Mac FTP Server Help??

Hi
I have a whole bunch of movies and TV series' on my Macbook Pro. I am wanting to put them on my WD Mybook external HD. My question is; Is it possible to setup an FTP server to host the movies that are on my external Drive? If so how do I go about doing this. I want to setup this FTP server for streaming purposes only. The purpose for this FTP server is to watch movies inside my house and when im outside of my house.
Thanks in advance.

Ok Nathan, now that we have the requirements sorted out, I can tell you that using an FTP server this way is probably not going to work well, and is more difficult to set up than using software you already have. What I mean is that you can use your iTunes media library on your mac as a shared library; your iPad can connect to it using wi-fi. There is an article here on how:
http://www.wikihow.com/Watch-Shared-Videos-from-a-Computer-on-an-iPad
So, in your case, the only other thing you will need to achieve is to move your iTunes media folder to the external drive, as per your very first sentence in this discussion. There are steps for doing that here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
Note that from then on, you will need the external disk to be connected in order to access any iTunes content (songs, videos, mobile apps etc). If the external drive is not connected and you start iTunes, it will default the iTunes media folder back to your internal drive and you will have to choose the external drive again as per the apple article.

Similar Messages

Java code to create a new .txt file in FTP server --- Help

Hi,
I wrote a standalone java app which creates a .txt file in my local machine and transfers it to FTP server. But my requirement now is to create a new .txt file with the same content in FTP server itself instead of creating locally with basic java code.
I'm aware of transfering file from local machine to the FTP server using STOR command of FTP. But i never tried creating a new file & writing content into that in FTP server.
So, if any one did this before please help me out with source code or any idea ???
Thank you.
Vj.

simply_vijay wrote:
thanks for your reply. yes i've seen the Apache Commons NET API , but there is no method or class to create a new file in FTP server. I'm really worried how to solve this problem ???Sure there is.
There's a method where you can write data to a file on the server using an OutputStream, right? Well, instead of writing to a FileOutputStream, write to that OutputStream instead. Remember to close the OutputStream and call the method which says you're finished with the command (I forget what it's called).

Can the inbuilt Mac FTP server be made secure?

Last night I followed a tutorial on how to set up your router and firewall so that the inbuilt FTP server can be accessed from outside computers (using Dynamic DNS). It appears though that FTP clients have to log in to the server using only plain un-secured FTP on port 21. Is there anyway to set the FTP server up so that it can accept secured connections?
Thanks

The Finder only does regular ftp, sftp can be used in the Terminal though.

Another Newbie, how can Mac OSX Server help my School?

Hi all, the school where i work has just taken delivery of 11 brand new macs. 8 iMacs, 2 MBP's and a mini. What i'm interested to know and if anybody is just prepared to bullet point, is how we can really benefit from this software.
Clearly it's going to be tricky administering 11 macs individually, so maybe sacrifice the mini to become the server. Heres some basic questions and if anybody has any other comments they can add from experience i can approach the school with my findings?
1) Can multiple third party software installations be initiated. i.e. we have Adobe CS3 can a multiple install be initiated over the network or would all machines have to be updated individually.
2) A big concern is storage, if a server is used can files be stored locally on the machines or would they have to be stored on the server, Xserve isn't on the cards unfortunately. Is it like a windows server where the profile is stored on the server and then just downloaded to the appropriate machine. For the meantime we ideally need to store locally or on firewire drives to keep storage issues to a minimum. It's no problem making students stick to the same mac if we can make this happen.
3) Could backups be initiated from all machines to some sort of storage facility.
4) I'm guessing it's easy to lock machines down, it seems very easy to do on standard OSX so i'm guessing it would be even easier on server.
Being a school i would be grateful for any advice or recommendations on how administering this small network would be easiest done. I'm an experienced mac user but no in a network scenario, i am however keen to learn.
Thanks in Advance

Hi, I'll give a go at answering your questions.
First, how tricky it will be to administer 11 macs individually truly depends on your users. I've setup offices where the employees were intelligent people who weren't interested in hacking around on their machines, they just did their work. All their user accounts had admin privileges (along with an admin account on each machine that only the appropriate people knew the password for) so they could easily change preferences and do updates, etc. I barely had a problem with them. If you have a group who are all into surfing naughty bits and bittorrenting and other things, then you'll need to lock them down. If you are going to lock them down, you can still do it without the aid of a server by having an admin account on each machine, but you will have to touch each machine periodically to install updates and such. If you do go with server, then you can manage a lot more centrally. By the nature of you having 11 machines and the limit of OS X client of only 10 file sharing connections at a time, you're almost forced into OS X Server and the Unlimited version at that.
1) Yes you can initiate software installations simultaneously, but it will require you to capture and package those installations, and use something along the lines of FileWave, radmind, Apple Remote Desktop, etc. to perform the push. For the number of users you're dealing with, it's probably much easier to host the installer on the network, and screen control each system and run the install (along with entering the serial numbers for each one). Any future updates could be easily performed with a terminal script and access to the updater files.
2) You can store your files anywhere you want, locally or on the server (or even on a NAS). Obviously it makes sense to host them on the server (or other central location) if they are collaborative files (ie., everyone works on them or needs to see them). Your question about the windows profiles doesn't make sense with the storage part, but you can choose how to run your server/client model. You can have roaming profiles where the users' home directories are stored on the server and they can login from any machine. Or you can have individual machines and the server only authenticates the user for access to mail/file/whatever services.
3) Yes. Either by using Time Machine if it gets fixed in 10.5.2, Retrospect (which I don't trust and haven't for years), rsync (which is free and built into the OS and is cross platform so you could even back up Windows clients), or some other commercial client like PresSTORE.
4) Yes, as I stated above you can lock down the client machines and of course server can be locked down to avoid people from messing it up.
I know you mentioned an Xserve isn't an option, but how about a MacPro tower? In your situation, I would setup a MacPro with a single 2.8Ghz Quad core chip, Unlimited MacOS X Server, 2GB RAM, and 2 x 500 GB SATA drives for $3648 (cheaper if you get the drives from elsewhere). If there's the chance you could migrate other school services to the new server (email, websites, shared calendar, jabber server, etc.) you could upgrade the processor and memory (RAM can also be had cheaper from a 3rd party). You setup the two drives in a mirror RAID for fault protection and it would contain your OS and your file shares. Then get 2 external firewire drives, at least 500 GB each. Configure your network backups (and the server itself) to backup to an external drive, leave it attached for a week, and at the end of the week, eject the drive, disconnect it, and plug in the other drive (both should be named the same). Then take the first drive off-site (to another building on campus, etc.). Repeat every week. This gives you a rotating off-site backup. If even that is not an option, the mini could be the server, but you definitely want to max the RAM, and buy one of those nice mirrored RAID enclosures from OWC as your main drive, along with the 2 externals for rotating backup.
I hope that's answered some of your questions, feel free to ask more if need be. May I ask where you are located? If by some amazing chance we're close by, I might be more of a help. Take care and good luck.
Jeff

Mac Free Server Help.

So i i turned on web sharing, went to dyndns.com got a domaine and have me a site, Well i do not want to leave my macbook running all the time, i have a G4 i want to use as server, How do i Xfer it to the G4? And have the G4 run it.
And dyndns.com allows 5 domains. am i able to only link one domain to my IP? Pretty new to to this and trying to get some things off the ground and just do not have the extra money to buy a domain and have it hosted.

I think that you should be able to just copy the website to the corresponding location on the G4. Turn on web sharing, and in your router, port forward port 80 to the G4 instead of to the MacBook. Install dyndns updater on your G4 (unless your router is one of the fancy ones that already lets you set up dyndns on it directly).
Unless you plan on allowing external internet users to access your MacBook on some port other than port 80, which is now forwarded to the G4, uninstall the dyndns updater tool from the MacBook. While you could have five domain names associated with your one single public-facing IP address, and configure each domain name to a computer (to include multiple domain names pointing to a single computer), unless you are running different services on the different computers (each using different ports, since you can't port forward port 80 to two machines at the same time), it's kind of a waste of effort to have more than the one dyndns running on more than the G4. I guess you could have two web sites each on a different computer, but one would have to be accessed at http://computer1.dyndns.com and the other at http://computer2.dyndns.com:8080 (you can use any alternate number you want, where I have 8080), just so long as you have forwarded that alternate port number to the second computer.

FTP Setup on Mac Mini Server

Hello:
First off, I am new to Mac OSX Server and servers in general. I am trying to set up FTP so I friends/family can upload to my server. Here is where I am at...
My server is connected to my Airport. My Airport is the DHCP server, distributing a range of IPs to the devices. I do not have a static IP, but am using dyndns to workaround this. Note that even though FTP services are not working, Web services are.
Created a user on the server
Updated the ACL so the user had permissions to the Share
Enabled FTP service on server
Configured Airport for port forwarding to send to server based on IP
The issue i am having is that when i use a client (filezilla) i get a permission denied error on the share. I can mount the share locally to my mac and edit with no issue. Just not thru FTP.

Thank you for the reply!
I did not have the permissions set up there. I made it so the user i created had group access. Then i still had no luck. The firewall is set up and i have port forwarding to the server on my router set up. Then i found my issue...
On the FTP service, when i set up the share permissions, i forgot select protocol options and go to the FTP tab to enable the service. Once i did that, i was golden.
Thank you for your help again!

Setting up FTP Server on Mac OS 10.4.4

Hello.
I am trying to set up my Mac so that I can use it as an FTP Server.
I am connected via BT Business Broadband and I am using the following router:
3COM Office Connect ADSL Wireless 11g Firewall Router (3CRWDR100A-72)
I have been assigned a Static IP Address, which I am 99% certain that I have entered correctly into the router. If I go to www.whatismyip.com it shows my static IP correctly.
What I cannot do is access my Mac via FTP from another computer.
I think I need to set up port forwarding on the Router to the Mac, but I dont know where to do this.
Then, once I have that set, How do I set the Mac up so I can connect via FTP.
I hope this makes sense..
I would be very greatful for any help / advice.
Many thanks
Glenn

Hi
Thanks for the reply - its very much appreciated.
So I go into my router and forward on ports 20 and 21. I assume that the router will automatically forward to the Mac without entering any IP addresses (?)
You mention that if I need read /write access I will need an FTP client.
I host some websites which I need to back up to the mac. The backend system allows me to automatically back up to any computer with ftp access.
So, I want to have the back ups sent to the Mac using ftp. (The back end will connect using ftp://user:password@serveraddress
which will obviously need write access. Would this still work without an ftp client. (as I write this, I have the feeling it would be OK as the back end to the hosting will be using ftp protocols anyway))
Any clarification would be great
Many thanks again
Glenn

Help (pleeeease) with configuring FTP server connection

HI...I am so frustrated. You have to understand that I am not completely stupid, but I just cannot understand the process which will allow me to connect to a **^&-**** FTP server!!!
Here's the deal:
Me, graphic designer, designing among other things, websites.
Dreamweaver, the software program that I use to design websites.
So, I design a site, and configure it to upload via FTP. I get the FTP hostname, username, password info from the intended Internet Service Provider, and load that info into the required fields in the Site Manager window. Everything is great until I try to connect to the server....it just won't do it! I get error messages that state flatly that I cannot connect to the remote server, for reasons that are as bland as "username and password information incorrect". I have called the ISP to determine if I am using the correct username, password blah blah blah, and everything checks out on their end. It seems that everyone else but me can connect to a bloody FTP server! Harrumph.
So...what can I do? Is it that something in the System Preferences panel needs to be adjusted to allow me access to FTP? I have fiddled around a little in there, but don't change anything, because I don't know what TCP/IP, proxy settings, etc. MEANS!!! All I did was allow FTP access (duh).
Another point of interest is permissions...somewhere along the way, during my long and convoluted journey with this problem, a message came up that mentioned that. Permissions. Don't know what that means either.
Is there anyone out there that can help me?? I am so confused, and just need a little education. I would greatly appreciate any advice or information. Thanks! Janelle
iMacG4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Hi Janelle: I assume the domain is georgeponzini.com
1. http://georgeponzini.com/index.htm works so we know you have an index.htm page uploaded to the server but it contains no information at all, like you uploaded a completely blank page, no title, no code, nothing, nada...
2. http://georgeponzini.com/index.html does not exist, you never uploaded a page so what we see is an error page, saying such a file does not exist.
3. The link you have ftp-dom.earthlink.net/ is for uploading directly from a browser but I could not get it to work in Safari but does work in Firefox, which you can consider downloading and using.
4. If you can upload from your Control Center at Earthlink.net, that's a no brainer, this is the option to take, you cannot make any errors doing it this way. But that we'll figure out next... It's ok you do not see a public_html folder you are probably already in it when you log in. Where you given instructions to upload into the WEBDOCS/ folder, if so you did that right.
BTW - have you checked with Earthlink that Control Center will work on a Mac using Safari asa browser
5. Your index.htm page/file is NOT where you upload to, the index.htm IS the 'Home Page' or 'Index Page'. You're seeing a white page because it contains no information, but you must have uploaded a file/page named index.htm (see 1 above)
6. If you have files/pages uploaded in the correct area, see if you can rename any file index.html - I am sure you can do this at the Control Center, if not do this on your computer and use 'save as' > index.html - upload this file/page and see if it displays
Let me know what happens, Rick
iMac G5 iSight 20" - 30G iPOD - HP Pav 15" WS and Toshiba Sat 17" WS Mac OS X (10.4.7) Canon 20D & A620

Help Fetching files from an FTP server into a DBase or local folder

Hello Gurus!
I need help to automate or design/write an app capable of (replace a manual process) reading log files in an ftp server folder, this log files are called CDR (Call Detail Record) and named as follow cdr.txt.20020221010000 meaning that this log file was created on 2002/02/21 at 01:00:00.
This CDR log files are generated every hour by a Lucent telephone switch using a software/program called EXS ExchangePlus in ASCII format (fixed length delaminated, Char data type). EXS ExchangePlus writes a record in this CDR/log files after the call is completed, i.e. Calling_Number, Called_Number, Date_connect (yyyymmdd), Time_connect (hhmmss), Charged_time (hhmmss, duration of the call), and so on.
The manual process I am using now is:
1. Log in the ftp server into the folder where the CDRs log files are, located the latest generated CDRs log files and downloaded them into a local folder/directory. Normally I download the CDR for full day or 24 CDRs log files.
1a. Optionally sometimes I used a program called VEdit compiled/gather all 24 CDRs into a single file.
2. Once I have downloaded the CDRs I want to process (normally I process a full day 24 CDRs) I imported then into a Data Base temp table, where then I do the conversion of data types (i.e. Dates and times fields from char type -> to ->Date type) and calculations for billing purposes.
So if somebody can help with this, I would really appreciated ideas or any kind of information on how to automated this process.
I�m familiar with Java2 platform (using JDeveloper ) so if somebody has done something like this before using java, this would very helpful. Or Maybe using Visual Basic 6.0 would help too.
Thanks Gurus, and I look forward to hear from you soon!
Alf Pathros!

Thanks for the idea, even though an example would help me more.
I already found the FTPClient class.
I also would like to knwo if there is a away Ican append/merged various files CDRs into a single/one to then dump/import it into the database

I'm new to Solaris 10 and need help to setup ftp server

hello!
I just installed Solaris 10 and I'm trying to setup an ftp server (with ftpd) but I don't know how to do that
my server doesn't need any security or authentication
I'm looking for the default shared files directory
Also wondering what to change in what configuration file...
This OS looks quite similar to some linux I used before but the differencies are big enough to drive me crazy
anyway thanks for your help.
Any advice is welcome :-)

cd /etc/ftpd
vi ftpusers
put a # in front of root and any other users that you wish to be able to ftp
then svcadm restart ftp
If you want to set up an anonymous ftp server, there is a little more involvement

Need Help to locate a file on a FTP server using MediaLocator class

Hi Friends,
This is Venkat. Iam currently working on a Multimedia J2EE web project. Iam working on a requirement to
show Thumbnail view for uploaded media. For this i have downloaded a standalone code from the following site.
http://www.exactfutures.com/index02.htm.
This code converts frames of a media files to jpg images which i can use them to show as Thumbnails.
The code takes file name which is present in project folder as parameter. But in my web project iam using a FTP server to store my media files.
The above code uses Java Media Framework along with another API Fobs4JMF. The media file name is passed to MediaLocator class constructor which is located in the project folder. Iam talking about a standalone application here.
But my project is a J2EE web application.
Now my problem is that, how can i refer a file which is located on a external FTP server and pass it to MediaLocator or some other class.
Say the ftp file URL is mms://wm.testuser.net/12365741/testvideo.wmv
Guys hope you are clear abt my problem. Please help me ASAP.
Below is the part of code
     * Constructor
     public vid2jpg(String path) {
          MediaLocator ml;
          String args = path;
          if ((ml = new MediaLocator(args)) == null) {
               System.out.println("Cannot build media locator from: " + args);
          if (!open(ml)) {
               System.out.println("Failed to open media source");
     * Given a MediaLocator, create a processor and start
     private boolean open(MediaLocator ml) {
          System.out.println("Create processor for: " + ml);
          try {
               p = Manager.createProcessor(ml);
          } catch (Exception e) {
               System.out.println("Failed to create a processor from the given media source: " + e);
               return false;
          p.addControllerListener(this);
          // Put the Processor into configured state.
          p.configure();
          if (!waitForState(p.Configured)) {
               System.out.println("Failed to configure the processor.");
               return false;
          // Get the raw output from the Processor.
          p.setContentDescriptor(new ContentDescriptor(ContentDescriptor.RAW));
Thanks in Advance for your time.
Venkat
Edited by: VenkataGuru on Jul 23, 2008 5:30 PM

Hi Mani,
Below is code that ran successfully on a cRIO-9002. It looks much the same as yours, please double-check the formatting of your string controls. If things still do not work, let's look at the cRIO more closely.
Message Edited by Pie56694 on 06-30-2008 09:45 AM
Attachments:
FTPDELE3.jpg ‏28 KB
FTPDELE.jpg ‏24 KB
FTPDELE2.jpg ‏18 KB

I can't publish to an ftp server. can you help?

G'day everyone,
I've made a lovely iWeb site, but am having problems getting it online. I click publish and iWeb is busy for about 2 - 3 hours, eventually ending with this "PUBLISH ERROR" message:
"There was an error communicating with the FTP server. Try again later, or check with your service provider." I've tried both suggestions, several times.
According to my web host co. I've entered the correct server address, user name, password, path, protocol and port. They also wrote to me "in the files uploaded I dont see any "html" files? I believe you have either not saved your website in the correct format or have failed to upload some content. Please also note that you should (from what I can see) only be uploading files in the jazzpiano.com.au" folder on your MAC to the public_html dir. Not uploading the dir jazzpiano.com.au" itself."
you can see what I have uploaded at http://www.jazzpiano.com.au/jazzpiano.com.au/
Any advice on how I can get iweb to publish to ftp properly would be most appreciated. It publishes fine to my local folder.

What your hosting service is telling you is correct. You have uploaded the folder - jazzpiano.com.au - and not the files inside it. This is a limitation of the iWeb FTP and why you should follow Ethmoid's suggestion of publishing to a local folder and uploading the contents of the folder produced by iWeb using an FTP application like Cyberduck.
The movies appear to be uploaded to the server....
http://www.jazzpiano.com.au/jazzpiano.com.au/Media/clip-2010-05-30%2022%3b19%3b1 6.mov
http://www.jazzpiano.com.au/jazzpiano.com.au/Media/clip-2010-05-30%2022%3b27%3b1 2.mov
.... but may not be loading in the browser due to spaces and special characters in the filename. Simplify this - 30%2022%3b27%3b12, load them into iWeb again and republish.

Please help. Can no longer connect to my Mac Mini Server

Up until two days ago, my iMacs were connecting to my Mac Mini Server normally. All of a sudden I could no longer transfer files without being prompted to type my password. Enter password and nothing happened, then got an error message stating that I don't have permission to do that. Now, a day later, no acces to my server. Has anyone ever experienced this? Can anyone please help? I've read the Mac mini booklet but doesn't have any troubleshooting info. Thanks in advance.

Hello MrHoffman,
Thank you for the advice. I went into Terminal first and typed in your command and this is what resulted:
Last login: Fri Jan 24 22:39:08 on ttys000
serverX:~ serverx$ sudo changeip -checkhostname
Password:
Sorry, try again.
Password:
Sorry, try again.
Password:
Primary address     = 192.168.1.7
Current HostName    = serverX.private
The DNS hostname is not available, please repair DNS and re-run this tool.
dirserv:success = "success"
serverX:~ serverx$
serverX:~ serverx$
I'm not very experienced with programming or coding, but this message seems to indicate that there's a problem with DNS just like you noted. I've highlighted the note in bold...What can you make of this or the logs from console below?
Below is what I found in Console:
1/24/14 8:55:08 AM          com.apple.launchd[1]          *** launchd[1] has started up. ***
1/24/14 8:55:19 AM          com.apple.launchd[1]          (com.apple.NotificationServer[73]) Suspicious setup: User "jabber" maps to user: _jabber
1/24/14 8:55:25 AM          edu.mit.Kerberos.kadmind[58]          kadmind: starting...
1/24/14 8:55:27 AM          org.jabber.jabberd[53]          ERROR: Could not create /var/run/jabberd: Permission denied
1/24/14 8:55:27 AM          com.apple.launchd[1]          (org.jabber.jabberd[53]) Exited with exit code: 1
1/24/14 8:55:27 AM          com.apple.launchd[1]          (org.jabber.jabberd) Throttling respawn: Will start in 1 seconds
1/24/14 8:55:28 AM          org.jabber.jabberd[130]          ERROR: Could not create /var/run/jabberd: Permission denied
1/24/14 8:55:28 AM          com.apple.launchd[1]          (org.jabber.jabberd[130]) Exited with exit code: 1
1/24/14 8:55:28 AM          com.apple.launchd[1]          (org.jabber.jabberd) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
1/24/14 8:55:28 AM          com.apple.printservice_LPR_mDNS_Plotter_Epson_7600[70]          Registering Service Plotter Epson 7600._printer._tcp port 515 TXT txtvers=1 qtotal=1 rp=Plotter_Epson_7600 pdl=application/postscript ty=$null$
1/24/14 8:55:28 AM          com.apple.printservice_LPR_mDNS_Plotter_Epson_7600[70]           8:55:28.703 Got a reply for service Plotter Epson 7600._printer._tcp.local.: Name now registered and active
1/24/14 8:55:30 AM          org.jabber.proxy65[52]          /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python /twisted/persisted/sob.py:12: DeprecationWarning: the md5 module is deprecated; use hashlib instead
1/24/14 8:55:30 AM          org.jabber.proxy65[52]            import os, md5, sys
1/24/14 8:55:30 AM          org.jabber.proxy65[52]          /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python /twisted/python/filepath.py:12: DeprecationWarning: the sha module is deprecated; use the hashlib module instead
1/24/14 8:55:34 AM          com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[174]          (com.apple.ReportCrash) Falling back to default Mach exception handler. Could not find: com.apple.ReportCrash.Self
1/24/14 8:55:35 AM          ServerScanner[200]          Preference says we shouldn't scan
Thanks!

Help Setting up Mac Mini Server for Printer/File Sharing to Windows comp.

Hi, so in our office, we decided only to switch half of the office to macs for budgetary reasons. We purchased the mac mini server to replace the 5,000 year old one and have also gotten to macbooks and a mac mini. My other two co-workers unfortunately still are using two windows vista machines. We have important documents on the server hard drive and they also need our OLD ACT! database to access from it and I have not been able to get them to access the hard drive. Can someone please walk me through these steps? Also, ideally we want to be able to access this servers hard drive when we are out of the office and edit word documents and such, but I also have not been able to do that or make that work. Any help in these areas would be greatly appreciated!

If you use a different login name for the network account to your existing local account then the local account will not be affected. You might want to transfer the contents of your existing local account to the new network account. To do this you could try the following
Create new network account
Login using old local account
Now while logged in using old local account - connect to the File Server
Enter the new login details
It should hopefully list the Share that stores your new network account, complete the connection
You should now have the Share mounted, copy the contents of your local account to the corresponding location in your new network account
Note: The Library folder in your home directory contains all your settings
Once complete logout of the old local account
Try logging in to the new account
In terms of limitations, it is going to be slower than a local account because it has to go across the network, and some badly written applications may have some issues but most will be fine.
At this stage your local account has not yet been deleted so if you have problems you can revert to it.

Mac mini server networking and DNS setup help

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with this. I'm working at a small business where I'm the only guy with any IT experience at all, but I'm new to Macs and OS X (<1 year) and being a server admin so please bear with me.
We just bought a Mac mini server as we are expanding from a bunch of workstations and Google Docs. I've just gone through the installation process, but nothing else is on the server, no user data at all, so if the answer is to reinstall from scratch, I can do it.
We'd like the mini to be a file server, print server as well as the gateway for the internet. I realize we could stick to our router and have the server as another node in the network, but we also got a Time Capsule for backing up the server and will locate it in another room to be another wireless access point there.
When going through Server Assistant, I didn't really know what to name the machine so I used corp-Server.local for the Current Hostname and corpserver.private for the DNS Hostname (though i actually use a 3-letter company acronym instead of "corp").
However, i realized after setup we'd want to access the server externally by name, so I changed the DNS hostname to server.companyname.com in the Zones tab of the DNS section of Server Admin (edited primary zone name, changed Nameservers entry for both primary and reverse zone).
I don't know what else I need to do though because there are loads of instances where corpserver.private still shows up, like in the Open Directory section of Server Admin (which btw always hangs when I open it) and the Contact Info of users (eg. user email is [email protected]). I also had trouble earlier using Server Preferences and Server Admin either not connecting or not recognizing my login, but that seems to have abated.
I guess my problem is, where else do I change the DNS hostname? Or do I have to change the DNS hostname back to corpserver.private (in Server Admin)? That way, I think at least everything will be consistent, but would I be able to still configure it somehow so that externally, we could access the server by the server.companyname.com URL?
Also, can the mini be a wireless router for the office? As mentioned before, we want to cut the existing wireless router out and use the mini instead (and use the Time Capsule as a wireless bridge).

So the ISP<->router connection can have a dynamic IP address, but the router<->server one should be static? I guess that means I have to set the IP address in the router. I hope I can get access to it. I don't suppose it matters which one I set first?
An IP router does not assign addresses.
A DHCP server does assign IP addresses upon receipt of a DHCP request from a client.
Some routers (and many firewall routers) do include a DHCP server.
A box with a static IP address does not need to send a DHCP request; it has a static address.
You'll need to ensure that the IP address pool within the DHCP server does not overlap the addresses that are manually assigned to your local hosts; the static IP addresses on your LAN.
[Here is an overview of the pieces involved here, and some of the typical terminology|http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/275].
I hate to belabour the point, but I just want to clarify: in my setup where ISP<->router<->server<->clients, where the server is the only machine connected to the router, which one should be the local DNS server? The server, right? So if the DNS server is turned on in the router, I should turn it off? Or do I need both (ie. router for its LAN (to server), and server for its LAN (to clients))?
So to confirm, the configuration includes (probably) a modem, a router (firewall) and a router (Mac), and then the rest of the (local) show? That is not the simplest configuration, and it's Particularly given that Mac boxes make expensive and slow routers.
The usual configuration is ISP>firewall>LAN and the LAN is usually built from WiFi, wired connections and switches. Within one subnet (which is typical) any host inside your firewall is connected on the LAN, and can communicate (directly) with any other LAN client. The firewall is configured as the gateway; that's the default route for outbound connections.
One more thing that's bugging me: I still don't understand why I couldn't connect to the internet when I plugged in the Ethernet cable from server to router. Even if I was using DHCP to get a dynamically allocated IP, shouldn't it still have worked? I'm worried that I'm going to set up everything as it should be but the connection still won't work.
That's likely because you're trying to use the Mac as a router, and that takes specific configuration steps. It's easier to have ISP>firewall>LAN, and have the Mac OS X Server box and the rest of the stuff as peers on your LAN. If you really want to use the Mac as an IP router, look around for setting up static routes on Mac; there are postings around for that.
If your data is more valuable and your security preferences and requirements are higher, then you may want a firewall with a DMZ, and put your web-facing boxes over in the DMZ. If you're serving stuff to the web or a mail server or such, it's possible to get breached, and a breach means folks can potentially get further into your LAN. With a DMZ, they're somewhat more isolated from your LAN.

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