How to properly downgrade my os leopard to os panther?

I installed the retail os leopard on my power G5 and it messed up with dvd studio pro 3. How to properly downgrade my os leopard back to panther? thank you.

It's usually not recommended to downgrade. The installers are designed to upgrade OSs. You could corrupt the system files. Your other post about dual boot is the way to go. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2597
 Cheers, Tom

Similar Messages

  • How can I Downgrade to Snow Leopard and keeping all 3rd party apps?

    New to MacBookPro and really happy. With Lion...not so much. I want to downgrade to SL, however, apparently I must reformat the hard drive. Here´s the real question: If I have a backup of my entire HD with the user, docs and all the apps I have installed (on Lion), once I downgrade to Snow Leopard, can I just move all my apps from the back up disk I have made of my Lion-Running hard drive? In other words, How can I downgrade without having to reinstall every single third party app I have?

    First, how new is this Mac?  A Mac as a rule cannot boot to an older operating system version than that with which it was originally supplied.  In other words, if this is a new MBP that came with Lion then you probably cannot get it to boot to SL.
    Some applications (and I take it you do mean full "applications" rather than "apps" which are mobile device programs -- it helps to be clear o terminology) can just be dragged from place to place.  Others, notably Adobe and Office, install things all over the place and unless you are good at finding hidden files with obscure names in 10 different places you will just have to re-install them.

  • How do I downgrade to Snow Leopard?

    How do I install Snow Leopard on my MBP? 
    I had a non-genuine copy of Lion installed. So I formatted my HDD, and now want to install Snow Leopard, so I can buy and install my own copy of Lion.
    But MBP won't let me install Snow Leopard. When I boot from Snow Leopard installation DVD, I get the message "Mac OS X can not be installed on this computer". Is there some "left overs" from the Lion install or what?

    There's no such thing as a non-genuine install of 10.7; there is such a thing as an unpaid-for version.
    So the first question here would be what version of Mac OS came installed on this particular Mac? If it was Snow Leopard or lower, then you can downgrade to that. For details on how you should do this, read this post by ds store in this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3195589?start=0&tstart=0

  • I have inastalled Lion on my Mac Book Air and I have really problems. By application that are not from Apple the processors is 80 degrees celsius warm after 2-3 Minutes from the start of the Apps.How can I downgrade 2 Snow Leopard without 2 loose my Data?

    Can I use the Lion licence with my MacBook Pro if I downgraded my Air?

    If you are wondering why you are not getting any responses, it is because you have vented a complaint without any details that make any sense or give anyone something to work on.
    If you want help, I suggest actually detailing what has happened, with versions of software etc. Anything that would let us assist.
    As a start I am guessing that you have not really got the hang of "How it all works". Firstly download the Pages09_UserGuide.pdf from under the Help menu. Read that and view the Video Tutorials in the same place. A good addition would be the iWork 09 Missing manual book and something to help you learn how to use your Mac.
    If there are specific tasks you need help with:
    http://www.freeforum101.com/iworktipsntrick/index.php?mforum=iworktipsntrick
    Is a good resource.
    Peter

  • How to Downgrade to Snow Leopard from Retail disk

    Hi there
    We have a new iMac at work bought through Apple's refurb site. It is running the latest version of Lion with all firmware updates, etc. It is replacing a G5 running Tiger.
    The problem is this – it is supposed to be running Adobe CS5, but also CS4 (and Office would be handly also)
    We have other macs here, some running Leopard, some Snow Leopard, but the Adobe apps are not happy at all in Lion, and InDesign CS4 crashes all the time and won't even print without jumping through a million hoops (obviously the Office 2004 app won't run at all).
    Due to the level of issues we are having with Lion (and the reliability of the all the software under Snow Leopard) I am looking to downgrade to Snow Leopard.
    I have a full retail version of Snow Leopard (10.6.3), but the Lion system won't boot from the disk, it just gets to the grey screen, and beeps three times. I presume this means that there isn't the required drivers on the disk to run the hardware, or there's a firmware update that doesn't allow installation.
    Am i totally stuck with this OS? I was looking to install Snow Leopard on a partiton, but when i run the install disk from the Lion desktop, it reports that I can't run it because 'I have Install Mac OS X 23.1.1.'
    I would really like to just have Snow Leopard on my iMac, or failing that, Lion on a small partition, and Snow Leopard and all the programs on the larger partition that I would boot from.
    Any ideas how I can get this done? Adobe CS suite is just rubbish on Lion macs, and runs worse than on my old Tiger mac.
    Thanks in advance,
    M.

    Mac_fool wrote:
    oh right - so clone Mac B onto Mac A HD in taget disk mode using SuperDuper (or Carbon Copy Cloner), then i'll be able to boot Mac A in SL.
    I understand that Mac A wouldn't boot, I was going to make Mac A's SL partition the start-up partition for Mac B, and then try and install OS updates to 10.6.8 from Mac B. Once updates are installed - change Mac B's startup disk back, and then surely Mac A would be able to boot all on it's own...
    I'm not sure if this would work in Target Disk Mode, but if you succeed in cloning Mac B to Mac A, you may be able to apply the Combo 10.6.8 update to Mac A while booting from Mac B. The key is that the Combo updater may be able to customize the Snow Leopard installation for the hardware it's actually being applied to. Unless I missed it, we don't really know which iMac you have since it's a refurb. According to Mactracker, only the Late 2011 21.5" comes only with Lion and might not accept Snow Leopard at all. At the same time, it has the same Model Identifier as the Mid 2011, which came with 10.6.6 or 10.6.7 so it might work.
    If at that point Mac A does boot in Snow Leopard, I'd advise running the 10.6.8 Combo updater again while booting from Mac A just to be safe.

  • I just upgraded my 2008 macbook pro to OS X Maverick from Snow Leopard but my computer is running a bit buggy and slow. How do I downgrade back down to snow leopard?

    I just upgraded my 2008 macbook pro to OS X Maverick from Snow Leopard but my computer is running a bit buggy and slow. How do I downgrade back down to snow leopard?

    You would reinstall 10.6 using your installation DVD.
    Out of curiosity, how much RAM do you have? Recent versions of OS X really shine with 4GB or more.
    Matt

  • How do i downgrade back to snow leopard from Lion?

    Having installed Lion on my MBP I have realised there are too many incompatibilities for me to work effectively at present.
    How do I downgrade back to Snow Leopard without losing data?
    I have a full TimeMachine backup and OS X disc that came with the machine. I am concerned that email data has been converted.
    When will we see Lion work with all MS Office Apps, AutoCAD and SL Server?
    h

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/15706096#15706096

  • How do I downgrade from Lion to Snow Leopard without losing iWork 09?  I upgraded my MBP from 10.5 (originally 10.4) to 10.6, then again to 10.7.  Should I go back to 10.4, 10.5 or just to 10.6?

    How do I downgrade from Lion to Snow Leopard without losing iWork 09?  I upgraded my MBP from 10.5 (originally 10.4) to 10.6, then again to 10.7.  Should I go back to 10.4, 10.5 or just to 10.6? I don't remember which system included iWork 09 and don't want to lose it. Thanks for any help.

    Thanks for the information!  My sister gave me the MBP for my daughter with Leopard installed.  I purchased Snow Leopard and installed it, then my daughter purchased Lion.  So I do have all the installers.  If iWork wasn't included with any of those, I guess my sister purchased it while running Leopard.  I'll have to contact her.  Thanks again.

  • How do I downgrade from Mavericks to Snow Leopard and save my new pages files?

    Unfortunately, the Mavericks system isn't working for me. It's way too slow, has issues with Finder and so on. Basically it's just a pain in my *** and my
    beloved Mac Book Unibody (2010) just can't handle it! After searching for hours online for a solution, I'd love to get back to the good old times.
    I read that I can downgrade to Snow Leopard with my latest TM backup, using the recovery mode. Problem is that I "upgraded" sometime in October, so I have accumulated a bunch of new files. Being a teacher, I have tons of documents and Apple unfortunately changed all the old '09 files into '13 ones. Will they still work under the new old system, or do I have to find some way to export them into '09 files?
    Is it fine to use the TM backup, or is it better to use ds store's method to recover the system?
    Thanks

    I backed up the system just prior to upgrading.
    Hardware Information:
        MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009)
        MacBook - model: MacBook6,1
        1 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores
        2 GB RAM
    Video Information:
        NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB
    System Software:
        OS X 10.9.1 (13B42) - Uptime: 0 days 1:43:50
    Disk Information:
        TOSHIBA MK2555GSXF disk0 : (250,06 GB)
            EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209,7 MB
            Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 249,2 GB (147,64 GB free)
            Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
        MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898 
    USB Information:
        Western Digital Elements 1048 1 TB
            disk1s1 (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 32 KB
            harddrive n.hahn (disk1s3) /Volumes/harddrive n.hahn: 1 TB (878,94 GB free)
        Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
        Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
        Microsoft Wired Keyboard 600
        Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
            Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
    FireWire Information:
    Thunderbolt Information:
    Kernel Extensions:
    Startup Items:
        HWNetMgr: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HWNetMgr
        HWPortDetect: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HWPortDetect
    Problem System Launch Daemons:
    Problem System Launch Agents:
    Launch Daemons:
        [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist 3rd-Party support link
        [loaded]    com.DesignScience.DSMTTool.plist 3rd-Party support link
    Launch Agents:
        [failed]    com.promethean.activhardwareservice.plist 3rd-Party support link
        [failed]    com.promethean.activmgr.plist 3rd-Party support link
        [failed]    com.promethean.flashextension.plist 3rd-Party support link
    User Launch Agents:
        [loaded]    com.divx.agent.postinstall.plist 3rd-Party support link
        [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist 3rd-Party support link
        [loaded]    com.spotify.webhelper.plist 3rd-Party support link
    User Login Items:
        iTunesHelper
        Dropbox
        SPanel
        DaemonManager
    Internet Plug-ins:
        Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 3rd-Party support link
        Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
        Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.3.8.1 3rd-Party support link
        NP2020Player: Version: 4.5.2.0 3rd-Party support link
        OVSHelper: Version: 1.0 3rd-Party support link
        Silverlight: Version: 4.0.51204.0 3rd-Party support link
        FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 11.9.900.170 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
        DivXBrowserPlugin: Version: 2.2 3rd-Party support link
        Flash Player: Version: 11.9.900.170 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update
        AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin101737: Version: AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin 1.0.17 - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
        iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0
        NP_2020Player_IKEA: Version: 5.0.93.0 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
        QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
        JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Outdated! Update
    Audio Plug-ins:
        BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
        AirPlay: Version: 1.9 - SDK 10.9
        AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0 - SDK 10.9
        iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
    User Internet Plug-ins:
        BrowserPlus_2.9.8: Version: 2.9.8 3rd-Party support link
    3rd Party Preference Panes:
        BrowserPlus  3rd-Party support link
        DivX  3rd-Party support link
        Flash Player  3rd-Party support link
        Flip4Mac WMV  3rd-Party support link
        Perian  3rd-Party support link
        SMART Board  3rd-Party support link
    Bad Fonts:
        None
    Old Applications:
        SMART Product Update:    Version: 5.1.125.0 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link
            /Applications/SMART Technologies/SMART Tools/SMART Product Update.app
        activationwizard:    Version: 3.0.118.0 - SDK 10.5
            /Library/Application Support/SMART Technologies/activationwizard.app
        LIMBO:    Version: 1.1.0 - SDK 10.0 3rd-Party support link
        Amazon MP3 Downloader:    Version: INFO_PLIST_VERSION - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
        MathType:    Version: 6.7e 12112800 - SDK 10.4 3rd-Party support link
            /Applications/MathType 6/MathType.app
    Time Machine:
        Auto backup: YES
        Volumes being backed up:
            Macintosh HD: Disk size: 232.09 GB Disk used: 94.59 GB
        Destinations:
            harddrive n.hahn [Local] (Last used)
            Total size: 931.39 GB
            Total number of backups: 7
            Oldest backup: 2013-10-28 17:02:36 +0000
            Last backup: 2014-01-21 20:48:05 +0000
            Size of backup disk: Excellent
                Backup size 931.39 GB > (Disk size 232.09 GB X 3)
        Time Machine details may not be accurate.
        All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
    Top Processes by CPU:
            24%    firefox
             4%    WindowServer
             2%    hidd
             1%    EtreCheck
             1%    sysmond
    Top Processes by Memory:
        535 MB    firefox
        61 MB    Dropbox
        53 MB    mds_stores
        53 MB    mds
        47 MB    Finder
    Virtual Memory Information:
        55 MB    Free RAM
        649 MB    Active RAM
        601 MB    Inactive RAM
        327 MB    Wired RAM
        669 MB    Page-ins
        15 MB    Page-outs

  • How can I downgrade an operating system our bluetooth worked ok on the 4.2.1 system but now we are on the latest system it does not work properly so how can we get the old system back

    how can I downgrade my operating system as my bluetooth work ok with my holde commodore on the 4.2.1 system but now it is upgraded to the latest system it does not operate properley

    thankyou but it looks like we won't be buying another iphone

  • Downgrade ( lion to leopard ) without losing programs/data

    Sup everyone!
    I searched a lot and I can't find it anywhere. I need an answer to the next question:
    How do I downgrade from Lion to Leopard without losing my (paid) programs?
    See, I have Lion right now and I don't like it at all. I have the installation discs from Leopard. But I don't know if this is possible to downgrade.
    I bought several programs, like MacKeeper and Microsoft Office 2010 etc. ( I do not have the discs or licenses of these progs ). So that's why I would like to know if it is possible to get back from Lion to Leopard without losing my programs.
    I don't have progs specially made for Lion! =)
    Hopefully someone can help me!
    My English isn't that well, don't blame me, I am from the Netherlands!
    Thanks already!
    Bolino

    It would be far easier to to get Lion running properly. I'm quite sure that all of your problems are due to incompatible or poorly written third party software. Just remove those and you'll be fine. I suggest starting with MacKeeper.
    I wrote a little diagnostic program to help show what might be causing these problems. Download EtreCheck from http://www.etresoft.com/download/EtreCheck.zip, run it, and paste the results here.
    Disclaimer: Although EtreCheck is free, there are other links on my site that could give me some form of compensation, financial or otherwise.

  • How to properly clean install: erase, partition hard drive, and install tiger then SL

    Hello,
         I am a noob at this, so if responders would be kind enough to be detailed / specific with any instructions it would be most helpful! I own a dinosaur apparently (even though I don't think so): the white (not unibody) Intel macbook2,1 (late 2006) 1.83 GHz with currently 1GB of RAM, but I have 2x2GB RAM sitting next to me ready for install. However, first I would like to do a clean uninstall of my computer (running OS X 10.6.8 SL). I also would like to properly partition my hard drive while I'm at it.
         About 6 months ago I had serious crashing issues, along with kernel panics, hangs, applications randomly appearing & disappearing, system settings and options doing the same, fans running high (probably due to the low RAM available), and basically overall screwiness. So, after trying pretty much every option I could find on this community...and many others... (e.g. clean cache, clean old logs, already did a clean uninstall and install of SL, and much much more) I have reached my wits end. I would say that to date I've wasted a good solid 2 months with this.
         The clean install worked for MAYBE a month or so, but then it started acting up again with the fans (even without high pages in/out, CPU or memory usage) and excessive heat, along with the apps freezing and quitting (mind you it would be only two things open such as 1 word document and then firefox-- with flash disabeled). SOOOOOO long story short, I have purchased new RAM and I would like to try this once again, but to ensure I don't screw it up this time I would like some directions as to how to do the uninstall, partition, then reinstall. (currently to date I ensured all updates are completed---even though they are no longer released for SL, and I just did a full backup).
         Also, I need to first install Tiger (my original OS) as when I went to do a hardware test the other day this was not an option (and upon further research it is due to me not using Tiger as a first install and then using my mac box set for SL). I didn't use my original OS first because....one issue encountered when I had tried to install Tiger was that my Disc 2 (the applications one) took around 1.5 hrs to complete, but when I reached the last step of glory where I expected it to say COMPLETE it instead said that there was some sort of issue with the disc..........of course).
         Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    1: If near a Apple Store or Authorized Repair, take it to then for a free evaluation, it might have other hardware problems now that it would be a waste of effort even continuing.
    2: The RAM needs to be
    Maximum Memory
    3.0 GB (Actual) 2.0 GB (Apple)
    Memory Slots
    2 - 200-pin PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMM
    Basically what this means is you can put in a 2GB module and a 1GB module for 3GB total.
    I wouldn't proceed with installing RAM just yet, not until you get a stable OS X version on the machine, you might have a hard drive needing to be replaced as well which you can do while inserting new RAM.
    3: This User Tip can assist in installing 10.6 Snow Leopard, partition format etc.
    How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
    Software Update fully immediately after setup.
    There is no need to install Tiger, he 10.6 disk contains the full 10.6 version, you can either install the iLife from Tiger disks or use Pacifist from Charlesoft to extract them and place on your new install, then Software update to get them current.
    4: If not successful then the drive also likely needs to be replaced, if so choose a 7,200 RPM SATA I  w/1.5Gb/s connection.
    Install/upgrade RAM or storage drive in Mac's
    Repeat #3
    If your getting beeping noises or "you need to restart" issues, it's likely one or more of the RAM modules is bad. Have it exchanged or swapped.
    I advise good quality RAM the first time, if you buy cheap stuff it's just going back.
    Don't go any further than 10.6.8 with that old machine, the performance will be terrible.

  • How to partition to install Snow Leopard and Lion on one computer

    My first posting:
    My iMac came with Leopard. I upgraded to Lion, 3 months ago. I found out that Appleworks doesn't work anymore... very displeased because I always used Mac Strong points (for the past 30 years), which is drawing, like McDraw, McDraw 11, Clarisworks, Appleworks, etc. Apple could have have included a software in iworks to open the numerous works I have done over the years in drawing. Now iDVD doesn't come with Lion anymore. Another blow from Apple!! And iDVD  7.1.2 (after upgrade from Leopard's iDVD) doesn't work too well in Lion... quite a few things are wrong.
    Consequently, I want to install Leopard in an external HD, where I could use Appleworks and iDVD.
    I have a 1 tera WD Firewire as an external HD. I have tried a few ways to install Leopard on my external HD with no succes.
    I have tried "partionning" the external HD, but when it came to  "Scan disc image" of Leopard, I had the message: Unable to scan "Install" (Resource busy)
    I have tried to install with original Leopard DVD, but after pushing restart (to chose my external HD), then my computer keeps asking me to push restart.
    Can anymore can tell me how to properly install Leopard on my external HD?
    MartinR says:
    Connect your WD Firewire drive. Open Disk Utility and check to make sure that it is partitioned as GUID partition scheme (assuming you have an Intel iMac) and is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).  If not, you will need to repartition and reformat the drive - note that this will erase everything that is on the drive.
    Notes:
    -If you have an Intel Mac you cannot install OS X to a drive that is partitioned as Apple Partition Map; it must be GUID Partition Scheme.
    -Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is the same as the "HFS+" as previously mentioned.
    -For the disk to be bootable it must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) not plain Mac OS Extended.
    Next, insert your Leopard install DVD in your iMac.  If the installer opens, just exit/close the installer window.  Do not remove the Leopard install DVD from the drive.
    Shut down your Mac.  Then restart it by holding down the "C" key while it starts.  This will make your iMac start from the Leopard install disk that is in the CD/DVD drive.  You should then be able to select your external WD drive and install Leopard there.
    My response to MartinR (I appreciate the dedication of the helpers)
    I tried MartinR solution but it doesn't work. When I restart and keep "C" depressed, after a while, a kind of gray drape closes the screen and tells me I have to restart my computer par pressing "restart" for a few seconds. Then when the computer reboots, it tells me there was a problem and had to restart the computer with a report to Apple window.
    I wonder if my computer is not defective? In 30 years, this is the only Apple computer that  broke down on me (Always been faitful to Apple computers in spite of the fact they had little apps then), and twice on top of that. The first repair  was done by Apple in Wellington Mall, Florida (hard drive had to be replaced); the second time was Northstar Computer in Sudbury, Ontario (optical drive had to replaced). Maybe that tells us something? Were replacement parts up to par? My computer seems to be working OK. I verified my HD with Disk Utility, and everything was OK.
    My computer is an Intel Core 2 Duo, 3.06 GHz and 4 GB of ram.
    My WD external drive is formatted as GUID Partition Table, and Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

    baltwo wrote:
    Can't recall which I used to do the dynamic repartitioning.
    I'm betting that it was originally Partitioned with Snow Leopard.
    As a test I just added a second Partition with Mountain Lion to a FireWire HD and it would not let me Install Snow Leopard from my System or Retail Disc into the Partition.

  • How can I downgrade to a previous version?

    How can I downgrade to a previous version. I upgraded to 2.3 and now my site is totally hosed because the fonts on the master page are changing size arbitrarily without me touching them. I've had to eliminate my site map on the bottom of my master page because I've spent over 20 hours trying to correct the issue and can't seem to get anywhere. Even completely recreating the page doesn't correct the problem.
    I was going to simply change a few photos from an older backup copy of the html files, but when I opened them with the 2.3 version, it changed all of the font sized on those files too.
    I need my site working properly, so, how can I downgrade to the previous version and get my site working again until the bug is fixed?
    Help please!

    http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Installing+a+previous+version+of+Firefox
    http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html

  • How to properly configure a home network using both Mac and PC computers

    Is there a book or set of guidelines that can tell me how to properly configure (exact specifications) my computers in a home network? Here is what I am trying to do and using:
    1) Three computers: iMac (late 06 ver), Macbook (newest version), Dell laptop. The two Macs are using Leopard and the PC is XP.
    2) Bellsouth modem which feeds into the Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS)
    3) The AEBS has a USB hub which is connected to a external hard drive and two inkjet printers. A third laser printer/scanner/fax machine is connected to the AEBS via ethernet.
    4) All three computers use a wireless connection to the AEBS.
    I would like the following:
    1) Have a secured and password driven network - don't want outsiders connecting to the nework without permission.
    2) All computers to be able to access the USB printers and ext HD.
    3) The two Macs to read/write to each other with password access
    4) The iMac to have read/write capabalities over the PC via VSFusion or Bootcamp if possible.
    Currently, all three have Internet access via the AEBS and can print on the ethernet printer. Both Macs can see the Bonjour USB printers and print (however they to do not display on the AEBS configuration display utility and neither does the ext HD). The USB ext HD is shown on the iMac desktop and I have access to it, but does not display on the MacBook. I have not checked if the PC sees the external HD and it really does not matter if it ever does, although it would be nice.
    I am hoping that there is some standard configuration that I can "cut and paste" that is generally used to allow a home network to share resources while still being secure.
    Any advice and help is greatly appreciated.
    Thanks,
    Andrew

    Andrew,
    What you would like is fairly complicated so this will probably be a lengthy post, but hopefully I can assist you.
    As others here have pointed out, networks can vary widely, but the best networks have one element in common: planning. The first thing you need to think about is how you would like all of these systems to cooperate. For instance, do you want one of the machines to serve files to the others and be a central repository, or are you just interested in having them share documents on occasion so that you don't have to carry around, say, a USB key all the time? That said, here is a basic list of things I think you should look into.
    1. Network Basics
    First step is to get your local network set up. I'd go for WPA or WPA2 wireless security as they are relatively strong standards and you can use human-readable passwords. Additionally, unless you have an explicit need for someone outside your network to initialize a connection (Windows' RDP for instance), do not allow any passthroughs or port redirects on your AEBS.
    2. Network Topology
    Decide how you want computers and networked devices to identify themselves and their relative locations in the network: in short, do you want static ip's or dynamic ip's? Most of the time, static IP's can be assigned on a DHCP router, the trick is to assign the statics higher than your number of devices (or lower on some routers - for instance Linksys routers start DHCP at 192.168.1.100 but you could have statics from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.99). For instance, it is impractical to set a laptop to static because I'm often in coffee shoppes and other environments that assign via DHCP; on the other hand, it's a good idea to have a printer be static so that you always know where to find it. So, I have 10.0.1.x network (default on AEBS), and the printer is 10.0.1.24, since the likelihood of my encountering an IP conflict with 4 computers on the subnet is virtually zero. If you configure a static device behind your AEBS, defaults are usually
    Default Gateway 10.0.1.1
    IP Address 10.0.1.(your choice)
    Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
    3. File-sharing.
    3a) Mac OS X has a built-in SMB/CIFS (Windows file & printer sharing protocol) client, and a basic SMB [samba] server can be enabled in the sharing preference panel (enable file and/or printer sharing). Windows XP can use these shares, but must authenticate. For that reason, you may not be able to see your shares in the Network Places browser, however you should be able to get to them by mapping the network drive (tools menu) or executing RUN with \\computer.name\share.name. You will then be able to type in your credentials. I would also suggest relatively simple names for the Macs in question (set in Sharing preference pane). Typing Andrew's-iMac-G4 in every time you want to find it will get irritating after a while to say the least, especially if you need to troubleshoot.
    3b) The reverse works similarly. You can Connect to Server... from Finder to get to the Windows shares. To do this you must have Windows File and Printer sharing enabled (most easily through the Network Setup Wizard in Control Panels - Use Classic View). It's really easy if your account names and passwords are identical on the Mac and PC, because when loading user profiles, the Mac will generally automatically try to authenticate against the Windows machine with your Mac logon credentials. (Windows seems to do this against the Mac as well) You can write an Applescript or there are some PLIST modifications you can make to mount Windows shares at login.
    4. Printing
    I'm not exactly sure what you had in mind here since I'm not sure what's connected to which computer or directly to the network. If it is possible, I personally find putting my printers directly on the network to be the easiest thing. Especially if printing large PDF or graphics files, the spooling on the host system can really slow the computer down, and slow down printing. For example, I used to have a laserjet on a Windows box and had to print a very large file. Going through a Win print server, it only printed a page every 30 seconds, but when I got a jetdirect adapter, the whole thing was done in under two minutes. If you have HP Printers, I would recommend the jetdirect print servers (I have used with both a laserjet and a supposedly unsupported color inkjet).

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