Adding a Mac to an existing Windows Network... problems...

applefan21

applefan21

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Hi Guys, I hope someone can help.

I've been a strong mac addict for the last few years, and have just convinced my boss at work to get an iMac (albeit second hand) to do our in-house graphics on (that was my excuse, anyways!).

Its the flat-screen variety, and has just been updated to OSX v10.2.8.

We currently have a Windows network set-up in the office (Windows 2000 server i think, with clients running XP Professional), and I wanted to know if there was a straightforward way to set up the iMac to use it in the same way we use our other windows-based workstations (ie for reading mail from our mail server [I have Entourage installed], browsing the web & file sharing).

I know quite a bit about PCs and I feel fairly confident on Macs, but after an entire day of reading websites and guides, I'm at a loss.
At one point I could see my iMac on one of the PC workstations as another network called WORKGROUP, but could not access it.

I have administrator privaledges on the workstations in the office, and have access to the actual network administrator (who knows absolutely nothing about Macs) to provide me with access to the actual server, and all the info i think i need to know.

I don't have a great understanding of all the acronyms used, and many of the websites I've been reading have focussed on the Mac being the server in the relationship, not the client.

I was hoping that someone here could say something like - "you need to go on to the server, click here, and get this number/letter/code, then type this in on your Mac in this menu and ta-dah! you're fixed!"

I know its not going to be that simple, but if anyone could give me any help, I'd appreciate it.

Many thanks,

applefan21.





:rolleyes: :( :rolleyes:
 
How's the Windows network setup? Workgroups, domains, etc. Is there one main directory that's a share or is it individual user folders, or a combination of those?
 
mdnky said:
How's the Windows network setup? Workgroups, domains, etc. Is there one main directory that's a share or is it individual user folders, or a combination of those?
Click to expand...

Okay, theres two separate servers that we can connect to - one called TASKFORCE which holds all the shared directories (three main ones and then ones for all the users) and TFEMAIL which handles all the mail and website stuff.

I'm pretty sure that TASKFORCE and TFEMAIL are both domains, not workgroups.

When logging on to the network (Ctrl+Alt+Del thingy.. oh dear, how technical!), we log on to TASKFORCE domain.

We also mount two of the folders as separate drives - one is called General (for general stuff) and one is called Databases (where we keep our databases). These are folders within a folder called "server" which is under the TASKFORCE domain.

Make any sense?

(can you tell I'm not a networking kinda guy?!)
 
First thing you need to do is get ahold of the Network Admin and verify exactly what you're dealing with. Make sure they are domains, they're using Win2000Server for the actual server, and what kind of authentication they're using, etc. I'm sure we all know those answers already, but asking and guessing are two different things...it shouldn't take but 5 mins to verify everything and there is always a small chance they have something 'special' or 'weird' setup that might cause problems.

We have a private office which runs 2 Win2KPro machines, a WinXPPro laptop, and my iBook with Panther into the Sun Ultra10. Before that we used a Linux box as a server, and before that a Win2kPro box. At the main companies' office they have a 2kServer up (was NT4 before). I am the ONLY person with a Mac there, but I did manage to connect up. The company is very Win Centric...though one of the techs is a bit of a Linux guy, and was surprised with how easy Panther connected.

They have some of their shares running as a Workgroup, then there's also some domains setup. It's a very funky thing to deal with. However, everytime I connected to the wall I always had at least an internet connection, recently with the iBook/2000 server and a 2 years ago with the beige running 10.1.5 and the NT4 server. When I plugged in the iBook (10.3.3 at the time) everything was there in the Network window.

It's been about 2 months since I was at the main office...just no need to go there recently. I will be in that area tomorrow, so I'll hook up and see if I can figure out what I did the last time to make everything work.

I'm not sure about 10.2.x's abilities...when I bought the new iBook it included Panther upgrade cds...so I cut the seal on the box, test booted to ensure it didn't get damaged during shipping, then upgraded to Panther. I maybe used 10.2 for 10 mins...I think.



Take a look at this page in particular:
http://www.macwindows.com/jaguar.html
 
Okay, so after reading lots of info on the website (thanks for reccommending it to me!) I gave my iMac a puzzled look and started from the beginning.

I created a user account on the Mac that was exactly the same username and password that i use to log on to the Windows network with, and voila! It picked up everything, even the servers and the internet settings automatically! Fantastic!
I can also get in to the Home directory on the iMac from a PC!!!

I now have a couple of other issues...

1) When I log in, the drives I mounted last time i logged in are no longer there. I have to reconnect them every time. Is there a simple way of having them automatically mount when I log in?

2) I need to configure Entourage to work with MS Exchange. I now know this isnt done in the same way as the PC, as I'll have to use the IMAP account function (this is explained somewhere on the www.mactopia.com site).

3) After waking the mac up from sleep mode, the mounted drives will still exist and I can browse them, open files etc, but the internet drops. It's as if theres no connection at all. The only way to fix it is to log out, restart and log back in. Has anyone had a similar expereince? Can this be fixed? Is it likely to be something to do with the server?

any help on these would be great.

thanks to those who've pitched in so far!
 
I, too, am looking for a way to automatically mount network shares of a Win2K PC when booting MacOS X 10.2.8. Right now I'm having to manually "connect to server" (a misnomer as I am running a workgroup of peer machines, not a domain with a server) and re-enter my login username/password (because OS X doesn't remember the login info for the shared drive between sessions) every time I boot the Mac. Once I do that, it connects just fine and I'm happy with the results -- it's the hassle of getting there that's bugging me.

Is it any easier in Panther? I keep reading that each new OS X version has "improved Windows networking support" but how improved, and in what ways, is never mentioned.

Thanks!
Don
 
You could probably write a shell script (or an Applescript?) to automatically mount your network drives for you. I've never done it, but my college Unix computers ran a script at each login to mount the drives, even our Windows machines did that to connect to the Unix servers.

Maybe you could put the commands to mount the drive in your ~/.profile so they would run at login each time.
 
Thanks, I will look into that. I'm fairly new to shell scripting and a total newbie to AppleScript, but I'm willing to try.
 
Hi guys,

I've been fiddling for a little while now, and i'm really peeved that my Mac set up no longer recognises how to access the internet via the network.

Previously, the connection would drop whenever the computer went in to sleep mode, and a full restart would fix it.

However, i've now disengaged the sleep option, and now can't get it to connect. ever.

I can still browse SMB volumes and swap files from pc to mac and vice versa, but I can't get on the net (kind of critical if I'm looking to upload a website).

What should i be checking?
 
Applefan21,

Is there a chance you'd be able to upgrade to OS X 10.3? If you do, be sure to update to 10.3.4 right away or you'll have all sorts of networking headaches.

As I understand, 10.3 has enhanced Windows networking support. It does do networking a bit differently. There's a Network volume that you double-click to access other machines.

-------
One thing to try in 10.2.8. Go to System Preferences>Network. Make sure you're pointing at Ethernet and not Internal Modem.

If you are using DHCP, click on the "Renew DHCP Lease" (or whatever) button.

Doug
 
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