were running Windows 2000 SP3, not Windows XP SP 1. (The problem seems to be specific to Windows 200 SP3.)
Novell shifting from NetWare to Linux. August 8, 2003 -- NetWare has acquired a Linux company, Ximian, and will put NetWare in "maintenance mode," as reported by eWeek. The eWeek story quotes a Novell executive saying that Novell does not plan to eliminate NetWare, but Linux will be the company's focus. Novell also announced that it would be moving its Groupware software to Linux, as mentioned by CNET.
Entourage for Exchange: problems with Active Directory. August 8, 2003 -- A pair of readers sent in more critiques of the new Entourage X 10.1.4, which has some connectivity features with Exchange Server. Will Jorgensen mentions a problem with Activity directory, and a problem with duplicate messages:
Here are some problems I've notices with the Entourage update.The first reason why this shouldn't have been released yet is the fact that it locks my Active Directory account out after one bad attempt. It apparently tries your password a number of times (>5 cause that is how many bad attempts we get before getting locked out).
Another problem which is mostly just annoying is that every new message seems to come to my mailbox twice. I do have rules that were set up using outlook on windows that could have something to do with it but it is annoying. The fact that it can't find our free busy server is going to make it a nightmare to support for our Mac users. However I think the entourage update is the right first step. It turns out that the new version of outlook will be dropping support for MAPI as well and it will essentially work on a local copy of the emails. It will however act like MAPI in that it will pull a message down as soon as it comes to the mailbox.
I think Entourage was written the way it was so that in the future it will work better even though for now it has many drawbacks. I encourage every one to contact Microsoft about their issues so that they understand how many of us need things like personal folder support and group mailboxes.
If you've seen these problems, please let us know.
Susan Patton sent us a detailed review of the new Exchange client:
I have been using Entourage 10.1.4 since Monday. I am trying to have a positive attitude towards its shortcomings compared to Outlook 2001. However, I am not sure that Entourage is going to be a viable solution in our corporate environment. There are some things I'm happy to see.We have over 100 Mac users and we are about 75 percent migrated to OS X. I am evaluating the features of Entourage 10.1.4 to determine what is different or missing so that we can make a decision about whether this solution will work for us or if we are better sticking with Outlook 2001.
On the positive side obviously it is nice to be able to abandon Classic. I'm delighted to be able to read HTML messages. I do not seem to be having the same calendar issues others have reported.
Shortcomings in my opinion are many. They include:
-- Lack of MAPI support. This is obviously not a true Exchange client. The first time a folder or the In Box is accessed it has to sync. This can take a considerable length of time. For the end user this will be unacceptable.
-- Lack of .pst support. I moved my own personal folders to folders in "On My Computer". I don't have all that many messages in the .pst file and it took FOREVER. I had to first move each folder of messages from my .pst file into my Outlook In Box then Receive a Complete Folder List in Entourage. Next I had to go into each folder moved to the In Box and wait for the messages to sync. It took a LONG time for each folder to sync, especially for messages with attachments. Then I could move the folder to my On My Computer folder. Lastly I had to go back into Outlook and delete the folder I had moved from my .pst file. At any rate the thought of performing this task on 100+ Outlook 2001 users is daunting to say the least. Many of these users have huge numbers of messages in personal folders.
-- Although I can set up a second account to be able to see another user's In Box I have to set up a second identity and switch identities to be able to see the other mailbox calendar. We have a number of Administrative Assistants using Macs who manage their bosses calendars. This will be an issue.
-- I haven't figured out how to get a Read Receipt for read mail. A number of people use this feature religiously.
-- I can search the Global Address List but not browse it.
-- Entourage seems slow to respond to typing.
-- There are Rules but no Out of Office wizard.
There may be other issues that I haven't found yet. Overall I'm disappointed with what Microsoft has given us in this release. But as I said I'm trying to look for the positives and to determine if there are work arounds or solutions to the issues I've identified so far.
Office problems with ASIP and Win 2000 clients -- fixed with SP4? August 7, 2003 -- Ken Oates suspects that the problems with Windows 2000 clients have with MS Office documents that appeared with Win 2000 Service Pack 3 may have been fixed with Service Pack 4:
This problems seems to have been fixed in Service Pack 4 - the issue about saving Word or Excel files to a Mac OS 9 server have just disappeared as if by magic? I'm not sure if the same fix is available for the similar problem with XP.
If you can verify or disprove this, please let us know.
Suggestion for Entourage/Exchange calendar setting. August 7, 2003 -- Sebastian Wohlrapp sent in some advice for configuring shared calendars with the new Exchange-enabled Entourage released this week:
The settings for participating in shared calendars are a bit tricky compared to the ones on the windows world client Outlook. If you do not use an external free/busy-server or -service set the string for free/busy-server toexchangeserver-ip/public/
e.g. 192.168.0.1/public/
/public/ seems to be the default location but might vary depending on the settings your admin will know about.
With this, Entourage becomes a fully usable Outlook substitute and relieves me from having to work with Windows.
Entourage update requires a separate patch for Palm. August 7, 2003 -- We now have the answer to yesterday's question about Palm connectivity after installing Entourage X 10.1.4. In order to retain Palm connectivity after the update, users must install the new Microsoft Handheld Synchronization for Entourage X version 10.1.4.
(Thanks to everyone who wrote in with that.)
More comments on Entourage/Exchange in corporate environment. August 7, 2003 -- We've has several more reader comments on the viability of using the new Microsoft Exchange Update for Entourage X in a corporate environment. Our first reader was optimistic. Other regret the lack or pst files and other features.
Tom Hesser:
I have been eagerly awaiting the 'so-called' Exchange compliant version of Entourage. While the 10.1.4 update would be an adequate short term measure, it really is not appropriate for use at a large company that is making full use of Exchange's features in a mixed platform environment. I have been following the thread on MacWindows about this and I fall somewhere in the middle on the opinion board. I agree this is not a true Enterprise solution in it's current form, and seems to indicate in Entourage Help that it only synchronizes "local" or "top-level" items."Only Calendar items stored in the top level of your Outlook Calendar folder are synchronized. Calendar items stored in subfolders or anywhere else are not synchronized."
The company I work for makes extensive use of public/shared calendars. While I had NO problems connecting to and synchronizing my mail, contacts, and PERSONAL calendar with our Exchange server, there is no way to look at public calendars. I can look at Exchange Public Folders, and I "see" the public calendars, but Entourage will display events as simply a list of email messages. This was a key feature we need here to consolidate our calendaring between Macs and PCs on Os X. Now we are stuck using Classic (2001) which lacks MANY modern email features.
So, it IS a step in the right direction, and worked fine during my setup (I am in charge of testing Outlook on the Mac...among other things). We are having trouble with LDAP in OS X apps, so getting the addresses from Exchange helps, and well as migrating personal address books. We are already using IMAP on Exchange, but we would prefer MAPI. It doesn't meet our large scale needs right now, but maybe the MBU is still working on better integration.
As for Palm Desktop, the update did not seem to affect the Handspring version of Palm Desktop 4.0 on my machine.
Jonathan Shmoolie:
[Exchange X 10.1.4] won't work for our company and I suspect it won't work for many more company's like ours. First of all it is not a real Exchange client. It doesn't provide full-time connectivity to the Exchange server, does not allow for access to pst files (very, very important), or to public folders. It won't work with Exchange 5.5 - it requires 2000 or 2003 both of which require Active Directory.We need a real OS X Exchange client from Microsoft so that our hundreds of Mac users can keep pace with our thousands of Windows users. I hope that someone at Microsoft is listening.
Marc Hamilton:
Like many others I waited with cheerful anticipation for the arrival of the Entourage X Exchange update. The absolute most important feature I need is the Calendar syncing. Shame on Microsoft for being so disingenuous toward the Mac community. It was back to Outlook 2001, the last OS 9 holdout since I migrated to Quark 6.0. I remain hopeful that there will be a fix to MAPI support issue.
Evan Mati:
We have Exchange and the new update allows us to receive email but not send it. I have tried to set it up different ways and also just like our Windows clients.I guess I'll have to wait for Panther's Mail Exchange implementation.
Microsoft should give us a better solution. I paid more for my New Office v.X then I paid for my Dell.
Update to AddressX, free utility for Exchange addresses to Mac OS X. August 7, 2003 -- Snerdware released AddressX 1.0.1, an update to the free utility that enables the Mac OS X Address Book to view and search the global address list of Microsoft Exchange Server 2000. The upgrade fixes some problems with connectivity, and adds error logging.
Jaguar can't see files on file servers when names are changed. August 7, 2003 -- Tom Mumey comments on the problem of server-based files becoming invisible when their names are changed:
We too are running a Windows 2000 Server SP3 and are having the disappearing file problem, except that Mac OS 9.x clients also cannot see the files. I confirm that moving the file from the original location and then back again allows the Macs to again see the file.Maybe an unrelated issue, but we have also seen where a Mac user cannot see a file which can be seen on a PC, and by reapplying permission at the folder containing the file allows the file to be seen again.
No MAPI support in Entourage Exchange update; reader reaction mixed. August 6, 2003 -- The fact that the new Microsoft Exchange Update for Entourage X does not support MAPI appears to be an important issue for many readers. Entourage X v10.1.4,was designed to be the first Mac OS X-native client for Exchange Server. The MAPI protocol is used by the Exchange for calendar and address book functions in Outlook for Windows and in Outlook 2001 for Mac OS 9. We asked Microsoft about it the lack of MAPI in Entourage, and received this reply:
This version of Exchange does not support MAPI. Through working with our customers and the Exchange team, we determined that adding calendar and address book support through WebDAV was the most efficient and timely way to meet our customers' needs. Entourage X supports IMAP protocol for accessing email from the Exchange server and will continue this support.
However, a number of readers disagree, complaining about the lack of MAPI and other features found in Outlook 2001. We also received a few positive reactions to the new client, and some suggestions for dealing with some of the problems reported yesterday.
Brian Little explains why some sites need MAPI support :
I just want to emphasize to Microsoft that this is _not_ an appropriate tool for the enterprise, or for those of us suffering under unduly anal-retentive server administrators. It requires IMAP, and does not speak Microsoft's proprietary MAPI protocol, as required by many server admins who refuse to enable POP or IMAP. Further, the address-book-via-LDAP scheme is useless to those of us without a usable LDAP setup.In short, this "upgrade" makes a lot of invalid assumptions about what the end user is going to be getting from the back end ... Until we get MAPI, at the very least, we're stuck with 2001.
John Lockwood points out some of the features lacking in the new Entourage:
For those who don't know, Entourage X 10.1.4 is _not_ a MAPI client (like Outlook for Windows or even Outlook 2001 for Mac OS 9). Entourage X 10.1.4 instead relies heavily on using OWA (Outlook Web Access) -- this is definite ... This fact by itself would not be enough to condemn this application but it is certainly a bad start. None of the reports I have seen indicate ANYONE has successfully been able to use the Calendar feature.Furthermore, Entourage X 10.1.4 has only a fraction of the features of Outlook 2001 (for Mac OS 9) which in turn only has a fraction of the features of Outlook for Windows.
Critical features that appear to be missing include (but not limited to):
- .PST file support,
- Archiving support,
- Shared mailboxes.
Does anyone know if Entourage X 10.1.4 copes with TNEF attachments (from Outlook for Windows clients, also known as the dreaded WINMAIL.DAT problem)?
Dr. Michael J. Modesitt also notes the lack of features, but is less pessimistic:
I have noticed several problems for what should be referred to as a beta program:
- There are no delegation capabilities
- Tasks do not synchronize (entourage to exchange)
- Importing holidays cause major problems with syncing calendars
- Calendar synchronizing is typically delayed many minutes
- Calendar items that are dragged from one date to another do not sync properly; however you can edit the date and time manually, save it and it gets sync'd.
On the other hand, once I sorted out my server addresses for email/calendar (IMAP) and the busy/free server/directory. I could sync with my Palm, Entourage and Exchange server successfully. I could also busy search attendees for meeting requests. This is a good start.
Jon Armstrong:
The upgrade is nothing more than using IMAP to get access to Exchange. If your admins don't feel like implementing IMAP, you are screwed.Like previous posters, my feelings are that this isn't a true Exchange client. If you had IMAP activated on your Exchange server, the previous version of Entourage would work to get messages. This seems to be a case of marketing selling something that doesn't really exist: A true Mac OS X Exchange client.
I wrote a rant at Blurbomat. After 2.5 hours of trying to get it to work, I gave up and used a PII laptop and Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection tool to control the laptop via OS X.
Michael Morris:
Entourage for Exchange is an incomplete solution. It is not what it was hyped it to be. Our Exchange servers only support the MAPI protocol and since EDS runs things, they refuse to support anything else. I'm still stuck with Outlook 2001...
David Rienzo:
I'm also having a similar problem with the new Entourage. Email works absolutely perfectly, and I'm able to access all the folders I've created using Outlook for the PC. When I use Entourage, though, I am unable to synch my calendar or contacts with the Exchange server. They do show up as folder items, however, in the sidebar.We are running Exchange 2k, SP3 installed, OWA is enabled. I don't know if webDAV is enabled.
Barry Shapiro has a suggestion for people having problems:
Installed the update Monday. We just got it working now. There were some initial problems setting up my account. These all seamed to point to some settings on the server side. If you have problems I suggest trying a temp user on the exchange server to debug possible errors on the windows side.Once these problems were corrected every thing seams to work OK. There are some differences in the way things are done in Entourage compared to Outlook that you need to get used to. I found that you need to set the rules for send and receive mail to a schedule or time interval if you want your mail current. Otherwise the default is to manually send and receive. My contacts show up but I don't yet know how to add or edit them.
Overall this appears to be a much improved Mail application compared to Outlook 2001 which would not render images and or work with hot links in a message.
Reader loses Palm synchronization after Entourage X update. August 6, 2003 -- Mike Kaplan has seen a new problem with the Entourage 10.1.4 update:
Since I've updated, I've been unable to synchronize Entourage to Palm Desktop 4.1. Every time I try, the Conduit Manager crashes. I never had this problem before I updated Entourage. I've even tried to Repair Permissions -- as I always do when installing or upgrading any software. No luck.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
VPN Tracker 2.1 increases IPsec security, adds Panther compatibility. August 6, 2003 -- Yesterday Equinux today released VPN Tracker 2.1 (US $89, free update), an update to the IPsec virtual private network client for Mac OS X. Among the several dozen improvements:
Suggestion for ISA proxy server and https access. August 6, 2003 -- Tom Mumey has a suggestion for people having problems accessing secure web pages through a Microsoft proxy server:
We run ISA and had success using ISA's firewall service . Start the firewall service on the ISA server, then configure the Mac browsers to use SOCKS4 for secure web connections via the IP address for the ISA server and the port you have set for SOCKS v4 (default 1080).
If you've tried this, please let us know how it worked.
Group Logic offers migration path for WAM!NET users. August 6, 2003 -- Group Logic announced today a migration program for WAM!NET users to switch to MassTransit Enterprise, a cross-platform file transfer system used in graphics workflow. Group Logic will offer competitive upgrade pricing to WAM!NET customers who purchase MassTransit before September 30, 2003. Group Logic is also offering WAM!NET-related consulting and training to help move WAM!NET customers to MassTransit.
The company says it is offering the program after Savvis acquired the WAM!NET print media business last week. Group Logic offered this explanation in its press release:
"For five years, MassTransit has been used to power file transfers through WAM!NET in addition to other networks like the Internet," said [VP of Sales and Marketing Andy] Lewis. "Deploying MassTransit alongside WAM!NET provides an effective insurance policy for companies to maintain their file transfer workflows over either WAM!NET, the Internet, or private networks."
Fix for slow searches of Win 2K Server doesn't work for reader. August 6, 2003 -- Michael McGill reports that a fix we reported for the problem of slow searches of Windows 2000 Server doesn't work for him:
I saw the post about a fix for slow searching of the Windows 2000 Servers. I tried setting my visibility to All and Filename to Contains and Search in Specific Places, but I still did not see any improvement. With my settings exactly like the fix says, it still takes several minutes to search the server. I guess this fixed Susan Patton's problem, but we are still having the same issue.
Microsoft ships Exchange-enabled Entourage-- our first reader reactions. August 5, 2003 -- Yesterday, Microsoft released Microsoft Exchange Update for Entourage X (Office v. X 10.1.4 Update) as a free download, 28.6 MB in size. This is the long-awaited Mac OS X-native client for Exchange Server, which Microsoft first announced last February. Microsoft says that this version of Entourage works with Exchange Server 2000 with Service Pack 2 or later. The Exchange features added to Entourage 10.1.4 include:
In addition, Microsoft said that the upgrade has other benefits not related to Exchange Server:
As an added benefit, all Office. X for Mac customers should download this free update (even if they don't get their e-mail from an Exchange Server) to experience enhancements to Word X, PowerPoint X and Excel X.Reader reports
Our first reader reports on the new Entourage update have also arrived, and several readers are reporting problems of different types.
Josh Lovseth didn't say what version of Exchange Server he is running, but he is having problems accessing the server with the new Entourage:
I have been testing the capability for Exchange connectivity, and have connected to my inbox, but still cannot synchronize my contacts or calendar. It only half works.
Todd Barber verifies that the new Entourage does not work with Exchange Server 5.5:
I installed it anyway and I can only retrieve my mail (Exchange 5.5), I can not send it. Entourage was designed for POP mail and therefore it downloads all of your mail to a local database file (your mail and calendar records). This has not changed with the update. The records for Exchange (email, calendar entries,etc.) must be downloaded to your local Entourage database in order to view them. Then there is a synchronization that takes place to see if your local records match the Exchange server.Entourage was never designed as an Exchange server client and it's still not. If you are just sitting there in you inbox you're not going to see your new mail instantly, only when it decides to try to synchronize on it's own or when you click the Send and Receive mail button.
Evan Williams can't get calendaring to work:
I've read through all of the MS docs on how to configure Entourage to work with an Exchange server and I still can't get the calendaring to work (Free/Busy data not found, error -3170 OR error -3248). Sending and receiving mail works, Public Folders are visible, I can search the Global Address List through the LDAP service, but no calendar.We are running MS Exchange 2000 SP2. We meet all of the MS requirements for Entourage to work with the server (IMAP4, SMTP, Outlook Web Access--OWA, and LDAP are all running on the server) so I'm not sure what it is.
I've tried reducing the authentication settings to the lowest possible thinking maybe it was a SSL/authentication problem, I've compared all the port/security settings between the Entourage client and the Exchange 2k System Manager and they all match up.
Anyone have any ideas? The only thing I can think of is that we ran the MS IIS Lockdown tool and maybe that disabled some part of the WebDAV protocol that the Entourage calendar needs. Can anyone confirm this? Also, the error -3170 occurs if I'm trying to invite someone w/ an Exchange mailbox to a meeting, the error -3248 is if I'm trying to invite someone with an outside email address. But this isn't even consistent.
Brennan Pang can't book resources:
I've tried the new Office/Entourage update and it seems to work decently with our Exchange 2000 server but I have yet to figure out a way to book resources. We use resource booking to book all of our conference rooms when we create a meeting request in Outlook on Windows or Outlook 2001 Mac. This functionality is critical and doesn't appear to be enabled by this update. I'd love to know if any readers have figured this out. I hope I'm just overlooking something here.
Please let us know if you have seen these problems.
More on accessing secure web sites through ISA Proxy. August 5, 2003 -- Several readers responded to last weeks reports of being unable to access secure (https) web pages through Microsoft's ISA Proxy. David Hanson reports that the upcoming Safari 1.1 with the Panther beta works:
I too have had a problem with https and Safari - every other browser (including OmniWeb 4.5 RC1) will work behind the company firewall but Safari will not. Safari won't access ftp sites either. In the early days of OS X Internet Explorer also would not access https sites but that was fixed.Good new ahead however, I have 10.3 7B21 which has Safari 1.1 with it. This does work with https behind our company firewall.
Caspar Strandberg suggested a resource:
If you want Internet access for Mac´s and is using a SBS with ISA proxy server here´s a guide (it works with OS X as well ).
Paul Drisgula reports that the problem also occurs with the Camino browser:
Thanks for suggesting Camino suggestion. Unfortunately, I still get the same error message that all other browsers -- except OmniWeb 4.2 and earlier -- produce.
Toby Oldham also has problems with Safari:
My office also suffers from the https/MS Proxy Server issue. I figured it was a problem with Safari though, as using Mozilla and Explorer (combined - using either one or the other) I can work around specific issues.I've had a few problems with OS X and the MS Proxy server, ranging from slow ftp uploads, to downloading Apple exclusive QuickTime movies, and https stalls.
If you can add to this discussion, please drop us a line.
Free utility adds Exchange address access to Mac OS X. August 1, 2003 -- Yesterday, a company called Snerdware released AddressX 1.0, a free utility that enables the Mac OS X Address Book to view and search the global address list of Microsoft Exchange Server 2000. AddressX is the first in a planned series of Macintosh/Exchange solutions. AddressX installs on the Mac; there is no installation on the Exchange Server.
Fix for slow searching of Win 2K verified. August 1, 2003 -- Susan Patton tried out yesterday's suggested workaround for the problem slow searches of Windows 2000 Server, and said that it indeed solved the problem. Patton was the first reader to report the problem to us. She now reports:
I took a look at both FileBuddy and PathFinder. Both seemed more than what we need. All we really need is a fast way to find files from OS X on our Windows 2000 servers. Plus we hate to have to spend money to fix something Apple or Microsoft should resolve in my opinion.Today's post from Joe Chilcote with his suggestion about visibility seems to resolve the issue. I am a happy woman!
I would like to say though that Joe's observation about the original admin user doesn't seem to hold true for us. We build all OS X machine with the end user as the original admin and we universally have had the problem.
OS X problem with https and MS proxy server. August 1, 2003 -- Several people wrote to confirm yesterday's report of the inability to access secure https web sites with Mac OS X. Paul Drisgula he used to be able to do this with the OmniWeb browser:
I am responding to Tim McCleary's report of problems accessing a secure web site using browsers in OS X. I have experienced this problem for some time now. The only success I have had is with OmniWeb, version 4.2 and earlier. Early versions of Safari worked sporadically but the capability disappeared entirely in later versions.Strangely, the newest version of OmniWeb, 4.5, has also lost this important functionality. The OmniWeb support staff have been great but after confirming this issue have still not figured out why it has occurred. OmniWeb, version 4.2, works fine with System X and I recommend trying it.
So far no one had reported if the problem occurs with Camino, a browser that is almost as fast as Safari but which often does not have the compatibility issues. If you have had this problem and have tried Camino, please let us know.
Problem searching NFS reshared volumes with OS 9. August 1, 2003 -- Jay Craft reports a problem using OS 9 Sherlock to search NFS volumes hosted by Mac OS X:
We have OS X (10.2.6) servers and OS 9 clients. We are trying to use our NetApp NAS system by having the OS X server mount volumes through NFS, and then reshare them via AFP to our OS 9 clients. Our 9 clients can mount these shares without a problem, however they cannot be searched with Sherlock.Sherlock reports "Unable to search the volume "VOLUMENAME". Another process changed the volume during the search. Please wait for the process to finish and try again."
OS X clients have no problems mounting these shares and performing searches. The only workaround I've found so far is to put everything on a volume into a single folder, and drag that folder into the Sherlock window and perform the search on that. This works, but on volumes of any significant size, it can take a very long time (much longer than it should). Searching works fine on the OS X Server volumes that still reside on its internal drives. Just using the NFS reshared volumes that reside on the NAS is a problem.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
Free shell extension displays Mac info in Win Explorer. August 1, 2003 --SoftExperience has released MacInfoTip (free download), a new shell extension to Windows 2000 or Windows XP that enables the Windows Explorer tooltips (yellow balloons that pop up over a file) to display Mac information. This includes Type code, Creator code, Data fork size and Resource fork size. This works for Mac files stored on any NTFS volume managed by standard Microsoft Services For Macintosh (SFM) or ExtremeZ-IP.
More on problem with Office Win and ASIP. August 1, 2003 -- Todd Wesley responded to yesterday's report of Office for Windows file problems on AppleShare IP servers:
We have experienced this problem as well with an entire lab of Windows 2000 SP3 stations and a server running the most recent version of ASIP.The users can't save a document to their shared storage space from within the application (Word, Excel), but can save to the desktop, and then copy and paste it into the shared storage space.
Setting Visibility to All to fix slow searches of Win 2K Server from OS X. July 31, 2003 -- Joe Chilcote sent in a real work around to the problem of slow searches of Windows 2000 Server from Mac OS X. (You can now find previous reports on this problem on our Jaguar Reports page.) He says to add Visibility to the search criteria and set it to All:
While we're still determining the root cause of the "slow search" problem, we've found a way to make the search happen at normal speed.When you do a Cmd-F to bring up the Find window, make sure your find criteria are set similar to the the following. This will give you fast search response on a Windows server:
- Set Visibility to All
- File name to Contains
- Search in Specific Places (the server volume)
Note that if you turn the visibility criteria off, it will slow the search. And if you have a Date Modified criteria, it will slow the search. Also, note that doing searches from the find field in the Finder toolbar is still dog slow. I'm looking into that, and in the meantime I recommend you use the Find window to do searches.
We have further information:
We've identified that this problem only happens on user accounts OTHER than the original Administrative user account OS X creates. For instance, on a fresh install of OS X, with only the one user that gets set up during installation, searching our Windows 2000 server occurs at normal speed (relative to OS 9). Any subsequent user we create, regardless of whether they are an admin or not, has the slow search issue on the server. Very weird. There's nothing I can find in NetInfo that is different between the two admin accounts. Hopefully Apple will address this, as well as the similar problem with Apple Remote Desktop (only the original account on the machine can add machines and administer an ARD network).
If you've tried setting Visibility to All, please let us know how it worked for you.
TIP: Virtual PC can cause "Firewall not available" on Jaguar. July 31, 2003 -- An anonymous reader sent in this report about Virtual PC's affect on the built-in firewall in Mac OS X 10.2:
Virtual PC can cause a "Firewall not available" message on Jaguar. I've run across the message: "Other firewall software is running on your computer" and "Firewall is not available" in conjunction with grayed out firewall settings several times over the last months, although in between everything appeared normal and I could edit my firewall settings and that without me running any firewall software I was aware of.Turns out the culprit was Virtual PC (6.0, Win2K, shared networking); once I quit VPC (and restarted the System Preferences) I could edit my firewall settings, restarting VPC (and SP) the settings were grayed out again. A post on a newsgroup found by Google where the same behavior was described with W98 (though not with W95, both with shared networking) had pointed me to this solution. Apparently other software like CarraFix exhibit the same behavior.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
Reader reports OS X problem with https and MS proxy server. July 31, 2003 -- Tim McCleary can't get OS X web browsers through a Microsoft proxy server with https -- Netscape under Classic does work:
We're running into a problem in our school district connecting to secure web sites (https/SSL) with any of the Macs running OS X. We are using Microsoft ISA server to proxy all web traffic. Any PC and any Mac running OS 9 can access secure web sites without any problem. In OS X, it fails using any browser (Safari, Internet Explorer, etc.). We can use Netscape Communicator under Classic to access the sites, but this is less than desirable. All of the proxy settings are correct, but no go. Using the same systems in an environment without a proxy, they connect to secure web sites without a problem.I have only seen limited rumblings about this in my searches of the web. I can only guess that not too many people are trying to access secure web sites with OS X through a proxy. Anyone else having this problem? It seems to be a bug with OS X.
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
More Win clients trouble with Word and Excel on ASIP. July 31, 2003 -- Ken Oates is another reader with the previously reported problem with Windows 2000 SP3 clients and Office files on AppleShare IP servers, offer more details of odd behavior:
We have the problem that Windows clients can open Word and Excel files from an AppleShare IP server (G3, MacOS 9/ASIP 6.3.3), but cannot save them back to the server. We get error messages which say there is not enough disk space or memory or similar.Seems to have developed recently, and could relate to Win2K SP3. Also has same problem with Win XP. An older Win2K PC without latest service packs still works okay.
We cannot save Word 200 files from offending PCs, but can save out of Word as RTF files, or out of Excel as delimited text!
Our previous reports on this problem are on our ASIP Cross-platform Issues page.
Summer release of Office X to include Exchange client for OS X and Virtual PC. July 29, 2003 -- eWeek reports that later this summer Microsoft will release Office X v10.1.4, an update to the Office suite that will include a version of Entourage that will be a full client to Exchange Server. (The current Exchange client, Outlook 2001, is not Mac OS X native.) The suite is now undergoing beta testing. As we reported in February, Microsoft's Mac Business Unit is taking over responsibility for the Exchange client for Mac. The 10.1.4 update will be a free updated to current Office users, and Entourage will continue to be offered separately for $99.
eWeek also reported that Microsoft will a new Office X Professional (US $499, upgrade US $329) version that will include Virtual PC, which the company acquired from Connectix in February. Microsoft will also be releasing a stand-alone version Virtual PC with under the Microsoft brand. The repacked VPC will be called version 6.1, but will not have any changes from the current version.
Fix for Win 2000 Server disconnecting mapped drives/connections. July 29, 2003 -- James Burrows reports that the problem of Windows 2000 disconnecting Mac clients is a known issue, and that there is a fix:
Reading your site and saw the above problem, which I have seen before.The solution is a Registry change of the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters\autodisconnect
Set this to ffffffff and the server will never disconnect clients.
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