rapidsynergy
asked on
Snow Leopard on Active Directory
I recently switched out my Windows Small Business Server 2003 for a Windows Server 2008. I transferred the DC, FSMO roles etc. The new server is the master browser and DNS. Everything works hunky dory in Windows world. Win XP and Windows 7 can all see each other very happily and my old Win 2003 server and the new server can see each other fine.
The problem I'm encountering is with the two Macs I have on the network - both of which are running Snow Leopard 10.6.7. I joined them to the Active Directory and I can connect to network shares on Windows from the Macs via Cmd-K and DNS name or IP address (although it takes a really long time).
The thing is I cannot **browse** the Windows network like I used to be able to with my Windows 2003 setup. The Macs can see other just fine and Windows machines can see each other but Macs cannot see PCs and vice versa. What am I missing here?
Thanks in advance.
-Eric
The problem I'm encountering is with the two Macs I have on the network - both of which are running Snow Leopard 10.6.7. I joined them to the Active Directory and I can connect to network shares on Windows from the Macs via Cmd-K and DNS name or IP address (although it takes a really long time).
The thing is I cannot **browse** the Windows network like I used to be able to with my Windows 2003 setup. The Macs can see other just fine and Windows machines can see each other but Macs cannot see PCs and vice versa. What am I missing here?
Thanks in advance.
-Eric
Adam Brown
Macs will only browse a Windows network with an appropriate WINS configuration. Windows 7 utilizes LLMNR for browsing, so it doesn't require WINS, and Windows XP kinda does its own thing as well. If you set up an Appropriate WINS server and push out the address of it with your DHCP server, you should get back up and rolling. (Please note that I really really hate WINS and only rarely recommend using it. This is one of the few times it's necessary).
ASKER
Thanks for the tip acbrown. That makes sense since I was running WINS on my old 2003 server. I've gone and installed WINS on the new 2008 server per your recommendation but I am unable to set my WINS server in network preferences in Mac OS to point to the new address. For some reason it is still caching my old WINS server's IP address even though I've since demoted and removed from the network. Any attempts to change this revert to the old setting. I don't understand where it would be pulling it from. I am using an Airport/Time Capsule router for the DHCP server and that does not have the ability to set the WINS server other than for file sharing.
ASKER
Actually after dinking around rebooting the Time Capsule I realized that Airport was caching the old WINS settings. I've been able to point both of my Macs to the new WINS server but no dice. Still can't browse the network via Finder. If I fire up Terminal and type smbclient -L [netbios name] and then my password I have no problems. I can also use smbclient to connect to a share. I can also now see my Macs from Windows.
There's probably some arcane technique for setting up the WINS server so it works without that, but I've made it a point to avoid learning WINS as much as possible :D
You could try this...
1. De activate file sharing.
2. Restart you computer
3. Activate file sharing.
1. De activate file sharing.
2. Restart you computer
3. Activate file sharing.
There is a great article here with diagrams that may help?
http://www.myfirstmac.com/
To set up Windows file sharing in your Macs:
Choose Apple menu > System Preferences and click Sharing.
Select File Sharing in the list, then click Options.
Select “Share files and folders using SMB.”
Select the checkbox next to the user account that will be used to share files with Windows users, and enter the password for that user and click OK.
To help keep your computer secure, you may want to create a special account for Windows users in Accounts preferences.
Click Done.
Give Windows users your mac computer’s address and the name and password they should use to share files with your computer. Your computer’s address is visible in the Sharing pane.
http://www.myfirstmac.com/
To set up Windows file sharing in your Macs:
Choose Apple menu > System Preferences and click Sharing.
Select File Sharing in the list, then click Options.
Select “Share files and folders using SMB.”
Select the checkbox next to the user account that will be used to share files with Windows users, and enter the password for that user and click OK.
To help keep your computer secure, you may want to create a special account for Windows users in Accounts preferences.
Click Done.
Give Windows users your mac computer’s address and the name and password they should use to share files with your computer. Your computer’s address is visible in the Sharing pane.
ASKER
Thank you rjplus and acbrown very much for your input. I've tried all of these ideas and still the Mac cannot browse the network. To reiterate, sharing itself does and has worked fine but it requires you to explicitly create the share from the Mac whereas in the past I could view all Windows machines in the network under "Shared" in the Finder sidebar. Windows PCs do see the Mac however under Network Places so it's a one way issue. I'm starting to wonder however if Snow Leopard can browse AD running on Windows 2008 at all? I haven't been able to find any other threads on the issue either.
rapidsynergy:
Thought this might help? It looks to be a very good resource and well structured.
http://technet.microsoft.c
Thought this might help? It looks to be a very good resource and well structured.
http://technet.microsoft.c
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ASKER
So the solution is there is no solution! Ha. For now any way. Hopefully Apple will rectify.
Thank you imds_la for weighing in here. And thanks to all for your input.
I did try the various suggestions as well to no avail. Marking as solved to retain history in the EE KB for future solution seekers.
Thank you imds_la for weighing in here. And thanks to all for your input.
I did try the various suggestions as well to no avail. Marking as solved to retain history in the EE KB for future solution seekers.