Apple has fought an ardent battle to make the Mac an accepted player
on the corporate desktop. Despite the fact that only 9% of enterprises today
rely on the Mac as their desktop standard, recent changes in Apple's long-term
strategy may increase that number. The company is making headway in intranets
and the Internet, increasing the need for you to integrate your Macintosh
clients into the rest of your enterprise network. Enter Windows NT Server 4.0
with its Services for Macintosh.
NT Server 4.0like 3.51 before itsupplies Services for Macintosh
as part of its base set of features. Services for Macintosh provides file and
print services for the Mac using native AppleTalk protocols, support for
AppleTalk routing, and Microsoft-based encrypted authentication for your Mac
clients.
What's New in NT 4.0?
The changes to NT Server 4.0's Services
for Macintosh are mostly cosmetic as compared to 3.51. In 3.51, to manage
Macintosh-accessible resources on your server, you installed Services for
Macintosh from the Network applet in Control Panel and used the Macfile Applet,
with Server Manager and File Manager. In 4.0, Explorer replaces File Manager but
doesn't include any controls for Services for Macintosh. In 4.0, Services for
Macintosh still requires use of File Manager to manage some features, including
file associations and file and directory permissions. My biggest complaint in an
otherwise easy-to-use service is the lack of a single interface for managing
Services for Macintosh.
Here's a list of the utilities in NT Server 4.0 that let you manage the
Services for Macintosh and the functions they provide.
Server Manager: You can use the Macfile menu choice, as you see in
Screen A, to view the same Macfile applet as in the Network Control Panel. You
can also view, create, and remove any defined Mac-accessible folders on the
server and set passwords and permissions on them, and you can send a message to
all Macs connected to the server.
File Manager: You can use the Macfile menu choice to perform the
same folder creation, removal, and security functions as in Server Manager. You
can also set file associations so that files on the server with MS-DOS
three-character extensions correspond to a Macintosh application. This
capability guarantees that a Word .DOC file, for example, appears on the Mac's
finder with the proper Word for Macintosh icon.
Macfile Control Panel Applet: This applet gives you information
about the status of and provides controls for Services for Macintosh on your
server. You can view which Mac users are connected (and optionally disconnect
them), which Mac-accessible folders are in use and by whom, and which files are
in use and by whom. From the Attributes button, you can set logon security,
limit the number of sessions, and even rename the NT Server as it appears to the
Mac.
Network Control Panel: By double-clicking the Services for
Macintosh listing in the Services Property page, you can configure the default
zone and AppleTalk routing options.
Macfile Command Line: If you're a command-line person, you can
perform all the above functions from one place by using the Macfile command.
This command lets you create and remove folders and set global service options
and directory permissions. It even includes the forkize option to manipulate
data and resource forks on Mac files.
