Apple macs - windows network

[lafleur1977]

Hey,

We are going to be buying some apple macs to be part of our windows server 2003 network. I am wondering if anyone can tell me how these work - adding them to the domain, letting users log in and access their files, locking them down, or if anyone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks.

[Panarchy]

Well it really depends what you want to do.

http://www.macwindows.com/Win2003.html

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Basically it's a piece of cake getting your iMacs onto a win 2003 domain.There's just a few things you need to do that's all. I followed the below for an install of a Powerbook on a Win 2003 Domain with Active Directory etc for an advertising agency and it worked like a dream.The only thing which may hinder the process is the windows security policy which has to be disabled.Read below.

In a nutshell, the cause of the problem is the default security policy on Windows 2003 Server being set to always encrypt network connections under all circumstances. Whilst this is fine for most clients (especially Windows clients, understandably), the version of SMB that Panther uses doesn?t support encrypted connections. Apparently this support exists in Samba 3, but not on the version OS X uses. The solution is to change the security policy to use encryption when it?s available and not otherwise. Here?s how.

From Administrative Tools, open Domain Controller Security Settings.

Go to Local Policies then Security Options.

Scroll down to find the entry Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always). Set this to Disabled.

The only thing left to do is to reload the security policy, as changes don?t otherwise take effect for some time. Open up a command window and type:

gpupdate

This will buzz and whirr for a few moments before confirming that the policy has been reloaded. With a bit of luck you should now be able to mount a network share from the Windows 2003 Server on your Mac. As I say, I've been searching for this information periodically for more than six months, so if you find it helpful pass it on.

Hope this helps,

Panarchy