Mac vs. Windows Network Compatability

I finally talked my mother into switching from M$ to a Mac, and she loves the new iBook. Here's the dilemma though: she has to connect to a private intranet for work, and the Mac keeps having problems. Safari won't seem to work, nor will Firefox, so I (grudgingly) downloaded Explorer and the newest JavaScript updates. The site will let you connect and sign on, but when you try to access your personal data, it keeps giving me a JavaScript error. Help me out here, if she can't connect to this site that she needs for work she's threatening to switch back to Windows. Anyone else tried to connect a Mac to a Windows network? Solutions...?

The company's Intranet site is most likely Windows-centric. Being an Intranet site, it was probably grown in-house by folks who may or may not have the technical skill to make the site truly HTML standards compliant. My company's Intranet site heavily favors IE for Windows and the only browser on a Mac that can view it properly is IE. Safar, Firefox and other browsers fail simply because they adhere more closely to HTML standards.
It's not a Mac versus Windows issue, but probably due to lazy HTML coding and no cross-platform testing.
Unfortunately, IE for Mac is officially dead as of December 31, 2005. See this link: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/internetexplorer/internetexplorer.aspx?pid =internetexplorer
You might check into getting Virtual PC for Mac: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx?pid=virtualpc
It's not fast, but if all your Mom needs to do is connect to an Intranet site, it may be just fine.
Better yet, if she can access a Windows XP Professional system at work, she can use the Remote Desktop Client from her Mac: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherproducts/otherproducts.aspx?pid=remotedesktopc lient
Hope this helps! bill
1 GHz Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

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Using a Mac on windows network with a proxy server

Hi I’m very new to Macs to apologies if this is a really silly question. I’m
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selected automatic proxy configuration in the network settings using the URL of
our Pac file. I am asked for a proxy username and password when I initially try and
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monitor and trace all users internet browsing so my question is can I configure
the Mac to ask for proxy credentials for different users? On our windows devices
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this with the Mac?????
Any help you can offer will be very much appreciated.
Thanks

The short answer is that the IT department is a strict Microsoft shop and also incompetent. Almost everything in that message is patently false. Unfortunately, when accessing Microsoft Server services like this, you will need the support of the IT staff to tell you various settings to use. I think it is pretty clear that they have no intention of doing that.
There is nothing "special" about bootcamp. It is just a boot loader. A Mac running Windows via bootcamp is a Windows PC, not a Mac. As such, it will work perfectly fine in the network. You could also try running Parallels. I believe Parallels can be configured to use a bootcamp partition so you could run Windows via either bootcamp or Parallels.
One of the few things that is correct is that Apple does have to provide driver support for bootcamp and there is the possibility of random incompatibilities - but no more so than any other PC manufacturer. Parallels/VMWare may work around that with a different set of incompatibilities. Don't be too worried about this part. These "incompatibilities" are minor and almost always with funky hardware devices. What you want to do should work perfectly with either Parallels/VMWare or Bootcamp.

Running mac on windows network

hello, I am thinking of getting a mac book but currently own a windows pc, could anyone tell me if you can run mac on same network, I have a linksys wrt53gs router and cable broadband. THANK LEE

"could anyone tell me if you can run mac on same network,"
Yes, is there is no such thing as "Windows network." Networking protocols are industry standard and platform independent. Therefore all major operating systems on the market today are compliant.

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my office runs on a pc/window & dos system. will a mac be compatible?
will i be able to communicate with the network.

Yes
There is no such thing as "Windows network." Networks use industry standard, platform independent protocols.

Can't connect Mac to Windows network drive

I am the only Mac in a PC college. I frequently have to connect to shared folders on the PC network. For six months I could "connect to server... cifs://name" with no problems. Last month, this suddenly stopped working (error = server may not exist). My office IT people told me to switch to smb://name and it worked again for at least a day. Now I can't get it to connect at all. The finder can see the PC server in the shared pane, but it won't connect to it. "Connect to server" won't connect either, no matter how I try. I get the "server may not exist" error, the "volume won't mount" error, or the "not all data is readable" error. The local IT people say they haven't changed anything and all the Windows people are fine. As the lone Mac user, I don't think much help is forthcoming from IT here. I don't know much about this sort of thing, so any suggestions would be most appreciated.
I do not know if the problem coincides with the update to 10.5.6 or not.

Karen –
Unfortunately I think that 10.5.6 broke several aspects of MS Windows support. If you were to GOOGLE ‘can’t connect to windows shares with os x 10.5.6’ you will find plenty. I personally have not upgraded to 10.5.6 because of it. Though not the best method you may want to consider using the IP address of the system you are connecting to.
smb://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/<share name>
Obviously I know that this is easier than said especially if you are the only Mac on the network, I am sure the College IT group is just going to fall on their swords to help you with this or even providing you this information. With that said you may be able to get the IP by trying to ‘PING’ the server’s name. To do this open a Terminal session on your Mac and type the following at the prompt:
ping <server name>
You should get a something like this:
PING <server name> (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx): 56 data bytes
Now let me caution you, I am sure that the college has turned of PING reply on their network you will most likely get the line above and that is it. Also depending how aggressively they monitor their network for such activities you may show up on some report. Given that I would suggest that if possible you find someone in the IT group that is somewhat sympathetic to your problem and let them know what you are attempting to do.
Not the best answer but I know that using the IP instead of the server name seems to work.
Best of luck.
BH

Mac on Windows network issues (Active Directory)....

I have a couple of Macs on a Windows domain in the school I work in. I'm able to get them to bind to Active Directory and I can log in fine. However, this is where 2 of my problems start. Maybe its an OS X issue, maybe its a Windows Server issue. Both Macs are running Mac OS X.5.6.
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If I login as lab it will log in fine, but show the lab shared drive (they don't get H drives) in the dock but show cscsteachers on the Desktop as thats where the lab share is located. So its not just limited to 1 particular user. This is a systemwide issue for the Macs only.
Anyone have any ideas as to why it shows the folder that houses the shared drive instead of the users drive? I know this used to work fine because I've done it before, but that was back in the days of Mac OS X.3. Back then users H drives showed fine on the desktop.
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There is a known bug with printing in that it doesn't cache the Kerberos credentials properly. So it requires you to reauthenticate every time.

Mac and Windows Networking Problems

I work in a public access TV studio. We have a Mac Pro in one room and several Windows machines in the other room. They are all connected to the same network (NOT wireless). One of the Windows computers is used for actual work. The other three are used for broadcasting. The one used for work is called "PCM-DATA". At one point in time, we were able to see the Mac from the PCM-DATA computer. We set up a Shared folder on the Mac so that files could be exchanged. Then it disappeard after a few days. Then we were able to see PCM-DATA from the Mac, so we set up a Shared folder there. Then it disappeared. Now there is no connection between the two computers. I can still see the three other Windows computers from the Mac, but I can't see PCM-DATA, and PCM-DATA can't see the Mac. Why was it working before, but then suddently stopped, and how do I fix it?
Richard

Hello,
Maybe this site will help. .
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/24950/how-to-share-a-folder-in-os-x-with-windows/

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Since I've updated our mac mini server from Mountain Lion and OSX Server 2.X to Mavericks and OSX Server 3.0 we are having sharing issues with Windows (7 and 8) and OSX Mavericks users, not being able to access files on the mac mini server.
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I too am having this exact problem as well as a few of my network administrator contacts that have gone through the Mavericks / Server 3 upgrade.
It may be worth noting that before the upgrade I had run a mac mini server (core 2 duo) that never had any unintentional downtime, and the current mac server had never gone down or lost connection so I know it has nothing to do with user or network configuration.
NAS server hardware:
- Mac Mini core i5
- 16 GiB ram
- Promise Pegasus Raid5 external drive (thunderbolt)
I am NOT running time machine as the backup.
Everyting posted above is occuring although the rate at which my users lose acces is sporadic. Sometimes the server will stay up 24-36 hours and sometimes it will only stay up for around 4. Every user, every group loses acces AT THE EXACT SAME TIME EVERYTIME to EVERY SHAREPOINT...all of my local users as well as my remote users. All of my users are on Windows machines (mostly win7, but a couple of XP and 8 users as well). The share is accessed via a mapped drive using the format x.x.x.x/share and I have had 0 issues with getting users connected. The problem is 100% keeping them connected. When the users lose access the get the "drive cannot be accessed" error on their end, however when I check the server 3 app, it still shows all users connected and I have let it run for a few minutes and the idle times do change.
I also cannot see any spikes in the Activity monitor that might indicate a memory strain issue on the server side, but I assume that is because I am not watching the Activity Monitor at the moment everyone loses access.
Let me say that the SMB2 protocol does work much better when it actually works, much faster, but intermitent connectivity is a VERY SERIOUS ISSUE and has resulted in several corrupt files for my workers already. Also, because I was one of the unfortunate people that had the upgrade lock up on me and I had to restart it, I lost my 10.8.x recover backup and so I would have to do a clean install in order to restore my server back to its original state. I am also hesitant to do this because I would most likely only be able to download the Server3 app from the app store and I have not heard from apple or any other power user group on whether the bug is with the app or the OS.

Mac and Windows networking over AE

I hope everyone is having a great Holiday so far. I am running a AE at home which both my wife and I share. She has an older Toshiba (Windows XP Pro. with the latest updates) and I have a PB G4 also with the latest updates. I am trying to share some files between the two of us on our network, but in looking at the network pane in finder, I am unable to see her computer and have had trouble connecting our machines. Does anyone know what configuration to do on both the PC and my Mac to allow us to see each other on the network and connect to each other's machines?

Hi Jbiedlin,
I think that I have found some articles that might help you with your connection problems. First is a basic article about Networking with a Windows PC. It goes through step by step different ways of communicating with a PC. The other is about File Sharing with Different OS. There are tons of articles on the Apple Knowledge Base that will help. You can connect many ways to a PC, from ethernet to FTP server.
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Mac and Windows Networking

Hi all,
I am in a bit of a stupid situation. I have 2 network locations, one for each workplace, so let's call them Workplace A and Workplace B. On Workplace A, I have a Windows XP PC, that is used as a file server. The network is provided by a Linksys wireless router, I'm connecting through wi-fi and the PC is connected by Ethernet cable. Everything is fine there, I can see the shared folders in Finder and I can connect to it. The problem is with Workplace B. There are 4 Windows XP PC's and I cannot see any of them under Shared in Finder. I connect to the network via Ethernet. I can connect to them using Connect to Server..., but it is very annoying to do it all the time. I have double-checked every setting, that I can think of: Workgroup name, NetBIOS, Firewalls, File Sharing, etc. Can someone help me to solve this?

Hi Jbiedlin,
I think that I have found some articles that might help you with your connection problems. First is a basic article about Networking with a Windows PC. It goes through step by step different ways of communicating with a PC. The other is about File Sharing with Different OS. There are tons of articles on the Apple Knowledge Base that will help. You can connect many ways to a PC, from ethernet to FTP server.
I hope that helps,
Jon

Trying to use iCal for Mac on Windows network

I'm using iCal on an iMac using a Windows based server. I can see when Windows users invite me to meetings, but I can't seem to invite them. I get the message "The account "name" currently can't be modified. To discard your charges and continue using the version of your calendars that's on the server, click Revert to Server. When doing so, I receive the message "You entered an invitee that wasn't recognized by the server."
I'm using an 27" iMac running OS X 10.7.3.

Good Afternoon, dgcaskey,
I love my Hangouts application. Let's see if we can get this up and running for you. Have you been able to use this application before? Or did you just installed this app onto your phone? Have you been able to delete the application off the phone and redownload it? When you receive a text message does it come in through the Hangouts app or the normal stocked application that is on the phone? Please keep us posted.
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Please follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

Windows 7 and Mac 10.5 network file sharing

I am having extreme difficulties sharing files over my home network! I have 3 PCs and one Mac. I have tried the Mac forums and the Windows forums, to no avail.
On the Mac side:
File Sharing is ON, with smb
Users are set to Everyone with read/write privileges
WINS has the correct Workgroup name
Network Name has no spaces in it
Shared my Desktop, Public Folder, Documents, and Shared folders (just to cover root folders and specific ones too)
Mac gives an smb://xxx.xxx.x.x address and a local network accession "mycomputername.local," but I don't know what to do with either of these things. When I put the addresses into the Windows Run dialogue box or in Internet Explorer, they don't seem to recognize the path.
Firewall is set to Allow All Incoming Connections
Under the Shared location in Finder, I can see my router name, and if I click on it, I can connect. No password is required. I am connected as my account name. However, I can't see the PC or anything at all, in fact.
Under the Shared location in Finder, I can see my shared name for my Mac. But I cannot connect to it, probably because I'm connecting from my Mac.
It would be nice to use the smb://DNSname/sharename or the smb://IPaddress/sharename function in the Go to Server window, but I have no idea where to find this information on my PC. Or on the network. Or whatever this is referring to.
On the PC:
Sharing is NOT password protected under Advanced Sharing Options
I am sharing my Desktop and My Documents with Everyone and Guest, and Windows 7 has provided a file://computername/Users/foldername path. However, when I put this into the Connect to Server or Connect to File window, there is an error.
I can click on my Mac computer name in the Network window, but I get the error message that it cannot connect (network path cannot be found, using \\MYMACNAME as the path). This is when my Mac says it is "connected" when I click on the router in Finder's Shared places.
Of course both the Mac and the PC have full connectivity to the same network.
Also, I have disabled the internal firewall in the Belkin router.
Also, my accounts have identical names with no spaces.
My Mac (10.5) DID successfully connect to Windows XP before I upgraded.
Any advice? Thanks guys!!
P.S. -- I have also posted to the Windows people here: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7network/thread/b5144e55-d024- 401c-85ae-1cf94226b786
In the hopes that I will double my chances of getting an answer.

And my response:
Okay, so here's what I've done:
OS X: did the sharing thing, smb thing, and directories thing.
Win 7: Network sharing settings are correct for Home or Work (current profile). I left my Public alone, but verified that my network is recognized as a Home location.
User accounts exist in both the Mac and PC. Names are the same. Heck, passwords match and I'm logged into the same account on each computer, just in case.
Firewalls are scary to me, so I did the best I could. I went to my browser, typed in my router IP address, and went to the DHCP Client List. Both of the computers were listed with their assigned IP addresses. I "reserved" those IP addresses so they the router would always assign that IP address to that MAC address (so I could count on it in the future). It turns out that they are sequentially assigned, so I figured that if I added any more devices (my other PC, the PS3, etc.) those IP addresses would just be +1 to the last digit cluster in the IP address.
Then I went to Windows Firewall, because I don't have a third-party firewall. I confirmed that I was connected to the Home network, and then clicked Advanced Settings. Wow, there's a lot of rules! There were multiple File and Printer Sharing rules (both inbound and outbound), so I didn't mess with them. Instead, I created a Custom Rule (bot inbound and outbound) for all programs, any protocols and all ports, and added the IP address range (192.168.2.1 - 192.168.2.9, giving myself plenty of extra for future devices) I found from above to the local and remote IP Address boxes. I specified to Allow the Connection for Domain, Public and Private, and gave it a name that started with A so I could find it easily in the future. Finally, I set the Interface Type to be LAN and Wireless (my PC is wirelessly connected).
In OS X, in the Firewall tab of the Security preference, I set it to Allow all incoming connections. File Sharing (SMB) is the first name on the list, but I cannot click on it or modify it in any way. I don't know what else to do. Am I missing something?
I've shared My Music and Desktop on the Win 7 for Everyone (not just the Homegroup!), and shared My Documents and Desktop for Everyone to read/write on the Mac.
Okay, now I need to reboot on both computers. brb...
Wow, definitely don't reserve any IP addresses on your router! I took that setting off, restarted everything, reset the modem and router, and I can now connect both computers to the internet.
I can still connect to the Windows via the Connect to Server dialogue and smb://AJPC.
In Windows Network, I can now see my Mac user account name, but when double-clicking on it I get the error message "Windows cannot access \\ComputerName. Check the spelling of the name. Otherwise, there might be a problem with your network. To try to identify and resolve network problems, click Diagnose." Under "Details," it says Error code: 0x80070035 The network path was not found." When I diagnose, Troubleshooting can't identify the problem.
Any advice? Thanks for your help guys!
A side note: I just checked my router's DHCP client list, and my PC is now connecting at 192.168.2.8, which is definitely not sequential. Good thing I specified the IP Address range all the way to 192.168.2.9 just in case; apparently the router can't count.

Setting up a small business network using mac and windows pcs

Setting up a small business network using mac and windows??

Ok that sounds great. What is your actual question as it relates to AirPort networking? Is it: Can I set up a wired/wireless network with an AirPort base station that support multiple Mac & PC clients? If so the answer is yes.
If, instead, it is how to I configure an AirPort network to support a small business you will have to provide more details on both your networking & computing equipment in order for any of us to help you.

Need help connecting a windows network printer to my Mac (Xerox Phaser 3600) over a windows home network

Need help connecting a windows network printer to my Mac (Xerox Phaser 3600) over a windows home network.
My Mac runs lion and the windows desktop runs Windows XP
I have tried for a few hours or so to connect my mac to this printer over a home network.
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If there is no soultion could I have help getting the drivers for a Dell All-in-One Photo 926

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File loss over network on Mac Pro /windows

Hi I hope someone can help, I have been using my network for over a year with no problems also networked the same for the last 4 years.
I now have files and folders go missing when dragging between computers I have one mac pro and x2 windows computers vista & 7.
The network is set up so I have the windows set up for emails and downloading files - I then transfer to the mac, I work on them and drag them over to the windows vista which runs the rip for my large format printer.
I have a shared folder on each pc which all the computers can read/write.
When i drag files and more often folders from the windows 7 to the mac they will not show on the mac but are sitting in the shared folder. when i drag from the mac to the windows vista I sometimes can't see anything in the shared folder (other times a few things) but I can't add folders or drag files over without them going missing. there is no logic or pattern to what i get so if this make any sense i really could do with the help!
thanks ali

The new user helped a little but not enough to make the customer happy. I have done a bunch of research over the weekend and I have found there is a little known bug in Apple's ACLs. ACL stands for Access Control List and I have a snippet from a MacFixit that describes the issue:
"A disappointing aspect of Repair Permissions in Leopard is that it does not deal with ACLs (Access Control Lists), a secondary layer of permissions control laid on top of standard Unix permissions, tentatively introduced in Tiger and actually used for the first time in Leopard. Repair Permissions will announce that it is surprised to discover that a certain folder has an unexpected ACL setting, but it won't do anything about it (in other words, it won't repair that kind of permissions)."
Anyway it appears to me that if your privileges get hosed in a computer upgrade the only way to really fix the problem is copy all of your data to a second HD and then break out the install DVDs that came with the Mac Pro and do a fresh install and set the user/file-sharing up manually and then copy your data back to the Mac Pro. I did not connect back to the G4 to get the data again, I just copied my many years of correspondence back to the Mac Pro and this time everything works?
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Thanks everybody.

Mac vs. Windows Network Compatability

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