OSX 10.5.2 Leopard network problem

[solutionize]

I am running Mac OS X 10.5.2 (Leopard) and I am experiencing serious problems when opening files stored on our network. For example: If I randomly try to copy a file from my desktop onto the server (to overwrite an existing file of the same name) I get an error message saying I don’t have sufficient privileges and the copy cannot be completed – the file stored on the server is then erased completely. This is obviously a very serious problem - random data loss when opening/copying files across the network is almost an unworkable situation and I am losing files all over the place.

Could this be a communication issue between Windows Server and my Mac OS?

I understand from doing some research that my version of Mac OS X (10.5.2) includes fixes that are supposed to address this and related bugs (eg. binding reliably to Active Directories on Windows servers) that were present in 10.5.0 but clearly that is not the case.

 

[mvcube]

I admit that this is nasty! You can do different things:

Run the AFP server on W2K3 Server and connect this way. This has the added benefit of avoiding the ._* files which clutter up the directories were Mac files are stored. The downside of this approach is that there is a limit on the length of a filename under this AFP version.

Next, you can try the NFS server. It is tricky to associate user names correctly with NFS and I doubt that the performance is good (I have only tried once.)

To debug your situation, you need to increase the debug level of Samba on your Mac and check if you can find any errors in the Samba logs. Are you sure the server is up to date and there are no hardware problems with the network link?

 

[Satcomer]

Also if you are putting lone Macs into a Windows domain keep the administrator tip site MacWindows bookmarked. They have many great server administrator reader report/bug fixes pages that are kept up to date.

 

[solutionize]

Hi I was comparing the system preferences between the

- MAC 10.3 Panther Version which works fine with the network

and

- MAC 10.5.2 Leopard Version; the one that has trouble working correctly

I have uploaded the screenshots, hopefully this can help find the trouble.

 

[mvcube]

The settings you show are for outside access to your Mac and of no relevance in your case. You need a Samba Guru to help you.

A probable cause of your trouble could be that recent versions of the Samba client (as Mac OS comes with) can use a higher level of authentication against the Windows server than older versions could. This may lead to the situation that such a higher level is negotiated between the Mac with Leopard and your server but the mechanism is buggy on either side and therefore breaks. If this happens in the wrong moment the results are unpredictable.