Issue 8: Tips on connecting Macs to NT

[The following is an answer from Alex to a readers request for help connecting Macs to a NT network. I'm posting this as a permanent page here in hopes it may be of help to others in the future. Thanks to Alex for responding so quickly. -Mike]

[Original Reader Mail:]

"Mike-
Please help with any info you can or have time for. here's the situation:
I work for a big corporation that is quickly "phasing" out our Macs! Some top-dog blindly decided that the company needed to go the way of the world because technology would pass us by with the advancements in NT-land (ha!). Anyways, there are a handful of us who MUST keep our Mac's. We have been told, "fine, but you will be off the mail and all other servers". They will give us a Dell NT to sit next to our Macs, but we are on our own to make 'em talk to each other.(it's citical that data and graphics we generate on our Macs be able to be ent via email and to other NT boxes and outside to graphic agencies). My question is, 'How?'. I have been introduced to MacLan and Dave, but will they work? Will the NT be able to "see" the Mac and vice versa on the NT network? What do I need hardware/software wise? Any info would be great.....Thanks again for your time.
"

[Alex's reply:]

So you've been elected to be your local network support due to your IS department's ignorance. Never fear.
There are solutions that are very easy to apply, although they might cost you a little. I will address your points one by one:

"OFF THE SERVER:" This one is easy. If your IS refuses to install SFM (Services for Mac; it ships included with NT), you need to requisition DAVE 2.1. Dave will, plain and simple, allow the Mac to connect to NT as if its a SMB (Windows) machine. you will have access to all resources. check out www.thursby.com for more info.

"OFF EMAIL:" This one requires a little more info. By and large, Macs have messaging clients for just about every mail server out these. If you let me know whose email your company uses on the back end, I can provide information on how to connect.

"FILE COMPATIBILITY:" This one is easy and complicated at the same time. The simplest (and cheapest) thing to do is to honor PC naming convention on the mac. What this will require you to do is to add the pertinent .EXT to every file you will need cross platform. For example, Quark docs will need .QXD at the end of the filename, Illustrator will need .AI or .EPS, and Photoshop will require .PSD (if you're saving a Photoshop format image). More elegant is MacLinkPlus, or the new PC-Migrator from Miramar (the same company that makes Maclan). Just about EVERY modern DTP app file format is identical between Mac and PCs, so beyond making sure the naming is correct, it should all work without issue. If you have any concerns about that, please don't hesitate to reply with the apps in question.

Your biggest problem I anticipate is those "others" that you need to send the files to that won't know what to do with em! :)

And lastly, by all means, check out my column on www.xlr8yourmac.com/catsndogs, And feel free to have your network admin contact me if there is any issues on that end.

I hope this helps.
Alex

I welcome all questions and comments at akoyshman@jps.net or designamics@jps.net