EPS Apple User Tech Tips

OS X Bugs, Fixes and Solutions Third Party Issues
Tiger - AFP (AppleTalk) Bug HP Scanner Software
Connections to EPS or FTP Servers  

An Important Tiger (OS X 10.4) bug for AFP protocol

At this time (August 11, 2005) there is a reported and unfixed bug in the Tiger (OS X 10.4) release that prevents the use of the AppleTalk protocol to connect to our Windows NT-based Appletalk servers. Our NT servers to not implement the SMB protocol in a manner that the Macs recognize so Mac users are currently limited to FTP access (non-SSL) to our NT servers (see below). This can cause the loss of Apple file forking information such that the receiving system forgets the application that made the file(s). This can make things difficult for Mac users who need to transfer data from one Macintosh to another (and work on it) across the network.

Here are the current possible fixes to this solution.

  1. Connect to the server with a OS-X system that has not been upgraded (Panther or older) and transfer the your data to another media (USB Memory key, Zip Drive or CD-RW) that can be read by the system you want to transfer the data to. We will have a new OS X 10.3 MacMini in the lab (Northrop 209) shortly. The existing iMac in the lab (OS 9.3) can also be used for this purpose.
  2. Use a binary conversion tool to create a binary Mac archive on the source system files that can ve transferred to some other location (i.e., your CIRT "briefcase" or the M: or L: drive on our servers) for access. This allows the file to be sent through media that do not support the Mac resource forks. On the other end you use Stuffit Expander on your Mac to restore the files with everything intact. All of this is fairly well discusssed online at http://accurapid.com/journal/mac_pc.htm.
  3. Use FTP to transfer the files and then manually reestablish the file association. This can be very time consuming if you have a lot of files or files of lots of different types.
  4. Wait for Apple to fix the bug (may take a while).
  5. Wait for us to upgrade to Windows 2003 server so that a proper implementation of SMB can be used (will probably take longer than Apple fixing the bug).

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Connecting to Servers From Panther (OS X 10.3)

To EPS Servers from within Northrop Hall

1) From General Preferences, select the NETWORK icon

2) Select to Show: Built-in Ethernet

3) Select "AppleTalk"

4) If "Make AppleTalk Active is not checked, check-it as shown below. AppleTalk is required for direct-to-server ("afp") connections:

5) The EPS servers with AppleTalk connectivitiy are EPS (Incoming, Outgoing and PUB shares), EPS1 (Common share) and EPS2 (Users share). The format to connect is "aft:/at/servername". For example, to connect to EPS1, EPS1 enter "afp:/at/EPS1:*" into the server address line and select CONNECT.

6) You should receive a login dialog requesting your EPS username and password. If not, try rebooting your machine to ensure the AppleTalk selection took effect and try again.

7) Next you will see a list of the AppleTalk shared folders on that system. Select the one you want to connect to it.

Note #1: You will avoid many troubles if you use your EPS username and login password for your Mac login values.

Note #2: This method of connection will not work from outside of Northrop Hall because AppleTalk is not routed on UNM's network.

Making FTP Connections (from Anywhere)

1) AppleTalk is not required for FTP connections. There are FTP connections available on eps1.unm.edu (epsgroup = common), eps.unm.edu (incoming, outgoing, pub), epswww.unm.edu (see Jim Connolly if you have the need to update EPS web pages with FTP), and eps2.unm.edu (epsusers = users; special permission must be set up by Jim Connolly). Regular FTP connections are supported. Secure Shell (SSH) connections are not supported.

2) To Connect to an FTP site navigate to the GO menu in the FINDER and select "Connect to server"

3) Enter the FTP site address on the Server Address and select connect. Include "ftp://" before one of the server addresses listed above.

4) Enter the your EPS department username and password. If the login dialog does not appear, you may have a problem. See Jim Connolly who will attempt to troubleshoot why it isn't working.

Important Note: FTP does not successfully transfer Apple File Forking information. This means that the program association of your file may be lost if transfer is by FTP.

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Third Party Problems

HP Scan Manager software

Problem: If you have an HP scanner that runs HP Scan Manager in the background it will cause sluggish performance of your CPU. The problem drives the "kernel_task" to consume 90-100% of your CPU.

Solution: Open Activity Monitor, find the process for HP Scan Manager and force quit the beasty.

THIS SOLUTION IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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