Control a PC from a Mac over the Internet
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Win 2000 Server dual-processor hot fix: still in the works. December 31, 2002 -- On December 20, we reported that a Microsoft hot fix was still not available for a problem with dual-processor Windows 2000 Servers (SFM server disappears from Choosers). Tim Friez sent an update, saying that he asked Microsoft for the hot fix, and they gave him an early version:
We had the same problem as noted in the article. We took a shot and contacted Microsoft with the Microsoft Knowledge Base number Q327360 that was supplied on your web site. With no hassle they gave us a link to there FTP site with the hot fix to run on our server. They said it was still in testing so we had to use it at our own risk. After almost two month of running with the patch we have had no problems since.
The number Q327360 is the number Microsoft has reportedly given to the KnowledgeBase article it will post on the problem; the article has not yet appeared.
GUI version of Cisco VPN Client 3.7.2 still has AirPort problem. December 31, 2002 -- Paul Booth reports that the recently released GUI-version of Cisco VPN Client 3.7.2 for Mac OS X (which replaced a recently command-line 3.7.2 client) still has problems:
Tried 3.7.2 GUI yesterday. It still causes problems with the AirPort interface. With 3.7.2 installed: airport comes up fine at system start, but will not reacquire an IP address from a DHCP server after the system has been put into standby or if the airport interface is turned off and back on. Doesn't matter if the GUI is running or not. Version 3.7 has no such issue.
For previous reports on the Cisco VPN Client 3.7.2, see our VPN Reports page.
We just deployed Citrix in our office and are trying to overcome the Error 51 using the NFuse web interface with OS X. The installer tried the following:I just downloaded Citrix for OS X and got the same error 51 errors that seem to plague lots of people. The error definitely seems to be linked to the Network Protocol. If I use TCP/IP only (rather than TCP/IP+HTTP), it works just fine. The problem for me is that when I do a web launch, the script that comes down from the server specifies "TransportDriver=TCP/IP," which looks like it would work, but it doesn't. Just to experiment, I tried with replacing the word "TransportDriver" with "NetworkProtocol" - works like a charm. I guess there's been some minor change to the scripting language? I wish I could do a plain old web launch, but at least this works (that is, doing the web launch, having it fail, using Word to edit the .asp file, and then re-launching)."The good news is changing the word to "NetworkProtocol" worked for OS X, but then the OS 9 clients couldn't get in.
Steve Meredith describes the same workaround:
At first, I thought that this error was a local issue, with a port closed, etc. But, when connecting through an NFuse server, every OS X client will get an "Error number: 51." After searching the Citrix Knowledge Database for days, I reached out to the net and found many users are experiencing the same thing. Yet we hear nothing about it from Citrix.We have developed a workaround...it's like everyone else's work around, download the Launch.asp, plugin IP addresses, prefs and use TCP/IP rather than TCP/IP + HTTP.
Might as well not have NFuse, just create client files and distribute. Very frustrating that Citrix does not acknowledge the problem.
Reader opinion of Citrix 6.30.314 client. December 31, 2002 -- Dan Oblak's opinion of the Citrix 6.30.314 (Build 60841) ICA lient is mixed. He prefers the Java client. (He didn't mention which one; HOBLink JWT is one we know of. Another is one created by Josef Kolbitsch. A third is Darren Montjar's Mystery Machine). Oblak writes:
You asked for feedback from users of this client; I wish I could provide more helpful notes, but the most notable point so far is the unhelpful dialog "The application Citrix ICA Client has unexpectedly quit." on about 2 out of 3 attempts to connect. I'd had much better success with the Java client (we launch out of an NFuse web page); but that has been problematic when on my wireless home network, so I've been trying to get along with the application version more often.
It's tolerable for my own use; but not reliable enough for me to recommend to those I support.
Readers say Virtual PC 6 is faster, fixed DAVE conflict. December 28, 2002 -- A number of reader have written to say that the new Virtual PC version 6 is indeed faster than version 5, as Connectix claims. Readers report performance increases in Mac OS X 10.2.2 and Mac OS X 10.2.3, which increases performance for both VPC 5 and 6. Vince Dolan tried VPC 6 with both versions:
Yesterday I installed version 6 under 10.2.2 and it seemed quite a bit faster, snappy window drawing, program launching and menu responsiveness. This morning I just installed 10.2.3 and can say that it's now down right perky. Programs launch with little or no lag and Windows redraw instantly. (iBook 700 MHz 640 Mb running Win 2000 Pro 128 Mb)
Will Sokol reports that Virtual PC 6 also eliminates a networking conflict with DAVE:
One point the Connectix did not emphasize that probably should be is VPC 6 now uses NAT as the method for sharing IP addresses with the Mac side. This eliminates a networking limitation that conflicted with DAVE due to NetBIOS limitations.Certainly made the upgrade worth it for me. Now I can have DAVE and VPC running at the same time.
Paul Cohen notes performance improvements:
I have a PB G4 1 GHz, recently purchased, running 10.2.3. I use VPC with Win 2000 for my office network. I just upgraded VPC 5 to 6. I can say that VPC 6 definitely boosts windows speed. I upgraded from Mac OS 10.2.2 with VPC 5, to Mac 10.2.3 and VPC 6. I did not test each separately.VPC now starts up and shuts down quicker, and applications start up faster than ever. Win 2000 now runs faster on my machine, than on many of my office drones. I am VERY satisfied with this speed boost . I have experienced no crashes (Win or Mac) since installing each.
Byron Han reports "VPC 6 seems substantially faster than VPC 5 on a iMac-800MHz running XP. The sound no longer is choppy."
Sandy Hawkins says "On a 1 GHz PBTi / 10.2.3 / 1024 meg ram, it works fast enough to be useful."
Mac OS X 10.2.3 reports: effects on VPC 5 speed, Win servers, RDC. December 28, 2002 -- We have a number of reader reports on the recent Mac OS X update v. 10.2.3. We've posted seven new reader reports on our Jaguar Special Report page. Here is a summary:
Effect on Virtual PC Performance
One reader agrees with readers in the above report on Virtual PC that 10.2.3 does speed up Vitual PC 5, as Apple claims. However, another reader sent some test results he ran with PCMark2002 on Mac OS X 10.2.2 and 10.2.3. His results were nearly identical on both.
Effects on MS Remote Desktop Connection
Two readers report opposite effect of 10.2.3 on Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection. One said it fixed a problem of RDC crashing. Another reader reports that he is no longer able to run RDC.
Improved print handling
A reader comments that the 10.2.3 update provides printer paper handling features he had in OS 9.
Fixed Windows FTP Server isssues
A reports that 10.2.3 enables him to connect from the Finder to FTP servers running on Win NT and Win 2000, where previously, he had problems.
Problem with Word X and Win servers
A reader reports that he gets an "unrecoverable disk error" when trying to save edited Word X files to Windows 2000 Server.
If, after reading the full reader reports on our Jaguar Special Report page, you can verify or otherwise shed light on these issues, please let us know.
We also have a report of Mac OS X 10.2.3 producing a conflict with Cisco VPN Client 3.7.2. This is presented below.
SMB file corruption update. December 28, 2002 -- Jon Nedry comments on several previous report on the SMB file corruption bug in Mac OS X 10.2.x, verifying one suggested workaround:
I can follow up on a few of the items listed:1) Regarding JF Paradis' post [Dec 16], my problems are also with Quark, but intermittent. I have not yet been able to get it to happen 100 percent of the time. I've copied hundreds of files to test this and at this point it tends to run around 13 percent of the time (1 out of every 8 files is corrupted).
2) Copying files within folders (as posted by Jarl Sobel) seems to work fine every time. I've copied over 600 files to test it and all worked fine (unlike my previous tests). I haven't experienced the problems posted by Brian Kearney [Dec 20].
3) The problem is still very much present in 10.2.3.
There is very little presence for this issue at the discussions at apple.com, I would suggest people start adding to the posts there to underscore the significance of the problem.
Cisco 3.7.2 client problems with OS X 10.2.3. December 28, 2002 -- Three readers responded to our December 18 report on a new Cisco VPN Client 3.7.2. Fergus Hammond says there is now a newer version:
The version of 3.7.2 that was posted on 12/16 didn't have a GUI. Cisco posted a new version today (12/26 where you are) that does have a GUI. Haven't tested it yet but hopefully it's fixed the bugs of 3.7.1 (and 3.7 and 3.6 and...). We've been spending lots of time with their development team, trying to get a reliable client. Cross your fingers.
Paul Booth had to uninstall 3.7.2 to get it to work with AirPort on OS X 10.2.3
Couple of quick notes re. Cisco's 3.7.2 VPN client for OS X. First off, it's _not_ a GUI client! The download looks exactly like the pre-3.7 packages -- shell script installation, etc. If you uninstall 3.7 prior to installing 3.7.2, you'll need to go back to the cli or use someone else's front end.Second, I did try installing 3.7.2 on top of the 3.7 client. Appears to work okay, with one caveat (see below). The GUI is unchanged -- still says it's version 3.7 -- but my VPN concentrator shows my client version as 3.7.2 when I connect.
Finally, there appears to be an interaction between 3.7.2 and AirPort network interfaces. After installing 3.7.2 (on an iBook w/10.2.3) and restarting the machine (or resetting the airport card), the airport no longer picks up an IP address from my DHCP servers. "ifconfig -a" shows that the airport card is there and active, but it never gets an IP. This happens whether or not I leave the 3.7 GUI on the machine. Uninstalling 3.7.2 and reinstalling 3.7 fixes the problem. The Ethernet port works fine throughout.
Eric Carr says that upgrading to Mac OS X 10.2.3 produced a conflict with Cisco VPN Client 3.7.2 that affected the Mac's IP address.
I experienced the same problem as indicated in a MacSlash post. For some reason, whenever I went to sleep or tried to renew a DHCP address or set a new static IP address, the MTU of the networking interface got set to zero (usually 1500 for Ethernet and 802.11). Anyways, removed VPN Client 3.7.2 and everything is working fine now.
(For previous readers reports on version 3.7, see our VPN Report page.)
VPN Tracker 1.5 beta 2 released. December 28, 2002 -- During the past two weeks Equinux has released two preview release of the VPN Tracker 1.5, the next version of the IPsec virtual private network client for Mac OS X 10.2 and later. The later version, released earlier this week, is VPN Tracker 1.5 PR2 (The current released version is 1.0.4.) Improvements include:
You can read previous reports on VPN Tracker 1.0 on our Virtual Private Network Report page.
Apple releases OS X 10.2.3 Update: major cross-platform problems not listed as fixed. December 20, 2002 -- Yesterday Apple released free v10.2.3 updates for Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server. At 51 MB for the client version,10.2.3 is a large download, with fixes and improvements in many different areas. Some of the fixes are related to cross-platform fixes, there was no mention of the networking problems we have been reporting, such as the SMB file corruption bug, the "dot-underscore" problem, or the problem with files disappearing on servers when names are changed.
The Software Update mechanism mentioned improvements to "AFP and WebDAV networking," but the longer Knowledge Base article did not mention these. The article mentions these cross-platform improvements:
We'd like to hear about your experiences with Mac OS X 10.2.3 and cross platform issues.
First reader comments on VPC 6. December 20, 2002 -- We've had our first reader reports of Virtual PC 6. Michael Robinson sees some of the promised speed improvement:
I downloaded the VPC 6 upgrade on my Power Mac G4 without any problems. It seems somewhat faster than before, is still lower than in Mac OS X 9.
Several readers were miffed that an upgrade for the speed problems of VPC 5 costs US $99. Dan Foshee was one:
Sounds neat, although it rankles that I have to pay for what sounds like (to me) an incremental update that fixes things that should've been done before they released 5. Guess Apple is an innovator in so many areas...
Joseph Hu agrees:
Virtual PC 5 was unbearably slow in Mac OS X. Instead of getting a fix,we get a $100 upgrade.
If you've tried Virtual PC 6.0, let us know what you think of it.
DAVE 4.0.2 maintenance update. December 20, 2002 -- Yesterday Thursby Software Systems released DAVE 4.0.2 for Mac OS X and for Mac OS 8.6 - 9.2, free downloads to DAVE 4.0 customers. The new version includes these improvements:
More discussion on Jaguar SMB file corruption workarounds. December 20, 2002 -- More readers have send in suggestions for workarounds to the SMB file corruption problem with Mac OS X on our Jaguar Report page. Lawrence You finds that corruption occurs when the server folder is in icon view, but not in list view:
I've seen the problem where some files copied from a local disk to an SMB volume are corrupted. Recently, I have been collecting Acrobat (PDF) files and copying them from my Mac OS X 10.2.2 and 10.2.3 SMB clients to a FreeBSD 4.7 host running SMB as a server. Occasionally files would be corrupted when they were copied. Occasionally the problem would occur using a G4 Dual 1 GHz (Quicksilver) client, but I could never reproduce the problem using a PowerBook G3 333 MHz (Bronze/"Lombard") client. Both are running 100 Base-T Ethernet to the SMB (FreeBSD) server. I could speculate that it might be related to a race condition that arises from multiprocessors, processor speed, or something else but I don't have any proof. It would be interesting to know if anyone has this problems with uniprocessor systems.I did some testing a few weeks ago to try to discover if there was anything reproducible about the file corruption problem. My testing of a dozen or so files turned up this:
Corruption would occur when I dragged a file into a folder when you are using "icon view". If I used "view by list" and I think also "view by columns" the file would not be corrupted. The corruption occurs on block boundaries of about 1 KB in size (for example, 0x4fc00-0x4fff or 0x5f800-0x5fff) and is always filled with zeros in the copy.
Corruption never occurred for me when I used the traditional Unix copy command, "/bin/cp", or the Mac OS X copy tool "/Developer/Tools/CpMac" (available if you have the developer tools installed). Copying a file from the server to my local OS X disk never produced incorrect results.
My workaround is to just not use "view by icon" on SMB directories or to use AFP (but that opens up another can of works because the Netatalk implementation that I'm using on FreeBSD has its problems too).
Brian Kearney said that a previously suggestion didn't work with Quark files:
I've tried Jarl Sobel's suggestion to copy a folder, rather than a file to eliminate file corruption--but I've found lately that the folder will copy, until it gets to a Quark document, and will invariably then report that "one or more objects cannot be found" and not copy the Quark file, or any other file after the quark file (listed alphabetically). Copying the quark file, and then the rest of the files seems to then work--individually or in a group. Mac is an 867, 10.2.2, and the server is W2K, SP2.
Samuel Litt avoids the Finder, as some other readers did:
Here's a workaround I use when ever I encounter a Mac OS X Finder issue that prevents me from copying data to and from a server: I use a third party utility like Lacie's SilverKeeper (a free program), Dantz's Retrospect, or Intego's Personal Backup to move data to and from the problematic server in lieu of Mac OS X's Finder.I came up with this workaround when I encountered an error with a Snap Server while bulk copying files and encountering some nebulous message complaining about file name size.
If you can add to this discussion, please let us know.
Outlook2Mac moves Windows e-mail to Macs. December 20, 2002 -- Little Machine's Outlook2Mac (US $10) is software that moves Windows Outlook contacts, and calendar appointments e-mail to Mac OS X.
Detto's Mov2Mac, which Apple is promoting as part of its Switcher campaign, does not move e-mail messages.
Ximian Evolution and Connector. December 20, 2002 -- Alex Priest adds to the discussion on our Outlook Reports page of whether Ximian's Evolution software for Unix could be used on Mac OS X as an alternative Exchange client:
I just saw your report on Ximian Evolution and Connector, including Aaron Weber's (Ximian) comment [that Ximian doesn't ship Connector for OS X, so that Evolution could no be used on OS X with Exchange Server].I spoke to Nat Friedman, Ximian's cofounder at a conference recently and asked him about the possibility of a Connector port. I mentioned that my organization had about 500 Mac users in the process of migrating to OS X. He said that 500 users was enough to warrant porting Connector. Even if I could not drum up the funding for a contract, I would think it would be fairly easy to wrangle 500 customers for such a port.
The problem is Evolution itself. Is Evolution under X11 any better than Outlook 2001 under Classic? So far I have not seen any significant advantage. What we need is a Cocoa port of Evolution. Classic chicken-egg problem: Ximian needs demand to port Connector and users need natively GUIed Evolution to generate that connector demand. But without Connector, porting Evolution isn't that compelling a project.
Win 2000 Server hot fix never materialized. December 20, 2002 -- Pete Van der Goore responded to a report on our Windows 2000 Server Report page with dual processor servers:
In September 26, 2002 Bill Grabowski sent in a report of a hot fix for this problem. He said it would be logged as Q327360. I've been eagerly awaiting the release of this ever since as our software is specced to run on dual processor Win2K servers. Searching the knowledge base for this number or any mention of this problem have yielded no results. Does anyone have any further information on this hot fix?
If you've heard anything about this, please let us know.
Group Logic signs UK distributor for ExtremeZ-IP. December 20, 2002 -- Group Logic announced that it has signed an agreement with NCS Integrated Solutions to distribute Group Logic's ExtremeZ-IP and MassTransit in England, Scotland and Ireland. NCS is a prepress systems integrator located in the United Kingdom. ExtremeZ-IP is an AFP-IP file server for Windows servers for Mac clients. MassTransit is a secure cross-platform file transfer solution that includes programmable e-mail notification of file arrivals and other events, logging and tracking of transmission data, and bandwidth usage prioritization capabilities.
Virtual PC 6 promises better OS X speed, integration. December 18, 2002 -- Connectix has released Virtual PC 6 for Mac, a new version of the PC emulator that promises up to 25 percent speed increase in Mac OS X. Version 5, the first version that ran in Mac OS X, runs significantly slower in OS X than in Mac OS 9. (See our Virtual PC 5 Report page.) Connectix says that optimal performance requires Mac OS X 10.2.3 (which has not yet been released) and an L3 cache, NVIDIA Ge Force or ATI Radeon video card. This could indicate that older Macs without an L3 cache may see smaller performance gains.
Other new features include:
Virtual PC 6.0 Upgrade is US $99, or "special pricing" for people who purchased VPC 5 after Nov. 1 2002.The Upgrade and Virtual PC 6.0 with DOS (US $129) are both available now for download from the Connectix. Additional bundles of Virtual PC 6 will be available by the end of December at the Connectix online store, including Windows XP Home and Windows 98 (US $219) and Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional (US $249).
TIP: workaround corruption with 10.2.2 is definitely an issue. December 18, 2002 -- Jarl Sobel send us a workaround to avoid the SMB file corruption when copying files to Windows servers:
SMB corruption with 10.2.2 is definitely an issue. I experience the same trouble as other users [with Mac OS X 10.2.2 and earlier] , but with text files in the form of Mathematica Notebooks (produced by Mathematica from Wolfram Research ). Not all files are affected, but the files that are, become corrupted in exactly the same way every time.A simple workaround that I have found, other than using the cp (copy) command from the Terminal application, is simply to enclose the file to be copied in a folder, and drag the folder to the server. Then, the file inside the folder is copied without errors.
If you've tried this approach, please let us know whether or not it works for you.
Cisco updates VPN Client for OS X with v3.7.2. December 18, 2002 -- Cisco has released VPN Client 3.7.2, a minor update to its IPsec virtual private network client for Mac OS X. (See the release notes here.) The new version does not add features, but does fix a number of bugs, including:
If you've tried the new version, please let us know what you think.
(For previous readers reports on version 3.7, see our VPN Report page.)
Telnet Launcher for Mac OS X. December 18, 2002 -- piDog Software has released Telnet Launcher 2.1 (shareware, US $10-20 suggested donation), a Mac OS X utility that lets you launch Terminal and create and bookmark telnet and ssh sessions from the Aqua interface. Telnet Launcher supports Dock menus. The new version now opens the telnet session without requiring you to type a command in Terminal's Unix shell, and will now close Terminal windows now close when the session completes.
We've added Telnet Launcher to our list of terminal emulators for Macs on our Network Solutions page.
RealOne Player for OS X released--not on par with Win version. December 18, 2002 -- RealNetworks is now offering the first Mac OS X release version of the RealOne Player, in both free and paid versions. CNET reports that the Windows versions has more features than this Mac version. For instance, while Windows users can play QuickTime content, Mac OS X users cannot. According to CNET, RealNetworks claims that the problem is that writing Mac OS X applications is difficult.
Microsoft names head of Mac Business Unit. December 18, 2002 -- Microsoft today announced that it has appointed Roz Ho as the general manager of the Macintosh Business Unit, the group that develops MS Office, the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client for Mac OS X, and other Mac ports of Microsoft applications. Ms. Ho has been with Microsoft for 11 years, most recently as a the product unit manager leading the Mac BU's Silicon Valley team. The company said Ho will be responsible for managing "Microsoft's business relationship with Apple" as well as product development efforts.
More reports on SMB corruption with Jaguar. December 16, 2002 -- A number of readers responded to Friday's report of corruption of files when moved to Windows servers via Mac OS X's SMB client. Readers generally agree that Mac OS X 10.2.2 still has the problem.
David Dunham reports that the problem does not occur when he uses the Unix shell command cp (copy) in the Terminal application, which could point to the Finder as a source of the problem:
I have seen this problem under 10.2.2, but not all the time. When a file is corrupt, I have so far always been able to copy it successfully by using the Terminal (and the standard "cp" command).Furthermore, I have reported this to Apple using the developer bug tracking system. (Non-developers should report it as well, probably through the Mac OS X feedback page.)
Other readers tied the problem to specific file types. Rick O'Brien says "I still experience SMB file corruption under 10.2.2. Especially Word files."
Brett Rockwood sees corruption of PDF files. Not only that, but his problem began with 10.2.2:
Having read about SMB corruption I just want to confirm that I have had numerous problems transferring PDF files created on Mac OS X to Windows file servers. More often than not they come up as unreadable/unopenable. I never had this problem with 10.2.1 but since moving to 10.2.2 I keep my fingers crossed everytime I have to transfer a file. Interestingly enough, I can do a "save as" from 10.2.2 out of Acrobat to a Windows file server and it has (almost) always worked but if I try to drag a file from 10.2.2 to a the windows server it is often corrupted.
Jon Nedry sees the problem with Quark files:
I can confirm the problem still occurs on our server. It appears it happens when copying files TO the server, not when retrieving them from the server. We are running 10.2.2 on an NT server. We don't seem to see the problem with Illustrator or Photoshop files, but it does occur in Quark files. It *appears* that the problem is occurring not in the visible portion of the file, but in the invisible part of the file (the apple-double portion that begins with ._ )I'll keep pounding on this to try to figure it out, but for now, I can't exactly call my info rock-solid. Feel free to post it as confirmation that the problem does exist, but I'm not sure the other parts are much more than theory at this point.
JF Paradis also see the problem with Quark, which he says he can reproduce 100 percent of the time. You can read his report and several others on our Jaguar report page.
Reader ties error -43 file copy problem tied to illegal character. December 16, 2002 -- Harry Werkman sends a suggesiton for another (older) Mac OS X file copy problem, one that yields an error -43 with and AFP servers such as Windows NT SFM.
I've been reading about peoples problems with accessing/moving/copying files. I also had the 'Error -43' problem with external media (such as FireWire drives formatted with FAT32) and resolved it by ensuring that the file name did not contain open square bracket '[' or close square bracket ']'.This has fixed all my existing problems related to Error -43.
More suggestions for installing Cisco VPN Client 3.7 for OS X. December 16, 2002 -- Reader responded to Friday's suggestion for installing the Cisco VPN Client 3.7 for Mac OS X (the first GUI Cisco client). Brian Willett quoted a section from Cisco documentation. Matt Richard described a procedure regarding .pcf profiles that he says is undocumented by Cisco. Barry Riddle asks another question about .pcf files. You can read these reports on our Virtual Private Network report page.
VaporSec 0.9, IPsec VPN for OS X, adds compatibility. December 16, 2002 -- Today, AFP548.COM released VaporSec 0.9, a free prerelease version of a graphical front end to Mac OS X 10.2's IPsec virtual private network capabilities. VaporSec enables you to create IPsec VPN connections between two Mac OS X 10.2 machines or between a client machine and certain third-party firewalls, including several SonicWall firewalls and the Linksys BEFVP41. The new version adds support for "main mode," making VaporSec compatible with more firewalls and other IPsec devices. VaporSec also can now recreate the IPsec connections at startup and when changing network locations. AFP548.com will release the source code once VaporSec is final.
Freeware utility handles winmail.dat files on Macs. December 16, 2002 -- Responding to Friday's report about unusable winmail.dat attachments that Mac users receive in e-mail from Outlook for Windows users, two readers recommend TNEF's Enough, a free utility that can decode these files. Martin Forrester says that it "handles winmail.dat files perfectly in my experience." Jonas Maebe also said it works well.
Suggestion for NT Domain authentication. December 16, 2002 -- Peter Dodge has a response to last Friday's reader question about authenticating to a Windows NT Domain Controller:
Lisa Dahm needs to use Dave to login to her NT domain. This will allow her to use CIFS to access the volumes using TCP/IP from Mac OS X. Otherwise she will have to authenticate everytime she mounts an ExtremeZ*IP volume.In this respect, Mac OS X behaves no differently than Mac OS 9 in that you can't login to the *Domain* but you can provide login info to authenticate against a shared volume's permissions in order to mount the volume using Services for the Macintosh or ExtremeZ*IP.
Winmail.dat e-mail enclosures from Outlook users. December 13, 2002 -- The DataViz web site has an article about Mac users receiving attachments named "winmail.dat" from Windows users running Outlook for Exchange. These files consist of either the RTF text formatting information (bold, italics, etc.), which can be discarded, or are an actual attachment combined with the RTF formatting data of the e-mail message. DataViz recommends having the PC user turn off RTF in Outlook, and describes how do to this in the article.
Suggestion for installing Cisco VPN Client 3.7 for OS X. December 13, 2002 -- Michael Alatorre sent us this suggestion for installing the Cisco VPN client 3.7 for Mac OS X:
As a suggestion/shortcut to Barry Riddle for his Mac VPN installations, grab (and save somewhere) the profile text file (it will have the .pcf extension) from a successfully configured PC VPN client. Install it in this OS X directory (which it created by the 3.7 installer):/etc/CiscoSystemsVPNClient/Profiles/ (you can use the Terminal to do this).
It should contain all the relevant connection information the client will need. Launch the Mac VPN client and it'll will be sitting in profile window. Select it and you're ready to go. This is what we did on our campus for our Mac clients and it worked without a problem. In fact, we even run an AppleScript (after running the 3.7 installer) which will copy it down from a file server to make it easier for getting VPN installs done.
We have previously reported tips for installing the Cisco VPN Client 3.7 on our VPN Report page.
Jaguar SMB corruption issue still occurs under 10.2.2 December 13, 2002 -- Gérald Thirion reports that the Mac OS X 10.2.2 updated did not fix the SMB file corruption problem:
I have the same big problem. Whenever I put a file (for example a *.mov file) from Mac OS X to a Windows server via an SMB connection, the file is corrupted and unreadable. I just downloaded the 10.2.2 OS X upgrade but it is still the same.
A previous reader report said that the 10.2.2 update fixed the problem.
If you can support either side, please let us know.
Error -43 with DAVE 4 and Win2K and Linux/Samba. December 13, 2002 -- Dan Delaney reports having the Error Code -43, which has been reported with Mac OS X accessing MacServerIP running on Windows servers. However, Delaney is using DAVE 4 to access Windows and Linux servers:
I'm running Mac OS X 10.2. I connect to two servers: one running Win 2000 Server SP3, the other running Linux with Samba 2.2.6. I'm connecting to both of them using DAVE v4. I can copy files to the Win 2000 server just fine. But every now and then I'll have files that I can't copy to the Samba server. It gives me the "The operation cannot be completed because one or more required items cannot be found. (Error code -43)" message. It's not very often. Right now I have a few JPG files on the NT server. These files were created with Photoshop just by using the "Save..." command. I can copy them to my Mac's HFS+ hard drive and back to the Win 2000 machine. But when I try to copy them from either source to the Samba machine, I get the error. Here's the interesting part. If I open them back up in Photoshop and save them as JPGs using the "Save for Web..." command, I have no trouble coping the new files to the Samba server. It seems to me that it has something to do with the resource forks.
Jaguar SMB problem with .NET (2003) Server. December 13, 2002 -- Ben Brown reports a problem with Microsoft's .NET Server and Jaguar:
Mac OS X 10.2.x seems to refuse to establish SMB connections to machines on .NET domains, it may be something to do with Darwin's implementation of kerberos? It gives an error corresponding to an at authentication error.
If you've seen this, please let us know.
Mac OS X - NT Domain Controller authentication question. December 13, 2002 -- Lisa Dahm has a problem with Mac OS X and authentication and is looking for some other people with the problem:
I am planning the Mac OS X migration for our campus: we have about 150 Mac users that we support via ExtremeZ-IP on both our Win2K file server and Win2K printer server (to support IP printing); we are still using a Windows NT Domain Controller. I would like our Mac OS X users to be able to authenticate to the Windows NT Domain Controller via their Mac OS X login. Apple does not currently support a solution for this situation, although they say that OS X users can authenticate in Active Directory (I have no experience with how well this may or may not work because we have not moved to Active Directory). I am wondering if anyone else is having this problem and either has a solution or would like to band together to share the cost of having a third party develop a solution for us.
If you've seen this, please let us know.
Fink 0.5a Unix porting software adds Jaguar support. December 13, 2002 -- The Fink Project has released Fink 0.5.0a for Mac OS X 10.2 (free), which requires v10.2 or later. Fink is an open source package for porting Unix software to Mac OS X. The developers said "This release includes over 700 binary packages for OS X 10.2 as well as over 1800 source packages of all kinds."
The source release and the binary installer are available now, as well as all binary packages. For information about upgrading, visit the Upgrade Matrix.
Netatalk 1.6.0 not so good with long file names. December 13, 2002 -- Romeyn Prescott responded to our December 4 report about the release of Netatalk 1.6.0, a new version of the AFP server for Linux. Prescott reports that the support of long file names is not good:
Netatalk 1.6.0 "supports long file names" in that it mangles long file names enabling OS X clients to see files with long file names that have been put there (on the Netatalk server) by other clients (*ix, Windows, etc.).Netatalk 1.6.0 does NOT have AFP 3.0 support which is necessary (based on what I have read) to allow OS X clients to PUT files with long names on a Netatalk-shared volume.
XDarwin: X Window for Mac X, higher ed discount. December 13, 2002 -- XDarwin.org is offering XDarwin for 30 percent off the regular price to faculty and students of higher educational institutions. (Government institutions and employees of national laboratories are also eligible for the academic discount.) The current price is US $60, but this will rise to US $100 on January 1.
XDarwin is an implementation of the X Window System for Mac OS X, enabling you to run XDarwin X11 applications natively and remotely on Linux and Unix computers.
Market may force Microsoft to port to Linux. December 13, 2002 -- CNET reports that a study by the Meta Group predicts that Microsoft may have to port its server software to Linux due to the growing number of Linux servers.
Creo releases TrapWise 3.6 for PDF workflow. December 13, 2002 -- Creo Inc. released TrapWise 3.6, a trapping solution for Macintosh and Windows. New features include enhanced abilities for Portable Document Format (PDF) workflows, including the ability to import, trap, and output PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 files to the file formats. This version also improves cross-platform support for traditional font types, adds support for Open Type fonts, and reduces font search time.
Microsoft describes Titanium, next version of Exchange December 10, 2002 -- PC Magazine describes a conversation with Microsoft Exchange product manager Edward Wu about Titanium, the next version of Exchange Server. The story describes better functionality between the server and the Windows client, Outlook 11, which will be part of the Office 11 release. Microsoft has not disclosed plans for a Macintosh client, but has previously told MacWindows that any new Mac client will created by the Macintosh Business Unit. Microsoft has not said if a possible Mac OS X client will be included in the next Microsoft Office for Mac or as an Entourage update.
Fix for Citrix ICA client failing to connect over Jaguar VPN. December 10, 2002 -- A reader named Pete has come up with a fix for the problem of establishing a Citrix connection over a virtual private network connection using the Unix shell of the Terminal application:
I've come up with a fix!The problem is in the way that the Citrix ICA client stamps the "source address" in its outgoing IP headers. It should be assigning the address of the PPP0 interface, but instead its using the en0 interface IP.
Well, my way of addressing the Citrix Bug was to pipe it through an ssh TCP-Redirector running on the well-known port for Citrix (TCP 1494) on the local host & then point the Citrix client at your localhost address and watch the packets get re-written properelly by SSH as they go out to the server :)
Use this command in the terminal application:
ssh -lyourusername -L1494:172.17.2.40:1494 127.0.0.1
Substitute "yourusername" for your Mac OS X short name. Also substitute
172.17.2.40 for the IP of your Citrix server.
You will be prompted for your password, and will be returned to a shell prompt. Do NOT close the Terminal window, or you will break the ssh fowarding - the Terminal has to stay open while the ICA client is open. You will also have to have "remote login" enabled in your "Sharing" System Preference Pane.
Reader says most recent Prosoft TCP/IP Client works well. December 10, 2002 -- Mike Maday has good things to report on Prosoft Client for NetWare 1.1:
I downloaded the most recent Prosoft client for NetWare (version 1.1) in response to the announcement at macwindows.com and decided to give this client one more try. The past versions have been quite problematic and not worth much, to say the least.This latest version has been rock-solid in the testing phases! No core dumps, no system hangs, no need to reinstall the client multiple times. It worked as advertised on the first install!
This is really a huge plus for us since this native client supports long file names, (RSA) encrypted logins, and there aren't any of the annoying ".DS_Store" files left all over the file system! (Do any other file servers or clients offer this??) Performance is on par with the Novell's NFAP software -- which is top-notch. Even logging in to our NetWare servers through the internet using a wireless home network and Mac OS 10.2.2 with this client was reliable and effortless. And I was able to browse for NetWare server resources after logging-in over the internet, too!
I'm quite impressed with the overall quality and performance of this client, especially considering past IP Client efforts haven't lived up to their billing. This one has.
InterSystems to port Caché enterprise database to Mac OS X. December 10, 2002 -- InterSystems Corp. announced that it will ship a Mac OS X version of Caché, an enterprise database system, in "early 2003." Caché includes and object database, SQL, and a multidimensional database engine. (See also this story at eWeek.)
Helios ImageServer 2.5 automates scripting. December 10, 2002 -- Helios released ImageServer 2.5, which and updated and renamed version of Helios EtherShare OPI. The server provides image replacement and conversion for Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX clients. The server version supports server-based image transformation, repurposing, and automated conversion of file format, resolution, color space, and compression, for web and print needs, as well as OPI image replacement. The new version includes a script server servcies that creates "hot folders" to automate tasks.
BlueLabel Power Emulator problem with Ethernet. December 10, 2002 -- Michael Dawe is having a problem getting Lismore's BlueLabel Power Emulator to work with Ethernet :
I purchased BLPE 1.7 three days ago. So far I'm thinking it's quite a nice emulator. But, under no circumstances can I get Ethernet to work. (on Beige G3 MacOS 8.6)Have installed DOS 6.22 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11, WinTCP for WFW, I have used the Windows ne-2000 compatible drivers and tried third party drivers both of which WFW recognises and loads. I can't connect to the network under Windows.
Using built in Mac's Ethernet, swapping between Open Transport and "other network card" in BLPE's setup has no effect. I've had a very frustrating and disappointing day. But would still like to get a solution to this problem.
If you have seen this problem or have a suggestion, please let us know.
PGP 8.0 for Win XP and Jaguar ships; Source code released. December 4, 2002 -- Yesterday PGP Corporation issued several announcements related to PGP 8.0, a major new release of the company's set of encryption/security/ messaging software, which include full support for Mac OS X and Windows XP, and better Mac-Windows cross-platform compatibility. The company also released the source code. Among the announcements:
PGP 8.0 VPN and Firewall for Macintosh will be available as a new bundle called PGP Net in 2003. PGP 8 Admin for Macintosh will also be available in 2003.
Netatalk 1.6.0, AFP server for Unix, adds OS X support. December 4, 2002 -- The Netatalk development team has released version 1.6.0 of the Netatalk File Sharing suite (free, open source), a collection of Unix server programs and utilities that provide AFP (AppleShare-compatible) file sharing service. Netatalk also includes a PAP print server for AppleTalk. New in this version is improved compatibility with Mac OS X (including long file name support) and with Photoshop and QuarkXPress. Netatalk is available for FreeBSD, various Linux builds, Solaris, and Tru64.
(Thanks to Daniel Lautenschleger for the tip.)
Alternative source for Cisco VPN Client 3.7 for OS X. December 4, 2002 -- Barry Riddle had trouble getting the Cisco virtual private network Mac client from his own company, but found the Mac virtual private network client at a college site:
I was unable to get the free Cisco VPN client v. 3.7 for Mac OS X from my company's anti-Mac, anti-help desk, but was able to find it and a downloadable manual at the Colorado State web site and at other universities' web sites. Now I'm trying to decipher the PC VPN package that my company provides, so I can translate its configuration information to the Mac client.
Ximian Evolution looking unlikely as an Exchange client for OS X. December 4, 2002 -- Several readers wrote in response to our December 2 report on Ximian's Evolution, a Unix client for MS Exchange, and the possibility of using it on Mac OS X. The prognosis is not good, however, because even with compiling for OS X, and installing and X server, there is still a piece missing that would be needed to make it an Exchange client. Aaron Weber of Ximian, Inc., reports:
Theoretically, it would work. However, we don't ship Ximian Connector for OS X, so the answer, I'm afraid, is that no it hasn't really been tested and is not an available alternative to Outlook on Classic. We have considered shipping Evolution/Connector for OS X, but are unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future, due to support and engineering constraints.
Santino Rizzo tried it, thought it worked well, except for the fact that it won't work as an Exchange client:
I've installed GNOME and Evolution using Fink under Jaguar. If you follow the instructions posted and have a lots time (days) to kill while you wait for it to compile it works flawlessly. One problem is you can't use it as an Exchange client. The Exchange Connector is proprietary code so you can't get the source and you have to buy it from them - if they ever compile it for OS X.
Ted Brown expands on some of these points:
Alone, Ximian's Evolution is not a a client for Microsoft Exchange, rather it is an open source messaging client with similar features to an Outlook client implemented using open protocols.You can connect Evolution to an Exchange Server using Ximian's Connector For Microsoft Exchange.
This software is not open source, so cannot be ported by the end user, only by Ximian. So, right now, there is no way to get Evolution to work as a full fledged Exchange client for Mac OS X.
From the FAQ:
Q: Can I get the source code for Ximian Connector?A: No, Ximian Connector is a proprietary software product. It will be offered under a different license than other Ximian products. That license is available here.
Without the connector, you can connect to Exchange servers w/ IMAP (but so can any other IMAP client, including Mail.app) and I'm pretty sure the calendaring functions do not work.
Evolution itself is open source, so work can be done to make sure that w/ X and Gnome installed, Evolution compiles and runs normally. Then, if there is interest, Evolution could be ported so it didn't require X (this is probably a significant project). In any event, interest in Evolution running on Mac OS X is the best way to convince Ximian to port the Connector to Mac OS X. The Connector is probably fairly easy to port if the rest of Evolution is running.
Just though that people should know the score before spending oodles of time to end up frustrated. If you know the score first, you know what you're in for. Getting Evolution to run is probably a worthwhile project in itself.
Fix for Entourage contacts problem: upgrade AppleScript. December 4, 2002 -- Brian Platts has a follow up to out Dec 2 report on Export-Import Entourage 1.2.2 for importing contacts into Entourage from Outlook. He says that an upgrade to AppleScript fixes Microsoft freeutility that does the same thing:
Hi John...thanks for posting the information re " Paul Berkowitz Utility converts Mac, Win Outlook contacts for Entourage 2001." A couple of points however...Having downloaded the AppleScripts, I found the answer to my original question as to why the Microsoft utility no longer worked under 9.2.2. In the Berkowitz Read Me, there is an instruction to update AppleScript to 1.8.3. I did this and the Microsoft utility worked again!
Also, you state the price of the Berkowitz utilities as $12.95. In fact, it's now $20. No big deal, but worth mentioning if one only needs to import contacts, which can be done for free if the Microsoft utility is used.
More on Citrix ICA client failing to connect over Jaguar VPN. December 4, 2002 -- A reader named Pete is also having the problem of estabiling a Citrix connection over a virtual private network connection. He says the real problem is with the server. You can read Pete's report on our Citrix Special Report page.
TIP: Jaguar Finder can log on to FTP sites. December 4, 2002 -- MacWindows readers may be ahead of us on this, but we recently stumbled upon a new feature of Mac OS X 10.2's Connect to Server dialog: it allows you to log on to FTP sites, and mounts the sites as volumes in the Finder. Just type in the URL (such as ftp://ftp.apple.com), or embed a password (ftp://username:password@server).
Gimp-Print update for Jaguar adds drivers, fixes bugs. December 2, 2002 -- The Gimp-Print Project team has released Gimp-Print 4.2.4, the latest version of the open source printer driver package for Mac OS X 10.2 or later than enables printing to a variety of non-Mac printers. This version includes 197 drivers supporting over 300 printers, adding support for HP DesignJet large-format plotters and Epson multifunction printers Stylus 3200CX and 5200CX. The new version also fixes several bugs, including several that caused problems with PCL laser printers.
Gimp-Print drivers work with the CUPS print spooler built-in to Mac OS X Jaguar. The developers make this note about installing v4.2.4:
Upgrading users please note: to complete the upgrade process it will be necessary to either manually delete and recreate the Gimp-Print printers in Print Center, or manually "reload" the PPDs using the process described documentation included in the installer disk image.
You can find previous reports about CUPS and Gimp-Print on the MacWindows Jaguar Report page.
VaporSec a GUI VPN IPsec client for Jaguar. December 2, 2002 -- VaporSec is a beta release of an open source virtual private network client for Mac OS X 10.2.x that use the IPsec protocol and has a graphic user interface. Testing is currently between Mac OS X 10.2 machines and a SonicWall firewall. Joel Rennich, one of the developers, offers some help with the beta:
I wrote in a few weeks ago with tips about setting up an IPsec VPN between OS X 10.2 and a SonicWall. Well, we now have a GUI for it, and other IPsec connections. It is currently a beta but will be free and open source for it's entire life. We plan on adding more features, such as the ability to recreate the VPN connections when rebooting or changing network locations.We also welcome anybody who has an IPsec device that would like to help us add more functionality to VaporSec. Let us know if it doesn't work and we'll try to help you.
We also welcome anyone interested in giving us a hand with coding, graphics, help or whatever else might be needed.
Either way let us know at ipsec@afp548.com.
We'd also like to hear from you about your experience with VaporSec. (See the MacWindows VPN Report page for previous reports about Macs and SonicWall.)
Utility converts Mac, Win Outlook contacts for Entourage 2001. December 2, 2002 -- An Applescript called Export-Import Entourage 1.2.2 (US $12.50) by Paul Berkowitz can move Contacts, Calendars, Tasks and Notes to and from other PIM programs on the Mac and Windows. It also imports "Outlook-type" CSV files from Windows.
Reader John Glasgow wrote to say that "it works flawlessly."
Jaguar's firewall blocking Win clients? December 2, 2002 -- Mike Murphree reports that the built-in firewall of Mac OS X 10.2.x is preventing Windows XP from login. He has a theory:
I had to disable Jaguar's (10.2.2) firewall in order to get file and printer sharing to work with a Window's XP machine. The only thing that seemed to make sense was that the rules the firewall's GUI interface was creating only allowed for TCP and not UDP connections for the ports typically used (138,139,etc.). Coming from a FreeBSD background, I believe that ipfw could be easily configured to work properly, if I could get the system to run a script during the boot process.
If you can verify this problem or have a suggestion, please let us know.
Alternative to Exchange client for Mac OS X for the Unix savvy. December 2, 2002 -- Ximian's Evolution is a client for Microsoft Exchange for Linux/Unix that the company says is an alternative to the Outlook client. Unfortunately, there is no Mac OS X version, but the company says that with some effort, it can run on Mac OS X:
Evolution will compile and run on Mac OS X if you have an X server and the GNU developer's toolchain installed. This has been done and is reported to work quite well.
This isn't exactly a trivial task. Fortunately, reader Adrian C. reports that there are detailed instructions on installing X, GNOME, and Evolution on OS X. The instructions were written by someone at Ximian.
We'd be curious to hear if you've gotten this to work, and, if so, how it compares with running Outlook 2001 in Classic.
Understanding NetInfo manual available. December 2, 2002 -- Apple has posted a 60-page paper called Understanding and Using NetInfo, which explains Apple's NetInfo directory, which is used by Mac OS X itself and which can be used with Mac OS X Servers. There is some cross-platform content here in a section near the end called "Setting Up Windows User Authentication."
TIP: Win XP firewall can cause Jaguar SMB -36 error. November 26, 2002 -- Apple Knowledge Base article 107096 says that port blocking in a firewall can cause a -36 error when trying to use Mac OS X 10.2.x's Connect to Server to connect to a Windows SMB share. The error, "SMB Connect Error = -36" indicates that the Windows PC has refused a connection. The article suggest checking for the blocking of ports 137, 138, and 139 on a firewall on the PC:
If you are connecting to Windows XP, make sure that the Internet Connection Firewall settings are not interfering with your connection. SMB uses ports 137, 138 and 139. These ports should be open on the Windows XP computer.
10.2.2 fixes SMB browsing issue. November 26, 2002 -- Apple Knowledge Base article 107085 says that Mac OS 10.2.2 fixes a problem where numbers appear in Connect to Server dialog instead of computer names of Windows workstations. This is a problem with Mac OS X 10.2 and 10.2.1 when there is DNS reverse lookup on the network. In this case, PCs appear with DNS names, such as "dhcp192.168.10.12" or "h2n1079p2." The article says updating to 10.2.2 clears up the problem.
10.2.2: is SMB corruption fixed? November 26, 2002 -- Kevin Spencer reports on his web page (Nov. 15 entry) that the SMB file corruption issue appears to be fixed in the MacOS X 10.2.2. He says:
One very bad bug that appears fixed involved file corruption when copying files to and from a Windows SMB share. That feature was OK in 10.2 but broke with the 10.2.1 update.
If you can verify or refute the claim of this fix, please let us know.
(Thanks to Steve Tarry for the tip.)
Thursby verifies native mode is good for DAVE and Active Directory. November 26, 2002 -- Thursby Software Systems has responded to our series of reports on using DAVE to login to Active Directory, saying that it does work, even in native mode, but that there is an issue with .NET servers and digital signing. Thursby Vice President of Engineering Paul Nelson sent the following:
As one reader has already pointed out, DAVE DOES work with Active Directory, even in "native" mode. If customers are having difficulty getting DAVE to work, they should contact our technical support department. DAVE has been tested against Active Directory systems both on Windows 2000 and .NET servers.There is one issue with Active Directory that administrators should be aware of especially when using .NET servers. DAVE does not support cryptographically signing each network transaction. Users should make sure that the "Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always)" security policy item is set to "Disabled" when using DAVE. This item can be found under Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Options.
(You can see all of our previous DAVE reports on our DAVE Report page.)
Reader tests on the Jaguar invisible file problem on servers. November 26, 2002 -- Two readers independently sent in the results of there own testing on the problem of Jaguar not seeing files on file servers when names are changed. Romeyn Prescott reports another AFP server that shows the problem, ExtremeZ-IP, but it didn't occur on Linux running Netatalk (also AFP):
I want to chime in on this issue. I manage both an NT 4 Server running ExtremeZ-IP and a RH7.3 box running Netatalk. Here's what I did with each server.
RESULTS: On the NT 4 server I could, upon opening the volume, SEE "testfile", but it was Zero bytes and disappeared as soon as I attempted to open it.
The Netatalk server had no troubles.
Netatalk is version 1.5.5, ExtremeZ-IP is whatever was new for that product about a year ago.
Jack Stoller's tests narrow down the problem to certain types of file names and certain changes to them:
After reading the notes on MacWindows about this problem, I decided to do some detailed testing. The information below is what I found. I hope it's helpful, and plan to post it to Apple's feedback page.To see the effects of the following actions, you need to be viewing the same folder on a Windows 2000 Server from 3 machines: 1) Win 2000 Professional, 2) Mac OS X logged in using AFP, and 3) MacOS X logged in using SMB. Note that in MacOS X the effect of a change made on the other machines is not visible unless you click out of and back into the folder window, or click on an item in the folder window (e.g. window updates are not made automatically, as they are in MacOS 9 or Windows).
1) Create a Word file on the Windows machine with a long (>31 character) file name. The AFP machine sees the Windows "Short Name". On Windows, rename the file but keep the first 6 characters the same. The entry does not change on the AFP machine.
2) Now change one or more of the first 6 characters but keeping the name size > 31 characters. The AFP machines displays the short name but with an outline-only icon. Click on the name, and it disappears from the window. Dismount the volume, and remount it, and it now has the correct Windows short name.
3) Rename the file so that it retains the .doc extension but is <=31 characters. On the AFP machine, the proper name appears but with an outline-only icon. Click on the name, and it disappears from the window.
Dismount the volume, and remount it, and it now has the correct Windows long name.
4) Create a file whose name is > 31 characters on the SMB MacOS X machine. Copy the file to the Win 2000 server. The file entry will not appear at all on the AFP Mac (nor will it appear on a pre-MacOS X machine). Rename the file so it's name is <=31 characters. It will now appear on the AFP Mac.
5) Many Mac files copied to the Win 2000 produce an "invisible" companion file whose name starts with "._". Text clippings are one example. Such a file to the Win 2000 server. On the Windows machine, edit the file name (but not the "._" file (which Windows won't allow you to do, anyway). The file entry will either disappear from the SMB Mac or appear with the extension now showing and in some cases (like text clippings) the data missing.
Prosoft releases NetWare Client for OS X 1.1. November 22, 2002 -- Yesterday, Prosoft released NetWare Client for Mac OS X - IP Edition version 1.1 (US $149; free upgrade for version 1.0 owners), an update to the Mac OS X native version of the client for NetWare 5 and 6 servers. (See also this press release.) Among the improvements in this version:
NetWare Client For Mac OS X - IP Edition allows users to use NetWare natively using the IP protocol. It also enables Mac OS X to access NDS for browsing and authentication with NetWare servers.
If you've had some experience with the new version, please let us know what you think.
Jaguar invisible file problem occurs with all servers, not just Win 2000. November 22, 2002 -- Ken Bell sent an update to his November 11 report about server-based files becoming invisible to Mac OS X 10.2 when the names are changed. He originally said that the problem occurred with Windows 2000 servers. (Other readers also mentioned Windows servers.) Now Bell adds that it also occurs with other servers:
Thanks for posting the original message. This error appears to happen on all servers, not just Win 2k. So far we have tested old AppleShare IP 6.3, OS X 10.2 server and Win 2K. The common thread is OS 10.2 client. I wonder what would happen on a snap server?
If you've seen this, please let us know.
More on DAVE, Active Directory--native mode may be fine. November 22, 2002 -- Zach Halmstad responded to yesterday's reader reported that placed blame for DAVE's problems with Microsoft's Active Directory when AD is run in "native mode." Not so, said Halmstad:
We have about 300 computers (9.1 to 9.2.2) with DAVE 2.5.2. We have never seen this problem, and our AD servers are all in native mode, and have been for at least a year. As I don't think you can easily go back to mixed mode, I hope this can save someone a headache, unless of course this is specific to later versions of DAVE.
We point out that Halmstad has an older version of DAVE than did the readers of previous reports.
MacBinConv 1.1, Win command-line file encoding program. November 22, 2002 -- Miklos Fazekas has posted MacBinConv 1.1, a new version of an open source command line utility for Windows servers that can let you examine and convert between encoding formats, including:
Citrix over VPN problem verified, but not solution. November 22, 2002 -- Peter McIlroy reports having the problem with a Citrix connection over a virtual private network connection, but reports that the offered solution didn't work:
I am getting exactly the same problem trying to connect over the Mac 10.2.2 VPN into my local hospital Win NT network. I can ping the IP address fine through the terminal application when the VPN is connected but get the same error message as Jeffrey Sheldon gets when trying to connect the ICA client. I tried to follow Jimmy Jones' suggestion about the "Server custom" setting, but can only find "server location" as well as "connect to" to type in the IP address. In any case, when I set both of these to the correct IP address I still get the same error message.
A Better Finder Rename 5.0 released. November 22, 2002 -- PublicSpace.Net released A Better Finder Rename 5.0 (US $15), a Macintosh file renaming tool that can be used to change Mac file names to PC-legal names. New features and fixes include:
ExtremeZ-IP v2.2 improves AFP server for Windows. November 21, 2002 -- Group Logic announced ExtremeZ-IP 2.2, a new version of the file and print server software for Windows to support Mac clients. The software supports Mac clients via AFP over IP or AppleTalk on Windows workstation and server versions. Version 2.2 will offer a number of fixes and new features in file and print sharing. In the file server:
Among the enhancements in the print server:
Suggestion for using DAVE in Active Directory. November 21, 2002 -- John Lockwood responded to reports of problems logging into DAVE on networks with Active Directory running:
I have personally had no problems using DAVE 3 to login to a Windows 2000 Server running Active Directory. They way I did it was to have the Windows 2000 server configured to run in 'mixed mode'. This means it is backwards compatible with NT domain controllers (which then act as BDCs to the Active Directory server).I suspect those having problems have chosen to run Active Directory in 'native mode.'
If this suggestion works for you, please let us know.
Cross-platform printer sharing. November 21, 2002 -- Stacy Price describes how to share a Samsung printer connected to Mac OS X 10.2 with a PC:
Samsung released the .30 version of the drivers. Worked on the Mac just fine. Went to go share the printer to the PC and I had issues. On OS X printer services, the edit button was dimmed out, so Icouldn't select the networking methods to share the printer. So what I did was this:In Print Center, I have the entry for the ML-1450 using the Samsung drivers (Just the basic add printer, USB, with automatic detection). So I option-clicked the add printer tab, clicked advanced, selected the ML-1450, and selected USB. This displayed the USB for the printer information. Example:
usb://Samsung/ML-1450/Serial=120930123
I then wrote the info down and went to the USB Printer (usb) option and entered in the USB information on the line, named my printer sharedML1450 and selected generic postscript printer.
On the server side I then turned on windows file sharing to allow the PC to see the OSX server and devices.
I then went to network neighborhood and looked at the server until i found the shared printer. I then double clicked on it and it prompted that the right driver is not on the server, do I wanna install my own. Since I had installed the drivers, I selected Have disk and located the drivers in c: \windows\samsung\ML1450\addprint .
I then made this printer default on the PC and I made the ML-1450 default on the Mac. Both now print perfectly, but im not sure what would happen if I send requests to both printers at the same time.
HOBLink JWT 2.3 adds SOCKS authentication, SSLclient. November 21, 2002 -- HOBSoft is now shipping HOBLink JWT 2.3 (US $149), a new version of the Mac OS X client for running Windows applications via Microsoft Windows Terminal Servers. Amoung the new features of this version is the addition of SOCKS support over a proxy server, an integrated SSL client, and enhanced data encryption.
StuffIt Express for Windows. November 21, 2002 -- Yesterday Aladdin Systems released StuffIt Express for Windows (US $ 50), a new utility that enables users to transfer files with a drag and drop interface. You can create a icon that acts on a file you drop on it&emdash;it will compress and or encrypt data and transfer it via FTP, upload to the web, or via email. StuffIt Express is compatible with Windows 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000 and XP.
FileMaker launches K-12 site. November 21, 2002 -- FileMaker, Inc., has launched a K-12 education web site for educators and FileMaker developers. The site provides information, downloads, and support for schools.
Mac OS X SMB authentication against Active Directory. November 19, 2002 -- Two readers responded to yesterday's question about using Mac OS X Server to read Windows users and groups from Active Directory. Michael Bartosh describes it this way:
You can get this to work by doing pass-through authentication in samba (configured in smb.conf... security = Domain) to the Active Directory.This isn't the most secure process in the world, but it does work, as long as the Mac OS X Server is able to look up the user in the AD.
Christopher Thon has some information posted on the web:
We've had some experience with this too. We've posted our method at the JAMF Software web site. Our experience was somewhat different than what I've seen posted elsewhere in that some of the implementation environments required the users' server-based home directory to be a mount point (that is, /not/ a subfolder viewable by all on a mounted server) because of FERPA laws affecting disclosure in educational environments.
Thursby offers price reduction on TSStalk and MacSOHO. November 19, 2002 -- Yesterday, Thursby Software Systems announced a limited time price reduction for two of it's cross-platform file sharing solutions. From now until December 31, 2002, customers can purchase single-user downloads of MacSOHO and TSStalk from the Thursby online store. MacSOHO (US $49, regularly $99) is cross-platform file sharing software for Macintosh Mac OS 8.6 - 9.2x, aimed at the small office/home network market. MacSOHO adds the NetBEUI protocol to Macs. TSStalk (US $99.00, regularly $149) is cross-platform file sharing software for Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000 that adds the Apple Filing Protocol to PCs. TSStalk enables PCs to browse AppleTalk networks using the Network Neighborhood.
LindowsOS 3.0 ships; first stand-alone version. November 19, 2002 -- Yesterday, Lindows.com began shipping LindowsOS 3.0 (US $129), a version of Linux for Intel-based PCs that includes applications that and read and write with popular Windows file formats, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Real Audio, Flash, and many graphics formats. LindowsOS can also connect to a Windows network and supports a wide range of PC peripherals. (See also these stories at PCWorld and CNET.)
Version 3 marks the first time the developer has offered LindowsOS separately from bundled hardware. Microsoft is suing Lindows.com for trademark infringement over the name "LindowsOS" and its similarity to Windows.
Citrix disconnecting over VPN. November 19, 2002 -- Jimmy Jones responded to a November 1 report on the Citrix Client for Mac OS X loosing a connection over a virtual private network link.
From my testing I don't think this is an accurate error message. Since it appears to come up before a connection is made I think it should say, "Could not connect to the Citrix host."To correctly connect I had to select the Custom Server setting and enter the Server Name. So the server name was in both places, Connect To: Citrix_Server
and in Server Custom: Citrix_Server
And use Network Protocol Custom: TCP/IP I do not use the combined setting, it never worked for me.
Now if I could just get it to consistently open with a movable window instead of having the top of the window hidden under the Menu bar.
More on DAVE login problem with Active Directory. November 19, 2002 -- John Larson responded to yesterday's report of problems with DAVE logging on a network that uses Active Directory. Larson doesn't have a solution, but points to a glitch with Kerberos being used as the default authentication. He also has the problem with Connetix' DoubleTalk:
We are having trouble doing this also. We have been using Connectix DoubleTalk v1.1 and Thursby DAVE 4 to connect to a Win NT server on a Win NT domain. Both of these applications work fine for this configuration. However, the server is being changed to Win2K on a Win2K domain. We have tried both DoubleTalk v1.1 and DAVE 4 to connect to a test volume on another Win2K server on the Win2K domain. All attempts have failed.The Win2K domain uses Kerberos as a default authentication protocol, but will use NTLMv2 as a fall back. The DAVE 4 documentation states that it can use NTLMv2 to authenticate. After contacting Thursby, they indicated that if the default authentication is Kerberos, DAVE 4 does not know to fall back to NTLMv2. They also indicated that support would be added in a future release of DAVE for Kerberos authentication, but only for OS X.
Gefen drops prices of VGA-to-ADC video converter. November 19, 2002 -- Gefen has taken US $100 off of the price on its ex-tend-it VGA-to-ADC Conversion Box (now US $299). The box allows PCs and Macs with only a VGA port to connect to Apple's flat panel displays.
More on Mac integration with Active Directory. November 18, 2002 -- We have more suggestions and comments on the issue of Mac OS X integration with Microsoft's Active Directory. Jason Elliott started a thread at SlashDot that contains advice on configuring Mac OS X for Active Directory. He told us about the thread and described how he achieved integration:
There's a SlashDot thread for "'Seamless' integration of Mac OS X w/ Active Directory" on now. There are some good posts on bringing people down to earth about what you need to do to get this working.And after some research, it turns out MS Services for Unix will do most of the AD schema modification for you. This, the PDF from Apple and some tweaking may be all one needs.
We've reported that MS Services for Unix will do this before. Apple told us it wasn't necessary, while other readers advised against it. These discussions are all on our Jaguar Report page.
Another reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, repeats the claim of another user, that Apple is working on an Active Directory plugin for Mac OS X 10.2:
I have seen with my own eyes the Active Directory Services plug-in for Jaguar, the existence of which Apple's Eric Zelenka previously denied on your web site.The plug-in is installed by running a standard installation program. It then makes an additional option available in the Directory Access utility which allows one to configure Mac OS X to specify an Active Directory domain and AD admin name and password to use when authenticating against an AD server. It offers the ability to auto-calculate a UID based on an attribute already stored in AD without requiring any modifications to the AD schema, and can locate and mount a user's home directory from the Windows server, again apparently without requiring modifications to the AD schema.
This is in contrast to the existing LDAP v2 and v3 plug-ins which, if one wishes to use to authenticate against AD, require changes to the AD schema.
Win clients connecting to OS X Server 10.2.1 using Active Directory. November 18, 2002 --Eric Benfer is using Mac OS X Server to read Windows users and groups from Active Directory, but can't quite complete the process:
I am so close to nirvana. I have setup Directory Access to pull the users and groups from our Active Directory domain into my OS X Server 10.2.1. All the users from the AD show up in Workgroup Manager. I can assign AD users to local groups. OS X Mac users can get into the server using their Active Directory user name and password. I am so close to it all coming together. (I followed Chuck Simciak instructions to get this far.The problem is when Windows clients try to connect Using their AD user they cannot authenticate. If I enable the password server for a local NetInfo user a windows PC can connect with that user. However I cannot / have not been able to figure out how to enable the password server for the Active Directory users in Workgroup Manager. Mac OS 9 users also cannot connect using their AD user and password.
To sum up...
Active Directory Users and Groups show up in WorkGroup Manager. Mac OS X 10.2.1 users can connect to the OS X Server 10.2.1 via their AD user. Neither Windows nor Mac OS 9 clients can connect via their AD user. Windows clients can connect using a local user with the password server enabled.
We hate to see readers so close yet so far. If you have any ideas, let us know.
DAVE 3 login problem with Active Directory. November 18, 2002 -- Tomi Siikaluoma is having a problem with DAVE 3.1 login on a network that uses Active Directory:
We are using Mac OS 9.2.2 and DAVE 3.11, our network uses Windows 2000 Server and Workstation and Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP server. Active Directory server is running on native mode.Some of our users have started having problems logging on network via DAVE. When user tries to login, DAVE returns error message: "The remote server reported an error. Your connection was rejected because of an invalid username or password." User can still login from Windows computers and changing password from Windows does not solve the problem. The problem exist even when user tries to log in using DAVE 2.5.1, so it not related to DAVE 3.1
This problem didn't exist before switching on Windows 2000 and Active Directory last summer. I wonder if anybody else is having same problem? I'm talking with Thursby Support but so far I haven't been able to solve this problem and I seems to be getting more common over time.
If you have seen this problem, please let us know.
Apple releases Mac OS X Server Update 10.2.2. November 18, 2002 -- Apple has released Mac OS X Server Update 10.2.2 which "delivers enhancements and reliability" to components of the cross-platform server, including:
Software RAID, NFS, FTP, Print services, Apache 2, WebMail, IP Firewall, LDAP, Open Directory Password Server, Workgroup Manager, Macintosh Manager, and Security,
It also adds journaling, a new protective feature for HFS Plus file system for use "in the event of an unplanned shutdown or power failure." Apple says:
When you enable journaling on a disk, a continuous record of changes to files on the disk is maintained in the journal. If your server stops because of a power failure or some other issue, the journal is used to restore the disk to a known-good state when the server restarts.With journaling turned on, the file system logs transactions as they occur. If the server fails in the middle of an operation, the file system can "replay" the information in its log and complete the operation when the server restarts.
However, some third-party utilities can inadvertently turn off the new journaling, according to Knowledge Base article 107259. You can tell this has occurred when "The Apple Disk Utility no longer indicates the volume is journaled."
PGP 8 Public Beta for Mac OS X, Win XP, new cross-platform features. November 18, 2002 -- PGP Corporation's PGP 8.0 Public Beta 2 for Mac OS X and Windows are prerelease versions of the upgraded encryption/security package. Version 8 is the first Mac OS X native release of PGP, now a Cocoa application. Version 8 for Windows is the first version with full support for Windows XP.
PGP 8 now offers cross-platform interoperability PGPDisk, which lets you create encrypted disk images that keep the entire contents encrypted at all times. You can format a FAT PGPDisk and use it with both Mac and Windows versions. Disks created with PGP 7.x on Windows and later are compatible with PGP 8 for Mac OS X, as are disks created with earlier Mac versions. As with previous versions, encrypted e-mail messages and individual files are completely cross-platform.
PGP 8 Mail and Disk for Mac and Windows is slated to ship before the end of this year. PGP 8.0 VPN and Firewall for Macintosh will be available as a new bundle called PGP Net in 2003. PGP 8 Admin for Macintosh will also be available in 2003.
VPN Tracker and IPsec on via the Unix command line. November 18, 2002 -- Two readers wrote to say that the VPN Tracker 1.0 works, but that are willing to use the Unix shell of the the Terminal application to access the IPsec protocol of Jaguar directly. Greg Myers gave us links to descriptions of how to do so:
I have used it to successfully connect to printers on the other side of my SonicWall Tele3. Given the high price, I think I'll work at mastering the configuration through Terminal rather than use it beyond the demo period. Other than making that configuration easy, it doesn't seem to do much.The following pages were the ones I was able to use successfully configure through the Terminal application:
http://www.afp548.com/Articles/Jaguar/ipsec-1.html
http://www.afp548.com/Articles/Jaguar/ipsec-2.html
http://www.afp548.com/Articles/Jaguar/ipsec-3.html
You have to log in as root to work on the shared secret file.
Richard Kunert had similar thoughts:
This product works fine for me connecting to a VPN on our Netscreen firewall. I think I saved $50 worth of my time using it rather than trying to set up a VPN through the command line interface, I don't think it took much more than 20 minutes to find the right settings and get it running. With a VPN that uses one of the predefined settings it would have been faster.That said, I think $50 would be about my limit for an application like this. At the upcoming $80 price I probably would have skipped the purchase and done it the hard way.
I've set up a number of VPNs and am pretty familiar with the process. For someone without this experience setting up a VPN using the command line interface could be fairly difficult, especially if you don't have access to the logs of the machine you're trying to connect to so you can see what sort of negotiations are taking place.
Problem converting Outlook contacts to Entourage 2001. November 18, 2002 -- Brian Platts
The Microsoft-provided applet worked fine under OS 9.04 but, since updating to 9.2.2, I get the following error message: "Finder got an error, cant make file etc....."
If you've seen this problem or have an idea how to address it, please let us know.
Republicans add life sentences for hackers, more 'net surveillance to Homeland Security bill. November 18, 2002 -- In a closed door session, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives made additions to the Homeland Security bill that would impose life sentences to computer hackers. The new language would also give police new powers to spy on Internet users without a court order and enables ISPs to give more information information to the police. (More at this CNET story.)
Miramar rolls out PC MacLAN 9: Mac networking for Windows. November 15, 2002 -- Miramar Systems has announced PC MacLAN 9.0 (US $199; upgrades US $69-$99), a major new version of the cross-platform file and printing sharing solution for Windows NT/2000/XP. New features include:
PC MacLAN provides bi-directional file sharing and allows Macs to print to Windows printers, and PCs to access Mac printers over TCP/IP or AppleTalk. The company said that the new release works over the Internet and wireless networks as well as on local wired networks.
Miramar said the PC MacLAN 9.0 will be available on November 25.
OS X 10.2.2 fixes Win2K password-protected volume bug. November 15, 2002 -- John DeMillion reports that this week's Mac OS X updated, v. 10.2.2, fixes a problem with Windows clients accessing file sharing volumes on OS X 10.2.0:
The recent Mac OS X 10.2.2 update fixed the problem introduced in v10.2.0, where password-protected volumes couldn't be mounted (at least it did for OS X clients hitting a Win2K SP3 server).Password-protected volumes is a feature of NT4/Win2K/UNIX ASIP servers (Apple's own ASIP & Mac OS X servers have never supported it) that allow you to place a password directly on a share, so that even though (for example) all users have read-only access to a network volume, no one can get to it unless they know the volume password, over and above their own username/password. We find this feature very useful for implementing a "universal software installer" volume so that we can go right to a user's machine and do installations from this volume without having to go through all the mess of dismounting/remounting volumes and re-authenticating multiple times.
This functionality worked fine in Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X 10.0 through 10.1.5, but they broke it in 10.2.0. It's working again in 10.2.2, although it's not mentioned in the fix list.
If you've seen this fix, please let us know.
Confirmation of OS X and renamed files on W2K server. November 15, 2002 -- Several readers confirm the problem we reported on Monday, where files on Windows 2000 become invisible to Mac OS X 10.2 when the names are changed. David Minehart describes it:
I can confirm, and slightly elaborate upon, the observation that OS X loses track of renamed files on a W2K server. I created a file named Test.txt on the server by copying an existing text file using OS X and renaming it. I then used a nearby PC to rename the server's file to Test2.txt. Back at the Mac, Test.txt sat there unchanged. After a couple minutes, I clicked on Test.txt. It immediately changed to Test2.txt, with a blank icon instead of the usual icon looking like a text page. Upon clicking on it again, it disappeared completely from the list of files. Closing the server's folder's window from OS X and reopening it didn't bring back the file. To the Mac under OS X, a file renamed on the W2K server is as good as deleted.
Fred Leonard sees the problem not just with files that are renamed, but with files that are changed in other ways:
It's not just renamed files-- it's also new files added, filed deleted, etc. It seems Mac OS X cannot see any changes. The only fix I have found is to unmount the PC volume, and remount it. Then the files show up.I am still fighting trying to find a good solution to synchronize my files. Timbuktu Pro isn't any help because it can't work with long filenames, and it can't sync. I was trying Tri-Backup, but I can't because the Finder can't mount the volume in any reliable means.
SMB doesn't work. The only thing that mounts and sees the files correctly is FTP. If I mount a PC volume using FTP://ip_address, instead of SMB, everything looks great, except it only mounts read-only. FTP doesn't work in read/write mode at all. Even using the Windows local Admin logon.
I have been zipping folders and moving them over and unzipping them, or burning CD-RW's. This is a major pain.
I have talked to Apple about this, and they have no solution. They cannot get FTP, SMB, or anything else to work. I even went as far as mounting the share in Virtual PC and dragging the files out of Virtual PC. It works, but is way too slow. I still have about 4 GB to transfer from my Compaq laptop to my PowerBook, and I just can't find any way to do it.
More on MS RDC crashing in Jaguar on dual-processor Macs. November 18, 2002 -- Peet Dale adds to the reports of Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection crashing on dual processor Macs when running on Jaguar:
I have the same problem. But it is not related to the login process, it can happen at any time. In fact the only thing I can tie to the crash is that when I type fast it disconnects. Mind you, the system at the other end just pauses so all's not bad, but today I tried to send a single sentence email and it took about 12-15 logins to get it done!
StuffIt SEA Builder for Win converts .zip and .sit to self-expanding SEA. November 15, 2002 -- Yesterday Aladdin Systems released StuffIt SEA Builder 1.0 (US $25 ), a new utility for Windows that converts Zip (.zip) or StuffIt (.sit) archives into a Self-Extracting Archive (SEA) that can decompress automatically on a Windows PC. (StuffIt Deluxe 7.5 for Windows also includes StuffIt SEA Builder.)
New free calendar program for Windows and Mac. November 15, 2002 -- Centromedia is offering a new free version of Address Office for Mac OS, Mac OS X, and Windows 95-XP. Address Office is a personal information management package for small business/home office. It is compatible with Microsoft, faxSTF, eCard / vCard formats. Address Office is available for English, French, German, and Italian, and Spanish.
DigiTunnel 1.1 VPN client for Jaguar released, price reduced. November 11, 2002 -- Gracion Software has released DigiTunnel 1.1 is here, an update to the PPTP virtual private network client, which now works with Mac OS X 10.2.(DigiTunnel 1.0 is still available for Mac OS X 10.1 users.
DigiTunnel 1.1 has features not found in Mac OS X 10.2's built-in VPN client. They include:
With version 1.1, Gracion has reduced the price from US $88 to US $58.
VPN Tracker 1.0.2 released. November 11, 2002 -- Equinux issued VPN Tracker 1.0.2, a maintenance release of its IPsec virtual private network client for Mac OS X The new release contains minor enhancements and bug fixes, including:
Fix for Windows clients not logging into Jaguar Server. November 11, 2002 -- Kevin Poole reports that has found the cause of the problem of Windows clients being unable to log onto Mac OS X Server 10.2. He said Apple helped him with the fix:
I thought I'd pass along exactly what one major problem is with Windows clients not being able to log into Mac OS X Server 10.2: Windows users *must* have accounts on the server that are set to use the Password Server option (accessible in the Advanced tab of Workgroup Manager). The problem is, the Password Server in 10.2 will not run unless DNS Service is running on the 10.2 server. Configuring DNS is typically a very complex process, especially for people expecting out-of-the-box Windows compatibility (like me).Fortunately, the Apple Server tech I finally reached went above and beyond in helping me resolve the problem. He directed me to a app he wrote himself, which is a simple GUI tool for setting up local DNS service. It eliminates the need to manually edit the DNS configuration files, which can be very tricky (trust me, I tried it). And it worked for me on two servers like a charm. Once DNS is running, you may have to use the Open Directory Assistant to make sure the Password Server is properly set up and running. Then you'll have to manually set each Windows user account to use the Password Server and you'll add the new DNS info to your Network settings in System
Preferences on the server. There are a few other details to be aware of, but I think any Apple Server tech group can probably walk people through all of them at this point. If you get someone who's not aware of the solution, ask to be handed over to someone who does.
In any case, I was finally able to get my 10.2 Server to work properly with Windows clients, and I'm happy to know that Apple's techs are working to resolve it.
As this is an issue that's of utmost importance to Network Admins everywhere with 10.2 Server, I'd suggest that everyone try to disseminate the information throughout the Mac community, at least until Apple updates its Knowledge Base with the necessary instructions.
We've posted this on our Mac OS X Server Cross-platform Issues page.
More on Jaguar-to-SMB/CIFS file corruption. November 11, 2002 -- Dan Schwartz, the moderator of the Mac-NT Mailing List, sends in another report of file corruption with Mac OS X 10.2 SMB file sharing, and offers a workaround:
I too am seeing a variation of the Jaguar -> SMB/CIFS corruption problem at a photo lab, where the X10.2 workstation is transferring TIFF files prepared in Photoshop 7 to the NT4/SP6a/Workstation RIPstation/front end for a Durst Epsilon photo printer. What is devastating is that the files appear to transfer correctly; but instead of being corrupted to the point where they (gracefully) don't open, about half of the files have a black stripe across the bottom 10-15 percent of the imageSince dozens of image files are sent to the RIPstation at a time and are automatically "nested" (optimized placement & rotation for minimal paper waste) for output without previewing, the corrupted results aren't seen until the roll has been printed and processed... Sometimes hours later or even the next morning, as the 30 inch wide printer only runs at 4 inches per minute.
Because the RIPstation is part of a package and the Durst RIPstation software isn't certified for either NT4/Server or any Win2k version, I'm almost stuck. I *temporarily* fixed the problem in this small lab by upgrading the Win 98 cash register (POS terminal) to Win2k/Server and setting up an SFM -enabled shared folder on it, with Directory Replication enabled to automatically retransfer the files from the cash register to the NT4 RIPstation intake folder. Ugly; but for the computer newbie owner/operator it's bulletproof.
Jaguar can't see files on Win 2000 server when names are changed. November 11, 2002 -- Ken Bell has a problem with files on a Windows 2000 becoming invisible to Mac OS X 10.2 when the names are changed:
I am running a 2000 server, latest service packs. File sharing works fine Mac and PC until people start renaming the files. This does not effect the PC's or OS 9's in the office but the renamed file is no longer visible to the 10.2 Macs. Ejecting the disk and reopening the share fixes the problem.OS 10.2 exhibits this problem regardless of what client machine changes the name, Win2K, OS 9, OS X. I have tested two different 2000 servers.
One small caveat, if an OS 10.2 machine is the one that renames the file, it can still read it, but not any other 10.2 machines. (But again, if it is a non 10.2 machine that renames the file, none of the 10.2 machines can see or read it.)
If you've seen this problem, please let us know.
Soft Experience releases Catalogue 4.1 - Files Metadata Miner. November 11, 2002 -- Soft Experience has released Catalogue 4.1, a Windows utility for collecting metadata from files and generating HTML/XML/RDF reports. Some of the data it can collect:
The program can generate HTML, CSV, Word or XML reports of collected metadata, and is able to apply appropriate XSL transformations to build any text/csv/html/xml report. Catalogue 4.1 supports English, French, German, and Portuguese.
Release version of VPN Tracker now shipping. November 6, 2002 -- After releasing several tech previews, Equinux has released VPN Tracker 1.0, a virtual private network client for Mac OS X that use the secure IPSec protocol. VPN Tracker comes in two versions: the Personal Edition (US $ 80, or $50 until Nov. 30) and a Professional Edition (US $200, or $150 before Nov. 30), which adds a routing feature that can connect two or more networks through a secure Internet tunnel, including Airport networks.
Bernard Becker has tried VPN Tracker 1.0 and tells us that it works:
It's bit pricey for what is essentially a GUI for the built in IPSec and raccoon functionality in OS X 10.2, but it seems elegant and it works. I have it working with my SonicWall Pro and can remotely access my network when working from home.
We've added VPN Tracker to our list of VPN products for Macs on our Network Solutions page. For our previous reports on the prerelease version of VPN Tracker, see our VPN Special Report page.
We'd like you're opinion. If you've tried VPN Tracker 1.0, please let us know.
PocketMac 2.0 makes Mac-to-Pocket PC syncing Jaguar-compliant. November 6, 2002 -- Information Appliance Associates is shipping PocketMac 2.0 (US $70), an upgrade to the Mac software for syncing Pocket PC handheld devices. Version 2 adds compatibility with Mac OS X 10.2, as well as the ability to sync with Apple's new iCal and Address Book applications. The new version also adds support for several additional devices.
Confirmation of fix to get Outlook working in Jaguar. November 6, 2002 -- Michael Wilmar that the solution reported on Nov. 1 for the problem of Outlook 2001 ceasing to function with an upgrade to OS X 10.2. Wilmar reports:
Peter Attanasio had the right answer. Apparently, Mac OS X creates new TCP/IP settings for the Classic mode. Somehow they work for the most part, even though they are not the ones that had been in use previously. Resetting them worked exactly the way Peter said they would.The TCP/IP settings that OS X creates for Classic appear to be based on the settings one creates for OS X. The problem is that even though one sets up TCP/IP settings of OS X that use DHCP, etc., when they are carried over to Classic, all that goes away; existing TCP/IP OS 9 configurations are ignored; and a new TCP/IP manual setting is created in addition to the existing OS 9 TCP/IP configurations. For some reason this manual setting was good enough to get me to the Internet and to other places on our network but not to Outlook.
Linux on AirPort networks. November 6, 2002 -- Yellow Dog has a web page describing how to include Linux boxes on an AirPort network.
Detto ships Move2Mac moves files, settings from PC to Mac November 4, 2002 -- Detto Technologies is now shipping Move2Mac (US $59), a package designed to migrate files and some settings from a Windows PC to a Mac running Mac OS X 10.2 or later. (Although this is the first version, Detto is calling the release Move2Mac 2.0.) Move2Mac consists of a single CD containing software for Windows and for Mac OS X, as well as a specialized USB-to-USB cable to connect the two machines. (Detto says it will ship a version with a parallel-to-USB cable before the end of the year.) Users can choose the types of files to be brought over to the Mac. Move2Mac also transfers Internet Explorer favorites and home page designation, and the configuration for dial-up Internet accounts.
With e-mail, the procedure appears is more complicated. Detto recommends first converting your Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail to Netscape 7 e-mail, move it to the Mac, and then export on the Mac to other Mac Mail applications. Address books from Outlook Express are support, but those from Outlook are not.
Move2Mac does not convert file formats--it locates them and copies them to appropriate places on your Mac. With Quicken for Windows, you'll have to first export your data on the PC as QIF files before transferring them to the Mac. You'll then have to import them into Quicken for Mac.
If you've used Move2Mac, please let us know what you think.
Suggestion for syncing Clie in VPC. November 4, 2002 -- Mark Farber responded to Friday's item about sync a Clie handheld device with a Mac using Virtual PC, and offers this advice:
I have had no problems syncing a Clie with VPC 5 Windows 2000 using DataViz' Desktop-to-Go and Outlook XP under Mac OS X 10.2.1. I do not have missing sync installed. VPC automatically recognizes my Clie 760. May need to uninstall missing sync and do not share the USB connection. Also VPC must be the active application in order to use the sync button.
More on file corruption on Win2K SMB shares in Mac OS X. November 4, 2002 -- A couple of more readers have written with reports of file corruption with moving files over an Mac OS X SMB connection. (See our Jaguar Report page for previous reports.) Sebastian Alvarez noticed problems with moving video files over an SMB connection:
Apple's implementation of SMB in Jaguar is unusable. I mounted a Windows drive, it mounts just fine, and then I transferred video files of different types: AVI, MOV and Mpeg-2. For AVI files, most of them can't even be played; Mov files, they play and just before reaching the end QuickTime Player on Windows crashes. For Mpeg 1 and 2 files, it's very funny. The transfer actually "steals" a few bytes from the end of the file, so the video ends a few seconds before it should, from 10 to 30 seconds.Apple promotes Jaguar as having full network compatibility with Windows, and this is what they call compatibility? All transferred files corrupted? It's just pathetic.
Gary Satterfield reports corruption with several types of files:
The OS X clients were able to connect to the MS shares through SMB, but had loads of file corruption issues with Quark files, PDF files, Photoshop files, Excel files, and TIFF-IT files. [The problems cleared up after installing Services for Macintosh and connecting via AFP, Apple File Protocol.]I talked to Quark Tech Support about the file corruption issue. They had me copy a suspect Quark file from the SMB share to a local Mac desktop, then to an AppleTalk share and then back to the Mac desktop. This seems to fix the Quark file corruption issue to a degree, but as with anything on
