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Mac2Windows
Beefing Up Windows Networking in OS X
- 2002.10.07 - Tip Jar
If you're one of the many people who are using to use a Mac connected to a Windows network, OS X has been a big step forward. Starting with OS X 10.1, built-in SMB (a.k.a. Samba or CIFS - not a social disease, but an acronym for Common Internet File System) support has made it possible to connect to shared Windows computers without any extra software.
The trick (it's not well-documented by Apple): Open the Finder's Go menu, click on Connect to Server. OS X 10.2 lets you browse your Windows network just like a native Mac network. OS X 10.1.x requires you to know a little bit - you need to know the Windows computer's network name and the share name of the drive or folder you want to connect to, and enter it in the form:
smb://computer_name/share_name
So to connect to my Compaq notebook's download folder, I type:
smb://Compaq/download
I'm prompted for username and password, and quickly an icon for the shared drive (or folder) appears on my desktop, letting me use standard Mac navigation to open documents, copy files back and forth, and more.
It works as advertised. It is, however, somewhat limited. You can only connect to a single Windows share at a time, and your Mac doesn't appear in the Windows systems Network Neighborhood. Theoretically, you can print to shared Windows printers, but it's a real pain to set up.
Third-party software can extend these features. A longtime favourite is Dave, with its new OS X 10.2-capable version 4 out. Dave includes versions for the classic Mac OS as well as OS X, lets users connect to multiple Windows shares at once, adds the Mac to the Windows Network Neighborhood, and includes limited abilities to print on both Mac and Windows networked printers. Pricing of US$149 (US$49 for upgrades) is too rich for many users blood, however.
Enter Sharity, from Object Development, an Austrian shareware product for Mac OS X and other Unix systems.
Pricing varies both according to the type of user and the number
of Windows shares connected. An 
unlimited
business license is US$199 (with reduced prices for multiple
licenses), or US$99 to connect a single client to a single server.
More users will be interested in the home license (available for OS
X, Linux, and FreeBSD). In this case, US$59 buys the right to
connect up to two clients to an unlimited number of Windows
servers.
There are also several varieties of free licenses. There's a free demo that limits users to access three levels deep in the server's folder hierarchy, connecting up to two clients to up to two servers.
The free Sharity single license for home users and hobbyists lets users install onto a single Mac client and connect to a single Windows server. Finally, there are free licenses for students and for educational institutions.
Installation of the 1.7 MB download, while not difficult, is not as straightforward as it could be; users have to manually copy a Sharity folder into the StartupItems in the root's Library folder (not your personal user's Library folder or the System/Library!), then copy the Sharity application to the destination of your choice. Add the Sharity application as a Login item in System Preferences, and restart. (All these instructions are in the Readme file - you do make a point of reading these, don't you?) To uninstall it, reverse these steps.
The first time it runs, you'll be asked for network parameters; aside from the Windows workgroup name, the default settings took care of everything else on properly with my home network.
Once installed, a CIFS icon appears on the OS X desktop and in the top level Finder windows; opening it displays a list of Windows servers, similar to the Windows Network Neighborhood. A Sharity icon also appears in the Dock; opening it lets you tweak Sharity's configuration - something that wasn't necessary on my system
Sharity offers a couple of improvements over the Windows networking built-into OS X. First, if you're using 10.1.x, it offers the ability to browse the Windows network. And while Jaguar (OS X 10.2) adds the ability to browse Windows networks, it does it in slow motion. Sharity is able to do it in real-time.
And it lets you connect to more than one Windows share at a time (though the free hobbyist version limits you to a single server).
Unlike the more expensive Dave, Sharity doesn't have any options to connect to Windows shared printers, and it doesn't let you access your Mac from Windows. For that, Object Development recommends the Samba server package from <http://xamba.sourceforge.net/sambax/> (I haven't tried it; I would appreciate hearing from any readers with experience with it).
It's worthwhile for any OS X 10.1.x users connecting to Windows servers, and the added speed and flexibility will appeal to many Jaguar users as well. One of the two free home versions may be all that many will need.
10.1 users may want also want to check out the modest, 190 KB
download of SMB Browse from <http://shukwit.com/main.php> -
a free utility to add SMB browsing to OS X 10.1. I couldn't get it
to work at all under Jaguar, but it appears to be a simple
application to use in place of the Finder's Go/Connect to Server
menu. 
Alan Zisman is Mac-using teacher and technology writer based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Many of his articles are available on his website, www.zisman.ca. If you find Alan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.
Recent Columns by Alan Zisman
- QuickTime X in Snow Leopard Imports, Trims, and Publishes Video Quickly and Easily, 11.04. The long, slow process of importing video into iMovie to edit it, then render it to another format, is history as QuickTime X does that much more quickly.
- Another Hard Drive Disaster Ends Happily (Thanks to Time Machine), 10.29. This time it was the MacBook's drive that failed. Thanks to automated Time Machine backup, recovery was easy, although far from fast.
- Preview in Snow Leopard Supports Scanners and Screen Shots, 10.19. The newest version of Preview can even use a remote scanner, creates compact PDFs, and includes three screen capture options.
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- More in the Mac 2 Windows index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: Power Mac G5 Quad, Oct. 2005 - With two 2.5 GHz dual-core G5 CPUs, the G5 Quad was the most powerful PowerPC Mac ever and introduced PCI Express.
- Group of the Day: Mac Network deals with all aspects of Mac networking.
- November 21 in LEM history: 00: OS upgrades, downgrades - AltiVec vs. Pentium III - 01: Saved by the clones - Computer of the future - 02: Apple Education: Let's get to it - 03: Panther lets Macs and PCs work together, - Lombard SCSI bug - 05: 3 survivors from the 1970s - Real world battery life inadequate - Windows to Mac file transfer with Zip disks - $99 alternative to Microsoft Office - 06: Parallels 1.0 far more polished than beta
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Recent Content on Low End Mac
- Apple's Tablet an End Run Beyond Netbooks, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz, 11.20. Whatever Apple has planned will leverage existing technologies while going beyond what its competitors can offer.
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- Replacing the Hard Drive in a Clamshell iBook, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing, 11.19. Yes, it is one of the most difficult Apple notebooks to disassemble and reassemble, but a 10 GB hard drive just will not do.
- IBM Model F: A Great Old Keyboard with an Outdated Layout, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 11.19. Although it used a different technology than the revered IBM Model M keyboard, the Model F was a great keyboard in its own right.
- Soft Touch Keyboards, Wireless Mouse Options, Loving SeaMonkey 2, and More, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.18. Also the future of browsing with PowerPC Macs and the multiple mouse input bug introduced with OS X 10.5.8.
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
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- Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.17. Used 400 MHz, $50; 933 MHz, $80; 500 dual, $60; 867 dual, $90; 1 GHz dual, $150; 1.25 GHz dual, $225; 1.42 GHz, $499.
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- More deals in our archive.
