07-07-2005, 03:10 PM

Ok, I am a PC guy so bear with me ;-)

My wife is setting up a new experimental lab full of Macs on a PC based campus. She needs to have about a 1/2 dozen Macs (all new) hooked up to the network, and each with the ability to store and/or retrieve data files from a single server/machine that can be backed up frequenty. Now, this server can be a Mac server, space on a University server (PC I believe), or some other solution.

Is such file sharing over a PC network difficult with files of any and all types? Should she use "DAVE"? Does OS X.# make this a lot easier than it used to be (I used such a setup years ago with an older version of DAVE and it was a pain in the rear).

The IT department has been *cough* less than helpful so far. My wife loves Macs and really wants to make her lab 100% Mac....but if she can't then I have to port the code of her experimental software over to the PC....so I have a BIG interest in keeping her on a Mac ;-)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!! And I apologize if such a situation has been dealt with in the past and I just didn't see it.

07-09-2005, 07:27 PM

Originally Posted by CardInAustin

Ok, I am a PC guy so bear with me ;-)

My wife is setting up a new experimental lab full of Macs on a PC based campus. She needs to have about a 1/2 dozen Macs (all new) hooked up to the network, and each with the ability to store and/or retrieve data files from a single server/machine that can be backed up frequenty. Now, this server can be a Mac server, space on a University server (PC I believe), or some other solution.

Is such file sharing over a PC network difficult with files of any and all types? Should she use "DAVE"? Does OS X.# make this a lot easier than it used to be (I used such a setup years ago with an older version of DAVE and it was a pain in the rear).

The IT department has been *cough* less than helpful so far. My wife loves Macs and really wants to make her lab 100% Mac....but if she can't then I have to port the code of her experimental software over to the PC....so I have a BIG interest in keeping her on a Mac ;-)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!! And I apologize if such a situation has been dealt with in the past and I just didn't see it.

I would use at least 10.3.x. You shoudn't have any problem using a shared or dedicated folder or volume on any one of the servers on the network. The users can access shared volumes via their regular log in I.E. the same login name and pasword they would use to access a windows network or what ever it is they are using. You can even use shared printing resources.

ed724

07-10-2005, 06:58 PM

Since this an "Experimental" lab. I would plan on experimenting. At this point there are a few to many "ifs".

If there's active directory involved. (home folders and user accounts)
If there's a W2K3 server involved. (smb signing with NTLMv2)
If you use Tiger 10.4 (no Dave support yet)

You will be able to get some level of what you want. Perhaps everything you want. However it will be a little bit of trial and frustration. It sounds like you're in the beginning stages of making decisions.

Cost conscious? Get six eMacs ($749per w/ edu discount) and a beefy low end G5 PowerMac running OS X Server and an external tape drive and/or external HD) You'll be under 10 G's and have good results.

Add windows and you'll be pleasantly surprised at how far we've come. There may be a caveat or two. Not to worry. Where there's a will there's a way.