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. 
