Customer Reviews

Windows 2000 Mac Support Little Black Book: The Hands-on Reference Guide for Integrating Macintosh Desktops with Windows 2000 Server Environments

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Despite what another review says, this book is not just for users of Windows 2000 Server. My Mac/Windows network is set up on a peer-to-peer basis, and yet I found this book valuable, because it explained how to configure Thursby Systems' great program, DAVE, to allow for this sort of configuration.

I don't know what this other reviewer was thinking when these very clearly labeled instructions were missed.

Although the book assumes some degree of familiarity with both Windows and the Mac OS, even someone who is not an experienced administrator will learn how to set up their systems with as little fuss as possible.

I highly recommend this book.

I truly cannot understand where this dude gets the idea there is no discussion of TCP/IP connections in the section covering Windows 2000. Evidently he's not paying attention. In fact, the section called "Learning How DHCP Works With Your Macs," beginning on page 292, clearly shows how you can use your Mac's TCP/IP Control Panel to access a DHCP Server established under Windows 2000.

Either that dude missed this section, or read another book. Either way, he doesn't seem to understand how it's supposed to be done.

In my company's network, a mixed setup with Macs in our art department and Windows boxes elsewhere, this book was an invaluable assistant in getting things to work properly when we migrated to W2K. I recommend it highly.

Bummer, this book is a "wannabe".

Although, the Windows NT information is without a doubt, far and above superior to Microsoft's documentation it falls short with Windows 2000 support. Unfortunately, this book dwells upon AppleTalk as a viable protocol. However, Macintosh systems have supported TCP/IP as the native protocol since 7.x. AppleTalk is for all practical purposes dead -- Modern Giga Bit routers do not route AppleTalk. There is no discussion of Macintosh access via TCP/IP except implicitly through DAVE.

Microsoft might as well have written the discussion of the UAM (Universal Access Module) it is so terse. This book will be a great asset for those unfortunate folks supporting Legacy systems whose budgets will not allow forward progress.

Updated from review of May, 2000.
A more accurate title for this book would be "Windows 2000 SERVER or Users of Thursby's Dave Mac Support ..." This book is a step-by-step, how-to book for configuring Windows servers and Mac clients in a SERVER-based environment. If you are a knowlegible system administrator and/or Dave user and what you need is a recipe for doing X, including dialogs and what to click/enter when, then this book is well organized and complete.

If you are working in a peer-based (i.e. non Windows server-based) network, don't own Thursby's Dave, or if you need to learn/understand the different ways in which Macs and PCs can internetwork, then this book won't help you.

I rated the book 3 stars because its title and description led me to purchase the book (in May 2000) without being able to actually look at it. Had I been able to thumb through it in a bookstore I wouldn't have bought it. Otherwise I believe it delivers good value for its target audience (Windows system administrators or owners of Dave), even though I don't fit into this category.

I wanted a book to help me set up a network with the systems I had, not a book on how to use a software product (Thursby's Dave) that I did not own and did not necessarily want to buy. Without Dave the book is limited to Windows 2000 Server, so I stand by my original judgment. The basic change I'd make is to the title of my review. This is all academic now that the book can be previewed online and OS-X has supported SMB out of the box from the beginning.

My office uses both Macs and Windows-based PCs. We just installed Windows 2000 Server, and we wanted to know how to make our Macs play nicely with the new setup. Mr. Steinberg and Mr. Paulson saved the day. I had my network administrator follow their clear, concise instructions to the letter.

Now our Macs hum merrily along, freely exchanging files with the Windows 2000 servers. Printing and Internet access work flawlessly.

This book is just what was needed; it's the sort of book Microsoft should have published and distributed with Windows 2000.

Generally, while I haven't READ it from cover to cover I spent a good 20-40 minutes examing the various parts that I was interested in. Overall, its useful to it's target audience as others said. However, if appears to omit some important points. First, the MacOS limits you to 255 volumes per server, resulting in some strange issues if you exceed this. Second, it ignores SMS integration and Netopia NetOctopus - software used to manage systems. In a cross platform environment, these can be very important issues that I feel should have been discussed.

For what it does discuss - which is otherwise extensive, including various service pack bugs - it does appear to be well organized and quite useful.