Re: Mac connecting to shared folder on Windows server

Hi Mel!

My comments are inline with yours.

MelPhoto@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:

> I just realized there was a response to my question. You'll have to
> forgive my ignorance on this subject matter, but are the 2 programs
> you suggested applications that would be installed on our Macs or on
> the windows server. If on our Macs, does anything need to be done on
> the server side. How do I determine which protocol (smb or afp) does
> that depend on how the server is set-up? I know in our entourage mail
> settings we put in smb before server name to connect to the exchange
> when in the office.

SMB is the file sharing protocol used by Windows.

AFP is the file sharing protocol used by Macs.

Mac OS X can use both AFP (its native protocol for file sharing) as well 
as SMB.

Dave/ADmitMac is a much better SMB client for Mac OS X. It's great for a 
small group of Macs because you don't want to have to reconfigure your 
server for just a handful of Mac clients.

ExtremeZ-IP is a much better AFP server for Windows Server. What comes 
with Windows Server 2003 and earlier is largely incompatible with Mac OS 
X's version of AFP. Microsoft has not kept it up-to-date and they plan 
on getting rid of AFP in the next version of Windows Server to be 
released. EZIP is great for larger numbers of Mac users because it does 
require you install software on your server (not the Macs).

By the way, SMB is not used by Entourage. You don't need to put anything 
more than "server.domain.com" in the Exchange Server field.

> Currently to connect to the Data & Home folders on the server we
> select the name of our server from the finder window under shared tab
> then enter our user name & password - we don't use any other
> software. Are you suggesting this may be reason for the size limit?

Yes. If you use something like "server" or "server.domain.com" then 
you're defaulting to the AFP protocol. If you were to instead use 
"smb://server" or "smb://server.domain.com" then you'd be connecting as 
a Windows machine would connect.

> Also, a new but related question: I spend most of my time outside the
> office & need to remotely connect to these shared folders on the
> server. Do I need special software for that as well? I tried using
> "Connect to server" from the Go menu. For server address I entered
> smb://(servername)/data but the server could not be located. I can
> get to the data folder using a ftp client (Cute ftp) but my boss
> wants to be able to access it the same way she would when she is in
> the office (understanding the connection will be slower). I know this
> should be possible but how? This is all very new to me.

Your company network is most likely connected to the Internet over a 
router. You'll need something like VPN (Virtual Private Networking) to 
first connect to your office network and then once connected you should 
be able to work as if you're at the office. That's a discussion far 
beyond the scope of this newsgroup or my expertise.

If you're interested in connecting to your servers at work from home 
then I suggest you hire a networking consultant.

Hope this helps!

-- 

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
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