Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with mac and network

Need help setting up AirPort on my Mac

Joseppi — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:52:14 -0800

I'm trying to set up an AirPort on my Mac and I'm having some issues. It's asking for OS X 10.4 and I'm running 10.5 but it still doesn't work. Any clue as to why this is happening? I'm trying to set up an AirPort on my Mac and I'm having some issues. When I try and install the software I get a message that says, "You cannot install AirPort on this volume. The version of Mac OS X on this volume is not supported." It's asking for volume 10.4 and I'm on 10.5. This is beyond frustrating as this is supposed to be such a simple process. Does anyone know what my issue might be?

Slow typing in Excel 2008 and unexplained network traffic

lbergstr — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:06:18 -0800

Why would Excel 2008 cause a lot of network traffic while typing in a cell? After using Excel 2008 for a few months, recently I've experienced sluggishness when typing in cells. These are really serious slowdowns, the display can take 5 seconds to catch up to my typing. It comes and goes; haven't been able to discern a pattern here.

However I use MenuMeters and during slowdowns, I've noticed that network traffic spikes when I'm typing in Excel - say 150KB down, 33KB up.

I'm not editing a document on a network drive, or even an external drive. Happens whether or not I have any external drives connected.

I'm connected to a local network via wifi, and through that to the Internet - but our external connection tops out around 25KB down.

Any ideas?

Using Excel 2008 SP1 on 10.5.8.

A network between two adjacent buildings

eustacescrubb — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:44:19 -0800

I need advice on the best and least expensive way to have a network between two adjacent buildings. I'm part of a writer's residency, and the organization owns two houses next door to each other. We want to have one network, with one internet connection, between the two houses. One house has the only desktop there will be, and at least one WiFi-capable laptop. The other house has nothing but WiFi-capable laptops. There is a mixture of people running Windows XP and Mac OSX (nothing older than Leopard).

Ideally, I would like to have a blazing fast internet connection, and one router, to which the desktop is connected, and then maybe have some kind of powerful antenna to boost the WiFi signal over to the other house. It would be awesome if I could also get printer sharing, Bonjour (or whatever they're calling it this week) for Windows and Mac set up, file sharing, etc -- basically the ideal would be to have an honest-to-god network set up. I can do all that once I know how to share the network between the two buildings. Our org doesn't have a lot of extra money so I would like to keep the cost as low as possible.

Help me connect!

scarylarry — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:02:01 -0800

Help me connect to my girlfriend's wireless network! My lovely girlfriend has a closed wireless network set up at her house (it requires a WPA2 Personal password to access and it's hidden from Airport's network scan). I have the network name and the password, and I've joined through Airport. I get full bars, but no actual internet connectivity whatsoever.

Neither my girlfriend nor I are particularly computer-savvy. We're not sure if maybe she needs to give my computer special permission from hers, or what. I don't know if this matters, but we both use Macbook Pros--she's running Leopard and I'm running Tiger.

Thanks so much.

Network USB Devices

shew — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:59:06 -0800

I need to get my external hard disks and my multifunction printer off my desk. I have a mac. I have a multi-function printer. I have 3 external hard disks. I scan lots of things. I print stuff. I run time machine. Help me move my USB peripherals to the other side of the room. I tried the Airport Extreme. Scanning functions don't work.

I've tried the Belkin Network USB Hub. Completely sucked. Froze my computer 3-4 times a DAY.

What are my options? Haven't tried wireless USB, but I'm considering it. The Belkin Network USB Hub is the perfect option - too bad it doesn't work at all. Anyone know of alternatives?

Requirements: I must be able to print. I must be able to scan. I must be able to run time machine automatically. Ideally, I'd like to plug a USB hub into my magical networking device and plug any USB device into it for access from my mac.

I have a wireless network and hot network ports available in both locations (at the computer and the area where I'd like to move the printer/drives to).

Networking Mac and Windows via ethernet

snarfois — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 08:18:55 -0800

Please help me troubleshoot my (cross-platform) home network. Networking already works via wi-fi, but not via ethernet cable. I'm networking a Windows XP PC to a Mac Mini running OS X Leopard. I have already succeeded in setting it up so that I can browse the Mini from Windows in "My Network Places" or via a mapped drive letter, but this is slow (802.11g) and I want to transfer large files.

I have bought a 20 meter cat5 cable (crossover) and connected the two computers, and disconnected the wi-fi adapter. Can I expect the network to work straight away without further configuration? Anyway, it doesn't. Please help!

(Irrelevant background: I only need to do this because the Mac Mini's DVD burner is useless -- I keep getting the "failed to calibrate the laser power level" error. So I'm forced to use the PC for burning.)

A crash course in server administration

meowN — Sun, 31 May 2009 02:52:02 -0800

At work I'm jumping head first into trying to setup and manage a OS X Server to be used for network load balancing, routing, and possibly netbooting a group of machines. Any tips or help appreciated. I'm currently working retail at a computer sales store that also has an internet cafe of about 30 computers. I've asked for, and been given permission to play around with and attempt to configure, an OS X Server 10.5.7 running on a dual-processor G5 (with 5 ethernet ports, 2 for WAN and the other 3 for each subnet). I've never really used the mac os before, but have a few years of playing around with various linux distros as my desktop os.

For most of these questions I'm not needing direct answers even, I've really just been at a loss trying to find good online resources to read and put it all together. I really want to learn and get a grasp on what's going on, so even just links to reading to get me started would be excellent.

Issue 1: network load balancing. In the store we have two separate DSL lines coming in to serve the whole building. From what I've read so far, it seems that OSX doesn't have this functionallity built-in, and I'm at a loss as to where to start looking for a solution.

Issue 2: Routing. This one I feel like I've gotten really close and am just missing one last step. The goal here is to have DHCP and NAT running for 3 subnets; the tech/service area, the internet cafe, and our internal network. I have the DHCP/NAT/Firewall services all running, and dhcp is working properly giving each subnet an appropriate IP address, I'm able to ping the local server from a client machine, but it's not actually sharing the internet connection to any of the subnets. (Haven't had the chance to hook up a switch to any of the subnets yet either, so don't know if client machines would be able to see each other on the network as well.)

Hypothetical 1: netbooting for the 30+ computers in the internet cafe. As it is currently, the cafe has about 3 or 4 different models of computers all running windows xp. The problem is, they're all regular installations, so if during the course of a days use one gets a virus, we have to manually take a disk to the machine to re-image it. I'd like to set it up to where each machine could just load a fresh image off the network each morning and run like new. This I'm not familiar with at all, and don't even know if OSX can even netboot a WinXP machine.

Besides this there will probably be some basic file sharing and web hosting, but those seem pretty well documented and I'm not worried about getting that running.

So any tips, links, answers, or leads would be excellent. I'm hoping to get this machine configured and possibly even implemented into the network by the end of next week.

Recommend Mac OS X scanner software

Joe in Australia — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:04:51 -0800

What Mac OS X software will let me scan things using my second hand Canon ImageRunner C5800 networked printer/scanner? There's PC software available, but I'd rather not have to run XP just to scan things. Note: if I sound clueless I am; if I'm missing something obvious then please tell me.

OSX can't see my XP drive

middleclasstool — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:50:15 -0800

Suddenly my Mac can't see my Windows PC, and I'm stumped. So I have a Windows PC (XP, latest service pack) and a new Macbook Pro (latest up-to-date version of Leopard). When I first got the Mac I was able to connect to my XP drive over wifi just fine by going to Finder and choosing "Connect to server" and typing in smb://bill (Bill's the XP PC's name, natch).

But suddenly it's not working anymore and I'm stumped. When I try to connect, using either that PC's name or IP address, it says it can't connect. When I ping that IP address, it sees it just fine.

The only thing I can think was awhile back I attempted directly connecting a Linux box to the Win PC to try to share its wifi connection. I did some tweaking of local network settings, but it never worked quite right, so I reverted changes. It could well be that something is still configured incorrectly on the Windows box, but damned if I can see what.

Any ideas?

Mac deployment/imaging options that don't require rocket scientists

mecran01 — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:10:41 -0800

I am a novice mac lab manager. I was using the popular Netrestore to roll out images to our mac lab. I discovered that the software has been discontinued, and furthermore it now breaks when I try to use it.
So I guess I need to know what the easiest alternative to Netrestore/firewire drives is for imagine our two labs. Previously, I was using five firewire hard drives to image our lab. Bombich suggests using Deploy Studio as an alternative to the retired netrestore but a)it feels like overkill and b)I can't figure it out.

I have 22 more intel-based mac minis to install, and I was wondering if there is a relatively painless way for me to image them, or if I just need to take the blue pill and learn to be a real sysadmin at this point, and learn Deploy Studio.

I'm just an English teacher--this isn't my main gig.

What is the best way to sync folders on a Mac to folders on a PC media server?

raddevon — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:48:14 -0800

What is the best way to sync folders on a Mac to folders on a PC media server across a network? I'm a recent Mac switcher, but I still use a PC media server in my home. I have a few folders on my Macbook Pro (running Leopard) that I would like to sync to folders on my XP-based media server across my home network. I have looked at a few options, but I haven't yet found one I like.

I tried creating a folder action, but that didn't seem to work very well. I wanted the action to connect to the server first in case I had been using my computer elsewhere and the share was unmounted. However, if the action tried this when the share was actually mounted, it crashed.

Lacie makes a program for syncing that should work, but I read a horror story about it (involving losing all data on the destination drive) and got a little scared to try it.

MS has FolderShare, but it has to run in the background all the time and places an icon not only on the menu bar but also in the dock. It is a beta so I imagine the service will either disappear at some point or become a paid service. I would prefer a software solution to a service-based one.

Any ideas? Free is good, but I would pay a little for a really slick solution.

Network my HP LaserJet?

iknowizbirfmark — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:28:54 -0800

How can I print to my HP LaserJet 2100 (networked with a JetDirect 610N card) from any computer in my Mac network? I've gotten tired of wasting expensive color ink to print long black and white documents with my color inkjet, so I want to hook up my trusty old HP LaserJet 2100 to my Mac network. Since the printer only has regular PC printer connections (no USB), I bought a used JetDirect 610n card and installed it. But I can't get anything to print when I connect the network cable directly to my iMac, nor can I get the iMac to see the printer over the network at all. The printer gives no IP address when I print out a status page. I could connect the printer via cable to the wireless router, but that would be a hassle, but I would do it if I need to. I just want to be able to print to the printer from any of my several Macs. How do I set this up?

If I have to, I could connect it to a PC that would just sit there and act as a print server (and, I guess, to do things like serve Netflix content to my tv or run other Windows-based stuff I don't want to hassle with emulating), but I would like to avoid that.

Backing up bootable image over a LAN?

nasty, brutish, and of average height — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:15:52 -0800

I'd like to create a bootable backup of my MacBook's hard drive 150GB hard drive. I've got a 500GB drive, but it's in an Ubuntu server on my LAN. Is there a good way to back up a bootable backup to another computer? And what would my restore situation be? I know Macs can netboot, but I don't know anything about it. Would I move the whole image to my laptop using target disk mode, or something similar? I've never worked with full, disk image backups.

Only other detail is, I'd like to do this weekly or so. However, I don't suspect that scheduling it will be the difficult part of this plan...

Packet sniffer for Mac OS 9

event — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:35:10 -0800

I'm looking for a network packet sniffer that will run on Mac OS 9. Does such a thing exist? Thanks!

Windows Vista is laughing at me...

cgomez — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:37:02 -0800

Server/network/IT-Filter? Windows Vista keeps, or more specifically explorer.exe drops my network transfers, how can I fix this or what is the best Explorer replacement? Also, how can I make Windows Server 2008 more useful on the small scale (more inside of course) ... I previously asked about a storage array for my personal network and ended getting another computer and converting the old one into a RAID-5 Windows Server box.

Here's what's on the network:

Computer 1: Windows Server 2008, RAID-5 Disk Array (2.3TB usable).
Computer 2: Windows Vista Ultimate (used as a media center/personal computer)
Computer 3: MacBook Pro

All of this is linked up through 802.11n/gigabit ethernet.

Question 1: Windows Vista randomly drops network transfers to the server (explorer.exe). This usually happens when I'm moving 5GB or more of data which is often. Essentially it stops transferring and when I press 'cancel', it locks up and I can't kill explorer.exe from the task manager. The only way to recover is restart.

This is, however, not a problem with Windows Networking. I've tried a different file manager called "Directory Opus" which is great and solves my issue. Network transfers never fail. The issue is the program costs $85 US and I'm not going to steal it :-\. So, does anyone have ideas on how to solve explorer.exe or is there a more affordable file manager/Explorer replacement? Also, I've tried this with and without SP1.

Question 2: I'm using Windows Server 2008 as a storage and print server. I've toyed a bit with the virtualization features but I'm looking to see if there are features that might be useful outside a true-server environment for my setup.

(all software licenses are legitimate, piracy is bad, m'kay)

Disassociative Networking Disorder

mkb — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:27:12 -0800

Is there a way for Leopard to bind a hosts file to a location in Network Preferences? My workplace is on some weird network transition period where I can only check my mail when connected to the parent company's VPN. If I'm not connected to the VPN, I can use the office DNS just fine and contact all the servers in the office just fine. If I AM connected to the VPN, I can't use any of the regular office DNS and instead have to look up the name in an Excel spreadsheet and add it to my hosts file. Depending on whether I am on the VPN, the servers have different IP addresses, so the hosts file will only work on the VPN!

I've already created separate locations for being on and off the VPN in order to manage proxy settings, so I was wondering if there's any way to get something like the hosts file to stick to a particular location as well. This way I don't have to comment everything out of my /etc/hosts file when I get off the VPN.

Home Network PC/Mac folder sharing?

sidereal — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:21:09 -0800

How can I securely access my PC files using my wireless iBook on my home network? I have a Comcast cable modem for internet access. The ethernet cable goes from the modem to my Belkin 4 port wireless router.

The Win XP PC is connected to the router by CAT5, 192.168.2.2.

The iBook is wireless, talks to the router as 192.168.2.3. Uses WEP, etc.

All my cool content is on the PC, but I want to sit on the sofa and browse my PC photos, call it G:\photos on the PC, using my Mac iBook. Mess around with them in iPhoto.

Is there some obvious way to set up a little tunnel in the respective operating systems, sharing through the router or something, without letting all my neighbors see G:\photos\FurryPr0n ? Letting me read/write files on the PC using the iBook?

This question brought to you by the letters AA-BB-CC-DD-EE-FF

jfuller — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 12:50:26 -0800

My son lives four hours away. I'm trying to do phone support for him on his PC (XP pro), which won't connect to the internet. In asking him to try various things and report what (if anything) happened we discovered that ipconfig /all is reporting his MAC address as 00-11-22-33-44-55. Nuh-huh! Fuller violently shakes head until pea brain rattles. I built this PC myself back around Christmas and documented it from soup to nuts. That is NOT NOT NOT it's true MAC address. Can anyone suggest where it might be coming from?

I know of two ways to spoof a MAC address in XP, one done using the NIC's properties (Advanced/Network Address/Value) and the other being a registry hack. The NIC's properties have not been diddled with; and I had him search in regedit for the string that's being reported as the spurious MAC address. Not found. Where else might a phony MAC address be imposed on the system?

Oh, google. It's no help because so many people use that string to describe the form of a MAC address ("Look for a number that looks like 00-11-22-33-44-55.")

sharing internet over airport

ddaavviidd — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:33:17 -0800

(mac network filter)- sharing internet over airport? hi folks,
I'm trying to set up my iBook (running 10.3.9) to connect to internet via airport (using my iMac running 10.5.1 which is connected through Ethernet)--basically making my iMac a wireless hub. I looked into all forums but still am stuck. I followed all procedures from Apple site, can conect the iBook to the iMac network, and my ibook network prefs says I'm connected to internet via airport... But when I open Firefox or Safari, it says it can't reach the server.

bonus question- is this a safe set-up? share files, printer, itunes and internet over airport, all with passwords? Is it worth getting a hub?

thanks all

Best way to install software on a mac with a broken CD/DVD drive?

troybob — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:12:05 -0800

I need to install new software on an older Macbook with a broken CD/DVD drive; can I do this by putting the CD or DVD into a windows pc and sharing it; or can I put a disc image on a USB drive? I'm not where I can test it out right now, but this weekend I need to install Adobe Illustrator CS3 onto a Macbook with a broken CD/DVD drive. I won't have any other Macs available (to share the DVD over the network), but I will have a Windows PC around, on the same network as the laptop. Which of these will work?

A. Put the DVD (or CD--not sure which the program is on) into the PC and share the drive with the network, and run the install on the Mac via the network.

B. Create a disc image of the install CD or DVD and put it on a little USB drive; drag the image to the Mac desktop and install from there.

thanks!

We don't need no stinkin' macs!

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 04:50:22 -0800

I need help in stopping my campus IT group from their hostile tolerance of macs to outright banning of them on campus though a multi-platform environment is supported in the rest of the university system. Long explanation to follow... I can refute portions of it outright however, I am not a Novell network person and I do not want to tip the faculty's hands in further negotiations. We are being steamrolled by IT because we have no networking backgrounds to refute their arguments credibly. In essence, it is being stated that Novell cannot handle multi-platform environments. Here are the main points I am not sure how to answer:

• Non Centralized Users accounts
o Each Mac requires that the staff accounts are made on the local machine. On the PC workstations accounts are made on the servers, and when the faculty or staff logs on an account is made for the user. Each user needs their account manually generated; additional users will not be able to login to the machine until a local account is made. If the primary user is gone and the machines needs to be accessed an account needs to be made on the MAC for additional people to access it.
• No common shared drives with the PC workstations
o Documents need to be emailed, or copied to external media to be shared.
o An additional server is needed to handle file shares for Publications – to provide file sharing for additional Mac users, additional servers will be necessary and additional costs incurred for managing and maintaining these servers.
 Accounts on this server must be manually created, and passwords manually synced. The accounts on the server and the accounts on the Mac workstation are not the same. When a user changes their password they need to be changed in both locations.

• Printing
o No central tracking is available.

• Hard drive Data Security Issues
o In case of stolen laptop privacy issues could be a concern. If a hacker has physical access to a computer no matter what the operating system is MAC, Windows, or Linux the system will become compromised.
o In the coming months a product called PointSec is coming to encrypt the hard drive of Laptops. We are required to utilize this software across all university systems. This product is not available for Mac users.
• Assets Management
o Macs do not work ZenWorks Assets management system, that is being deployed to help with managing the university’s computer assets and software licensing.

The new Intel based Macs can dual boot Windows or Mac OS. For years people have been duel booting with Linux and Windows. Dual booting does have issues. For the Mac to be truly integrated into the University computer network it will need to booted into Windows while on campus.
Some of the main possible problems with dual booting are:
• The hard drive needs to be partitioned, and if the sizes are not set right one OS can run out of disk space.
• When booted into MAC the OS can only natively read files from the Windows partition. For example a word document that was last edited while in Windows and saved to the My Documents folder will need to be saved to the Mac partition for the edits to be saved.
• Windows does not natively read the MAC OS file system. Reading a file that is saved to the MAC partition is not possible.

Using an emulator such as VMware or Parallels does work well. A Windows XP license will need to be purchased, causing additional cost to the university. The problem with accessing the files from each OS still occurs even if one of these tools is utilized.

I am so sorry for the length but I just don't know what to do in putting together an argument of this nature. There has been no demonstrations or machine put up. Most of the other arguments, not shown, can be countered with "its on the university portal" but the networking questions are beyond me.

Campus uses Novell including web client and ZenWorks.

Thanks for all your help. If you want the whole document or want further details. please use this email: macsoncampus@gmail.com

My Wife And I Want To Shoot Each Other

grumblebee — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:00:43 -0800

Help me shoot my wife: suggest a first-person shooter we can play against each other. I'm on a Mac (pentium macbook pro); She's on a PC (about four years old, without the latest and greatest graphics card). We have a home network. We were thinking it would be fun to play virtual laser tag. The ideal game would be really simple. I'd try to shoot her; she'd try to shoot me. There's be obstacles (walls, whatever) that we could hide behind.

Neither of us is a very experienced gamer, so I'd love a game that doesn't involve a million keystrokes and a 300-page manual to read. Just shoot and try to avoid being shot.

We probably won't play this with other people. Just the two of us.

Can we read the same email without tears?

al_fresco — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:48:49 -0800

Help me use email in a multi-user environment. IMAP is great, but not for more than one user at a time. My boss operates a business where people register for classes through a website. An HTML form generates an email. Administrator checks email for registration details and enters details in a (hosted) FileMaker database, which then sends confirmation email.

All of this worked fine when all of the business could be dealt with by one person, or even one person at a time. Now, the business has grown to the point where there is often a need for two people to be processing the emails at one time, two people at two different desks in two different locations. We have an IMAP email account, and messages are often duplicated when both email clients (Mail.app) are connected at the same time. We also use third-party software (MailTags) to add keywords and notes to individual emails. We now minimize the errors by turning off automatic synching, but there are still collisions and gaps. Users communicate via iChat.

The business is not large enough to warrant shelling out for expensive large-scale enterprise solution. We want the ability to have two or more people at two or more workstations accessing the same information from the same email account at the same time, and to be able to make other users aware of the actions they have taken on those emails, without having to create a separate log.

The hosted FileMaker database works well enough (two users can update the database at the same time, just not the same record). Is there a similar solution for email? Should we somehow route the email account through its own hosted FM database and work from that?

Ideas? Thoughts? Thanks!

How can I get iChat under Leopard to work on my university network?

modernnomad — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:38:19 -0800

How can I get iChat AV (under Leopard) to run on a university network? I'm on a local network at Oxford University. Over bonjour, I can see three friends with Macs, all C2Ds (two iMacs and one Macbook), all running OS X 10.5. We are utterly unable to get video/audio chats under iChat to work, though we can do txt chat.

When attempting to start a video chat we get "waiting for the other user to respond", while the other receives no notification, and when that person attempts to start the chat, they see "the other user is already in a conversation".

I'm guessing it might have something to do with the university firewall or something, but I'm no expert. OS X 10.5 seems to have removed the ability to specify particular ports to be open (though I wouldn't even know which ports to open even if it did).

Any thoughts/suggestions/solutions?

Very Fickle Wireless Network

Ikazuchi — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 09:08:36 -0800

Does anyone have any idea as to why a Macbook Pro or a laptop running WinXP could see a wireless network broadcast from an old Netgear (802.11b network) but two different laptops running Vista would not even see that the network exists? The SSID is being broadcast and while there is basic MAC address filtering being used, the Vista laptops don't even see that a network exists. Thanks.