NT 4.0 adds some new twists to a familiar component
Windows NT Server's Services for Macintosh integrates Macs with NT. Most
enterprises have a few Macs that run applications ranging from graphics and
illustration packages to word processing and relational databases. Services for
Macintosh turns your NT server into a file-and-print server for those Macs: You
can store Mac documents on your NT server and print them to an AppleTalk printer
or server-attached printer via NT's print queues. To ease the integration of
your AppleTalk and NT networks, Services for Macintosh also provides AppleTalk
routing and Microsoft's encrypted authentication service.
Unfortunately, NT 4.0 does not provide a single interface for managing
Services for Macintosh. Using a combination of Server Manager, File Manager
(yes, it's still in NT 4.0), the Network Control Panel applet, a MacFile Control
Panel applet, and optionally a command-line utility, you can configure all
aspects of Services for Macintosh. File Manager is the only GUI utility where
you can set Mac file associations. By default, the Start Menu does not reference
File Manager when you install NT Server 4.0. To access File Manager, click Run
from the Start Menu, enter winfile, and click OK. If you've already installed
Services for Macintosh, you see a new menu option, MacFile, in File Manager, as
in Screen 1. From this menu, you can configure aspects of the file system that Services for Macintosh uses.
From these utilities, you can install and configure Services for Macintosh
and AppleTalk routing (Network Control Panel), create new Mac-accessible volumes
(Server Manager and File Manager), set Mac application-specific file
associations (File Manager), and see which Mac users are connected to your
server and what files they have open (MacFile Control Panel applet). The MacFile
Control Panel applet also lets you set some general service options for Services
for Macintosh, such as which authentication method to use, how many users can
connect to the server, and what name the server appears as on your Mac client's
Chooser.
Let's examine the features of Services for Macintosh, how to install and
configure file-and-print services (including AppleTalk routing and Microsoft
authentication), and how to connect to an NT server from your Mac. I'll also
review some rules about Mac file naming on NT servers, and how to keep it from
getting ugly.
Services for Macintosh Features
Services for Macintosh provides file-and-print services to your Mac clients.
With these services installed, your NT 4.0 server emulates an AppleShare server.
To your Macs, your NT server is an AppleShare server. When you install
Services for Macintosh, you see two new services in the Services Control Panel:
File Server for Macintosh, which provides file services, and Print Server for
Macintosh, which handles print serving functions to the Mac.
To provide Mac file services, you use Server Manager or File Manager to
create Mac-accessible volumes on your NT server's hard drives. These volumes are
NT folders that must exist on an NT File System (NTFS) partition that is
accessible to both PC and Mac clients. Because Macs use different file
permissions for AppleShare resources, Services for Macintosh includes options in
both Server Manager and File Manager to manage these volumes and assign
Mac-specific file permissions to NTFS files and folders.
Two configuration options support Mac printing services. The first is to
use NT Server's printer utilities to capture a networked, AppleTalk-based
Postscript printer. This option lets you spool print jobs from the NT Server
print spooler. Most Macs run a local print spooler, so you need to disable this
feature on your clients if you want NT Server to capture your AppleTalk
printers.
The second print option lets you connect any printer to the serial or
parallel ports of your NT Server. You can use this configuration to share the
printer with both PC and Mac clients. If the printer doesn't use Postscript, the
Macintosh Print Server will convert the job to the printing language the printer
supports.
Installing File-and-Print Services
Anyone who's ever had to install and configure Novell NetWare for Macintosh
NetWare loadable modules (NLM-an NLM is equivalent to an NT service) with its
cryptic load commands, will love the speed at which you can get Services for
Macintosh running on NT Server 4.0. All the GUI-based utilities are
self-explanatory and include good context-sensitive Help.
In just a few steps, you can install Services for Macintosh, including
configuring AppleTalk Phase 2 routing. From the Control Panel, select Services,
and click Add. Scroll down the list, highlight Services for Macintosh,
and click OK. When the system prompts you for the location of your NT Server
distribution files, enter the location and click Continue.
After NT copies the appropriate distribution files, click Close in the
Network dialog. The system updates the network bindings and prompts you to enter
the default zone and routing information for the default network adapter
installed on your server. Screen 2 shows the dialog for configuring this
information. If you have multiple adapters installed, you need to configure each
one for AppleTalk routing. If your NT Server connects to a network that has an
AppleTalk router already defined, the system automatically locates the default
zone for that network adapter. When you finish configuring Services for
Macintosh, click OK and restart your server so the changes can take effect.