Problems with iDisk Utility for Windows XP

Hi everyone,

I purchased a MacBook Pro last Saturday with .Mac and so far I love it . I had never even touched a Mac before then.

Anyway, one of the things that made me get the .Mac service was the ability to share files via iDisk's public folder. Unfortunately, most of the people I need to share with run XP. So far I have been unable to get this to work.

I watched the how-to videos on the .mac website. It looked easy (download the iDisk Utility for XP, install and run). It isn't proving to be easy though. I downloaded the software (iDiskUtility_WindowsXP_1.1.zip) and install it on my xp machine. When I launch the software I get an error banner stating "unable to access your host file." After I click ok I get a window that looks different than the one shown in the video.

I get:

Video shows:


Then when I click "Public Folder" under options, the password section greys out so I can't even enter my public folder's password. When I attempt to log into my iDisk instead of the public folder, I receive the error message "iDisk Utility failed to mount your iDisk."

Is there a new version of the utility? Am I doing something wrong? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT:
I have continued to play around with my iDisk and I am having another problem . I uploaded a file (m4b format) from my XP machine to my iDisk using .Mac’s web interface. The file uploaded fine. When I look at my iDisk using the finder on my MBP, I see the m4b file but it is shown as an empty folder (0 bytes ). If I download it to my desktop, all I get is an empty folder. If I look at my iDisk via the .Mac website on my MBP, the file is 90Mb. I am even able to download the file from the website. What gives?

are you limited / restricted by anything?
are you accessing this at work?
Is it going through a router because you could try port forwarding

Yes, I was trying to use my work XP machine to access iDisk through my work's network. I have just tried it on my home machine and got the same results. I don't understand why the password section gets greyed out when I try to access a Public Folder. It makes me think that I am trying to use an old version of the utility.

BTW, at home I am sharing my internet connection (cable modem) with a Linksys router. I am not sure what you mean by "try port forwarding." Could you please give me a little more info? TIA.

I have something to report in regards to my "edit" comment. The m4b in on my iDisk is no longer a folder in Finder. It is now a file as it should be. Kind of strange.

I've never bothered with the iDisk Utility.

It's possible to connect to your own iDisk from Windows using My Network Places to create a new Network Place, and using
http://idisk.mac.com/YourDotMacName as the server

Unfortunately (for you, lucky for me!) I'm nowhere near a PC right now, so I can't give better directions than that.

Sorry Technologist . It didn't work for me. There must be a setting I'm over looking in the new IE I have on my laptop

wot_fan Do you have Zone Alarm or similiar on your XP box? A firewall might be the problem.

I know I had to tell Zone Alarm to allow my Mac to see my PC share on my network.

Thanks for the comments .

I am not using a firewall so unfortunately that can't be the problem.

I contacted .Mac support about the problem. Here is a portion of their response.

Use a different URL

Try using a different URL. To connect to the iDisk, instead of using "http://idisk.mac.com/username", use "http://idisk.mac.com/username/?".

To connect to an iDisk Public folder, instead of using "http://idisk.mac.com/username-Public", use "http://idisk.mac.com/username-Public/?"

Click to expand...

I tried the URL they gave to access my public folder and it would not accept the password I had setup for my Public Folder. It did accept my main .Mac password. This solution won't work for me because I obviously don't want to give out my .Mac password to everyone I need to share files with. Any ideas?

I just found this:

Accessing my iDisk on .Mac

Q: Can I give windows users access to the public forder on my iDisk?

A: Sure, all it takes is the right URL for any web browser. The general link is as follows:

"http://homepage.mac.com/member_name/.Public/filename"

just use your member name to replace the member_name portion and use the name of the file you want them to see to replace filename. Files and folders that are in folders on your iDisk other than the Sites folder must have the top-level folder name, preceded by a period, and appended to the URL prefix.

The only the following folders can be accessed are:

Music
Movies
Pictures
Public
Sites
But remember, if you give someone access to a folder other than Public, they need to have your password so the best option is to put the files you want to share in the Public folder.

Click to expand...

I also found this:

Q: Can a .Mac group's web pages be viewed through any browser?
A: We recommend that group members download and use one of these browsers: Safari 2.0.2 or later, Firefox 1.0.4 or later, or Internet Explorer 6 or later (Windows only). All these browsers support a web technology that lets us make pages interactive without having to reload them. We take advantage of this technology to deliver a better user experience.

Click to expand...

I don't know if you have already found this page on the Apple website, but here it is anyway:

Using your iDisk to share files

There are some interesting comments about the Windows XP side of accessing and sharing files on an iDisk server:

iDisk Utility for Windows XP

Thanks Pulse-8. That will work for a temporary solution. Giving a direct link to the file I want to share bypasses the password I put on my Public Folder though. It also doesn't give the people I share files with a means to put files into the Public Folder.

I really appreciate your effort :yinyang:.

That's really strange cos all the info I've read so far points to the opposite being true .. the frustrating thing for me is I don't have a .mac account so I can only find the info out there but can't really understand or test any of it which is really needed for me to fully understand and troubleshoot this through with you .... oh well, life wasn't meant to be easy .. someone once said!

After playing around more with it some more, the best solution I have found is to remove the passord from my Public Folder and to do one of the following:

For someone I want to have read/write access, I have them use this URL:
http://idisk.mac.com/username-Public/?

For someone I want to have read only access, I have them use this URL (thanks again Pulse-8)
http://homepage.mac.com/member_name/.Public/filename

I can live with that. Thanks again to all who helped .

I read somewhere (Wouldn't you know I have the same problem ) that the Xp utility only takes up to the first 8 characters of a password.

It didn't get me hooked up on my wife's' lap top though. It has Zone alarm too. I turned it off without result and I went in and set the 4 Green ticks . I wrote to .Mac support I'm now waiting for an answer... I'm not holding my Breath

Please post if they give you any useful info. I also have a help request in. I will reply here if I learn anything new. Thanks.

I just got a reply .

One of the things They asked me to try was to make a new Network place using the WebDav server to check if I was on a Proxy.
the URL is http://test.webdav.org/dav. I connected without any trouble

When I try to make a network place using one of the URLs (I have tried them all) I get a log-inbox and have to enter my username and password which I do then it just disappears and reappears minus the password.......

Then I try to use the XP utility I get the login box. I log in and after a minute I get the can't mount error.

It Works!!!!

Well call me Thick1...........I was playing around with the iDisk utility and just changed the user name to "Username" not followed by @mac.com and then typed my full 9 character password ...And IT WORKS ...I think the correct "Jobbian" term is BOOM

Another Guinness please my man.......The Luck of the Irish be with you all this fine evening:black: :black:

Well, that's exactly what I was talking about .... trying to help someone out but not being able to go through the steps needed to troubleshoot issues. It's like I'll go out now and get myself a .mac account for a year to go through these things myself and then I'll truley understand how frustrating it can be and the joys of working through it to solve it.

In my investigation I did note though that having a password was a user preference and not a pre-requisite.

Congrats Kilted1 you earned more than just another Guiness!

wot_fan, I'm receiving the same error message you did: "iDisk Utility failed to mount your iDisk." Apart from your finding a workaround for letting other people access your Public and not-Public folders, did you find a solution to the mounting problem?

Here are my specifics: I installed the iDisk Utility on a PC running Windows XP using the Administrator's User login. When I tried mounting iDisk from there, I was able to do so successfully. However, when I logged in as the "Guest" user (which is the one I need to use regularly), I was able to launch the iDisk Utility. However, when I tried to mount the iDisk (as either an iDisk volume or as a public folder) as a Guest user, that's when iDisk would fail to mount.

The only workaround I could find was to designate the iDisk as a "Network Place" using Apple's instructions (mentioned above, I think). Only then could I access SOME of my iDisk files as a Guest user on this PC. The problem with the "Network Place" access is that it's slower, and not all types of files will open properly. I'm thinking that the "Network Place" access doesn't treat the iDisk as being a proper "network drive" in the same way it would were I able to mount the iDisk successfully as an "E" Drive. I'm not sure because as a Mac user, primarily, I don't understand the Windows OS well enough to know how a "Network Place" functions in comparison to another drive.

Here's more trial-and-error: I tried switching between Admin and Guest users numerous times, trying to see if I could mount the iDisk on the Guest side if it was simultaneously mounted on the Admin side; or if I could only mount the iDisk on the Guest side if I WASN'T mounted on the Admin side. No breakthroughs. I tried removing and re-installing the iDisk Utility on the Admin side. That didn't work, either. I tried logging on and logging off on both sides and restarting. Still wasn't able to mount the iDisk when I was logged on as a Guest user.

It's really a shame that iDisk doesn't work as transparently as it should. I also learned a hard lesson: When I was home on my Mac and backed up my folders using the Backup program, my folders were saved as a series of .dmg files as opposed to individual folders containing my files. .Dmg files can't be viewed or opened on a PC at all, so it would seem. Unfortunately, my Mac is in another country at the moment, so I can't get at any of the files from my most recent backup. Aargh! I must have had my Backup options set wrong. Thanks for any further "mounting" advice.