adding a mac to sbs 2003 network

Not very similar at all.  You do not "join" the mac to the domain.  Macs cannot be managed through active directory.  You can access shared folders from them, but outside of creating the user account, there's not much more you should need to do.  It is possible you'll have to disable SMB signing on the server, but I wouldn't worry about it UNLESS you have problems connecting.  

There should be a link to an SBS/Mac guide on my SBS web page here:
www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/sbs.asp

thank you jhyiesia

the article seems like it can guide me through the process of adding the mac to the network.  

the user will need email though.  the other users have exchange email through outlook 2007.  will this user need outlook or can the mac osx leopard default email access exchange email accounts

actually at the office and have now found that the mac is running mac osx 10.4.11

Should still work; although older versions of the Mac OS do have some inconsistencies that may show up.

In earlier version of the Mac OS, the directory utility is found in FInder under Applications and Utilities. Set up should be similar.

As far as mail... the latest version of the OS does provide reasonable Exchange interaction if you are running at least Exchange 2007. The version of mail that comes with his version of the OS would do a poor job of integrating with Exchange if it would work at all.  

There are three viable options for getting mail.  The first would be to use OWA, assuming that you support that in our environment. Should work with Safari and FireFox.  Second, better option is to purchase Office for the Mac. Office has a program called Entourage which is a mail program that lies somewhere between Outlook Express and Outlook in terms of functionality. Third option is to run Windows on the Mac in a Virtual Machine using something like Parallels or VMware Fusion and then install a copy of Office for Windows with Outlook.

thank you

i will be looking at mail shortly

i have followed the article and the mac seems to have binded ok.  i can access the internet and on the server can see the computer listed in active directory under computers.  

I am having a problem accessing shared docs on the server though.  i go to what looks like the equivelent of my computer and select network.  it brings up a list containing

workgroup
library
servers
my network
ADEX (this is the domain)

i click on adex and it brings up a list of computers on the network. i then select "server01" (the name of the server) . i then select connect and gives option to enter domain, name and password.  i enter the detials i have set up in ad for this user and i get this error

"the alias "server01" could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found"

any ideas on what this means

it gives three options

delete alias
fix alias
ok

if i select ok it just exits out
if i select fix alias it seems to try to get me to point to a local file with no option to select a network file

Try this. it works in 10.5 and 10.6 and I think it is valid in 10.4. I don't have a 10.4 Mac in front of me.  Open a Finder window and then in the menu bar select  Go and then from the drop down menu select Connect to Server. In the window that opens in the Server Address line you can put smb://servername and it should show you the shares available. If you know the share, you can also enter smb://servername/sharename.

It also helps to make sure that the Mac is in the same domain as the server, which you have done by binding to AD.  Also check in the Network System Preferences under Advanced and the DNS tab that the Mac has your domain listed as a Search Domain.

thank you for all your help

sorry to sound so stupid but have very little knowledge (as in not really ever used) of macs.  i have found the finder icon on the bottom bar that pops up. i click on it and a window similar to windows my computer pops up.  however i cannot see the menu bar or an option thst says "go"

sorry for being such a pain

On Macs, when you open any app there is a app-sensitive menu bar that should appear at the top of the screen. It's not a part of the open app or window as it is in Windows.

thanks i felt so stupid asking that :)

ok i know the shared user folder in windows is under

\\server01\users

it seems in the mac i have to use forward slashes

//server01/users

i get logon details screen

domain

sorry hit enter

logon screen

domain
name
password

when i enter these i get wrong username or password error although i am certain they are correct

Don't worry about that :)

When I first started using Macs it took me forever to remember that the menu bar is there.  And yes, you do have to use the forward slash when doing things like mounting a server share.

Is the user logging in with AD creds to the Mac?  I wouldn't think that it would ask for creds when mounting the share, but I suppose it might.

Can you attach a screen shot of the login screen?

Also, make sure about the Search Domain as I indicated before.

screenshot network settings and connect to server settings


photo.JPG

connect to server settings (sorry had to tak pics on iphone to get onto laptop)
photo2.JPG

Try using the full domain name that you have listed in the Search Domain field. Even if the user didn't log in with AD creds, this should still work by entering in the creds in the login box.  If ADEX is a legitimate old style domain name (we have the same thing here), you might also try adding it to the search domain list and then use ADEX as you have above in the login box.

tried both things and got no joy so far

i am def logged in as the new created user.  when i go to accounts the highlighted one is the new one (previously was defaulting to original mac account)

says the username and underneath admin,network

in the network options i currently have nothing in the DNS

should this be the computers DNS.  when i go into Active directory on the server and look at the mac properties it has this as DNS

"james-beachs-co.advertisingexcellence.local"

Sorry, I missed that in the picture you sent. Yes, make sure that the network settings are complete.  IP, mask, gateway, DNS server (s), WINS if you use it, search domain(s).   DHCP ought to send these if it's configured properly, but since it appears that it did not, add everything manually that's missing.

sorry but how do i find out the correct DNS servers to enter?

They're whatever your internal DNS servers are.  I'm surprised that they weren't populated by DHCP.

sorry gonna have to look this up some more i think

i have tested the account on one of the windows desktops and its about a 10 min job but on this mac am totally lost.

i have added the user account to AD on the server

gone into directory access on the mac and used the active directory bind to bind the mac to the server

then tried these multiple steps to try and access the folder share with no luck

are there any steps i am missing out here as now when i log in i dont even get the option for other user that was coming up before

Without a 10.4.x machine in front of me, I'm a little handicapped, but I'll give it a shot.

1. Create user in AD with proper permissions for domain resource access.

2. Bind Mac to AD. Default settings ought to be OK. Make sure that when you go into Directory Utility the first window in shows your AD domain with a green light. This means that the bind is working OK.

3. This is a place where 10.4 might be different. Log in as local Mac admin, although AD user might work if he has proper permissions. Go into System Preferences - Accounts. Open Login Options - May have to click on padlock and enter admin creds to get to these to edit them. In my window I have an option to allow network users to log on. Make sure that's checked. I also have an options button to restrict to logon to certain AD groups, but for now leave it at all network users.  You should also have the option to Display the login window as a list of users or name and password. Either should be OK. Auto login should be off.

4. Logged in as a user with admin rights on the Mac and go to System Preferences - Network. Click on your active network connection and then the advanced button. You want to be in the Window that you posted above.  Make sure that all network parameters are entered as I indicated above.  To find out all NW settings, go to a Windows machine that is configured and working properly, get a command prompt and enter "ipconfg /all" without quotes. This should return your subnet mask, gateway, DNS and WINS settings.  Replicate the DNS and WINS settings on the Mac. Again, make sure that the search domain box is filled in.  Mine has our .com name and not the older legacy name, although I can use them interchangeably when specifying creds. In the WINS tab I have the older legacy name. So in your case I'd make sure that the Search domain box has your .local name and in WINS under workgroup put ADEX. Also configure any proxy information that is necessary.  Easiest way to see this is to look at a Windows machine's IE proxy settings.

5. At least for the time being, make sure that the firewall is off.  It's in System Preferences, but not sure where in 10.4.

6. Log in as AD user.  Open network utility in Finder - Applications - Network Utility and see if you can ping things by name.

7. Attempt to mount server share by using SMB://servername/sharename

If none of the above work for you, and you have a budget for software, have a look at Thursby Software  (http://www.thursby.com/) to solve all these issues. Their software is not exactly cheap, but it works very well, does what you need, and is well supported.  They have two products you should look at:

1). Dave: DAVE v8.0 is designed to provide bi-directional file and printer sharing services for Macintosh systems in Microsoft networks. DAVE v8.0 provides these capabilities for both workgroup-based and domain-based networks.  Basically, your Mac will look completely  like a Windows machine to the network and vice versa. Apple's built in software does not give full access to the Mac to other machines on the network, if needed, but Dave will allow that as well.

2). ADmitMac: AdmitMac is designed to allow Macintosh systems to function as a fully compliant Windows Active Directory client. ADmitMac is developed to allow single sign-on access to files and printers in multi-user, multi-computer environments with administrator-defined security.

Sadly, they are expensive, so you will need software budget to buy them There are trial versions available to test out.

the mac does have entourage installed

i will bevisiting the site tomorrow and just having email access would be great for now.
 
will entourage be any easier than the mac mail client for accessing the exchange email client?

Entourage should be better than regular Mac mail, but you have to understand that it's NOT Outlook for the Mac. It's an app that kind of lives in the middle between Outlook and Outlook Express.  MS's next Office for the Mac, not sure when it will be out, should have a more Outlook like email client.  Also, if you allow it you can use OWA through Safari.