In the last topic I compared the Dell Windows 7 desktop with the iMac OS X desktop.  In short, I find both have excellent features and while the OS X exposé and spaces experience is different from the Windows 7 aero experience, neither will drive you into the other’s arms.  In the final analysis, however, I find the spaces utility really useful in day-to-day work with many different applications.

Now, that the Dell and iMac are up and running, this topic reviews how well the iMac and Dell connect to networks, to external devices, and to each other.

Over the past week, I feel like a beleaguered dad trying to expand his kids' circle of friends.  Although they sit beside each other in my office, in the beginning the Dell and iMac hardly interacted with each other. After some intensive therapy, now at least they both shake hands and, on occasion, have play-dates.  At first I force the interaction with little enthusiasm from OS X or Windows 7.  I confess that I tried so many different strategies to get them to network that, in the end, I do not know exactly what strategies led to connectivity and which one didn’t help, didn’t matter, or made things worse.

Connecting to the Internet

I start with the easy stuff, and the link to the Internet is straightforward for both systems.  I plug in the Ethernet cables and the systems find the net.  It is just that easy.  On the Dell, I go into the Control Panel, Internet Options and choose Google as my home page, and leave my Internet security settings as medium-high.  I leave the other settings alone.

For the iMac OS X, there aren’t many Internet controls accessible from the System Preferences App.  (As an aside, I find designating a desktop for System Apps and leaving system apps open in the dock makes it easier to use them.)  I change the Internet options from the Safari and Firefox browsers.

Wireless Network

The wireless network is just as straight forward.  Both systems see the wireless and hook-up without any difficulty.  On the Dell, in the lower right of the bottom task bar there is a “Open Network and Sharing Center” and the wireless networks connections are all shown.  From the top toolbar on the iMac, the Airport icon is the gateway to the wireless connections and management.

Networked but Hiding

The computers can see each other, but with some difficulty.  I have the Old Dell, XP, the new Dell 8100 Windows 7, and the iMac OS X.  

There are some helpful site that go through the connection process, like http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=846810 and http://macs.about.com/od/filesharing/ss/file-sharing-with-snow-leopard-win7.htm -- although the recommendations in these link don't work perfectly for me.  Here’s how I get the connection.

For the Dell 8100, I go to the Windows Explorer.  Under “Computer”, I find the main C: drive I want to share.  I right click on it and then click “share with” and “advanced sharing.”  There I add a share name, and click “Permissions”.  Here I add Everyone and give them full control… probably a security risk.  I also add my Administrator account and main account on the Dell, giving everyone full control.  Now that folder is ready to be shared.

Then I head over the "Control Panel" on the Dell 8100 and click on "Network and Internet" and go to the "Network and Sharing Center".   Windows 7 asks for a location for my Network.  My options are "Home", "Work", or "Public".  For those of us with a home office this vocabulary a little confusing because my home is my workplace.  I click help.  I learn that the choice will lead to “appropriate” firewall and security settings.   It all seems to boil down to a series of settings under the title of “network discovery”. 

I choose “home network” because network discovery is “on” and this allows my Dell 8100 to see other computers and devices and visa versa.  My computers can, Windows 7 says, also belong to a “homegroup”— I am not exactly sure what that does, except if I chose “Work Network”, I can’t have one. Besides it only is relevant if I have other Windows 7 machines, and I don’t.  This is a good article on using the HomeGroup: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/guides/2010/09/homegroup-a-practical-guide-to-domestic-bliss-with-windows-7.ars/3. Obviously I don’t choose public because this cloaks my computer from other computers with “network discovery” turned off.  Still, I wonder, if I should check “work network” because of the Exchange Server.

I click on the little house icon representing a Home network, and name my Home network, "MiNet".  Then I and go to the settings in "Network and Sharing Center", confirm I am also in a homegroup, and look at my advance sharing settings. I turn on network discovery, file and printer sharing.  I turn on sharing my public folders so anyone accessing it within the network can read and write files in that folder.  I choose media streaming from my media library (more on that in another topic).

I Use 128 bit encryption, hoping it will work for all shared devices.  Finally I turn off password protected sharing since I want the iMac and other computers on this network to see each other quickly.

For my "Homegroup" I hope to increase security by checking “Use user accounts and password to connect to other computers.

Next I make sure that that both the iMac and Dell are in the same workgroup.  Both OS X and Windows 7 provide a default workgroup named “Workgroup”. I go to the control panel -> System and Security -> System and check the Workgroup name.

On the iMac I go into System Preferences -> Network -> Advanced and click on WINS.  I confirm that the workgroup name is “Workgroup”.

Now, I go to the Dell and from the taskbar go to Windows Explorer and, under Network, I can see the iMac and its external devices. 

From the iMac, I go to the finder and … nothing is there.  But, when I key command -> K or, in the Finder, click “Go” on the top menu and then “Connect to Server”, and type in the Dell’s ip address, preceded by smb:// (which refers to Server Message Block protocol used by Microsoft), it works!   For Windows 7, to find the IP address I go to the command prompt accessible through, All program -> Accessories, and at the prompt type in IPCONFIG.

I see the Dell shared folder in the Finder shared list and on the desktop.

The iMac OS X and, to a lesser extent, the Dell Windows 7 have some difficulty keeping the connection.  When either computer goes to sleep the connection is lost and it does not reconnect when the computers wake.  Sometimes I can reconnect them through the Finder and Windows Explorer and sometimes it seems to require rebooting.  The iMac OS X has a particularly hard time recognizing the computer name instead of the ip number.  I added the Dell 8100 and iMac’s ip address to the WINS list under Network advanced connection on the iMac, and this seems to help.  This is a “name resolution problem” that has some chatter on the web, but no resolution that I have found.  If anyone has a solution, please note it in the comments to this forum. Recently I have assigned a static ip address to both the Dell and iMac and this seems to help as well.  There is more information in this link http://gizmodo.com/5430678/how-to-make-your-pc-and-mac-share-stuff-like-best-friends. Still, with a little persistence and rebooting, the Dell and iMac can see each others’ folders and files.

In short, consistent and reliable connectivity between the two computers has eluded my grasp.  While the Exchange server always stays connected, the Dell 8100 folders come and go -- usually related to one or both computers going to sleep and loosing their connection. I called Apple consultants and they were courteous and referred me to some articles, but once they reviewed the networks settings on the iMac they said they did not have the expertise to go further. Perhaps someone reading this topic can give better or more complete advice.

External Hard Drives: Forcing HFS+ and NTFS to Play Together

When using ports from the Dell or iMac the external hard drives are, for some reason, easier for the two computers to share than their internal drives.  I have a 1 TB Lacie d2 Quadra with eSata, Firewire 800 & 400 and USB 2.0 ports, and a 1 TB Fantom Drive with an USB 2.0 and eSata ports for faster transfer than a USB, but only the Dell has an eSata port.  I also have a 4 GB Kingston Memory Stick.   The Lacie appears heavy duty and the firewire 800, with faster transfer rates, is more suitable for movie making on the iMac, but it carries a premium price of about $150.00.  The Fantom Drive, which is a little noiser (but not much) and has a slightly smaller profile, cost me about $50 on special, with a rebate.

I plug all of these external drives into the USB ports on the iMac and all are visible.  I plug them into the Dell Windows 7 and all are visible except the Lacie.  Why?  In an earlier topic iMac to Exchange Server 2003, I said “The bottom line is that an iMac with OS X is quite capable of seeing Windows folder and files.  But you can't write to them, so it is very difficult to work with the folders.  Windows files tend to be in NTFS (New Technololgy File System) while OS X files are in HFS+ (Hierarchical File System).  This is a major roadblock in working in a mixed PC/Mac environment.  In some instances things like flash drives are formatted in FAT32 (File Allocation Table) which both OSX and Windows can read and write to, however, FAT is an older, less efficient, and less secure format that is no longer favored by either Windows or OS systems.

The different file formats for OS X and Windows 7 that is at the heart of the incompatibility problems.

The Lacie drive is formatted for the iMac OS X in Mac OS Extended Journaled (or HFS+) and thus the Dell’s Windows 7 can’t see it.  Notably when it is plugged into the iMac and given permission to be seen through the System Preferences “Share” utility, it can be seen.

Seeing each other’s drives and playing well together are not the same.  Windows 7 can read, but not write to NTFS and OS X can read but not write to HFS+.  What to do?

I google the problem.  Sure enough there are commercial solutions.  Paragon has “HFS+ for Windows” and “NTFS for Mac”. Mediafour sells MacDrive for Windows.  Tuxera as “ NTFS for Mac”.  The prices for all list on the web for under $40.00. 

NTFS-3G With McFuse

I notice, however that Tuxera offers a free product NTFS-3G for OS X.  This product has quite a story – see  http://shadowofged.blogspot.com/2007/03/ntfs-3g-for-mac-os-x.html#  with more information about it here: http://blog.adamnash.com/2007/05/25/how-to-mount-ntfs-drives-on-mac-os-x-with-readwrite-access/

Even with all this buzz, the program is still available free, and I download it from this site http://sourceforge.net/projects/catacombae/files/NTFS-3G%20for%20Mac%20OS%20X/ .  I download the manual from:  http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-manual/.

UPDATED: 2/25/12 - I recently bought a MacBook Pro and transferred programs from the iMac using the Migration Assistant. The external NTSF hard drive mounted but files permission was "read" only.  It turns out that the NTSF-3G did not transfer and the MacFuse version need to be updated.  The NTSF-3G is available from http://sourceforge.net/projects/catacombae/files/NTFS-3G%20for%20Mac%20OS%20X/   and the latest version of MaFuse can be found at http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/downloads/list. 
 

NTFS-3G works with a utility called MacFuse.  This utility extends Mac OS X's native file handling capabilities via 3rd-party file systems.  This link has more information about it:  www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23729/macfuse and http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/.

I install NTFS-3G and MacFuse; this YouTube video really helped: http://youtube.com/watch?v=fxTBBj6g164.  Yet, even with these visual aids, it still took a few days to configure them correctly.  The problem I encountered were a combination of permission, disk errors, and file systems.  Here are a few hints to make things easier:

First, when you attach the NTFS drive to the iMac, it will automatically be recognized through NTFS-3G.  However, if it is not ejected properly, it cannot be used again until it is “repaired” on an NTFS system.  In the NTFS-3G configuration, I have checked, “always recover unclean volumes”, and that may limit the number of times I have to repair the disk in the future.

Second, read-write permissions have to be assigned to the drive for “everybody” or selected users.  Unless permission is granted it is not possible to write to the drive.   When I have the “owner” permission to read/write, it sets in motion a windows security window that takes awhile and goes through every file.

With the external Fantom drive connected, the iMac sees all directories and files and when I go to utilities NTFS-3G shows that it has mounted the Fantom drive and is using a NTFS-3G format.

Windows 7 does show the iMac, but not the Fantom drive.  This is easily solved by going to utilities -> file sharing and adding Fantom Drive as a shared folder.  Of course, I give myself and everyone permission to read/write.  And there is no problem reading or writing to the files from either the Dell or the iMac.  So this is relatively successful.

Next, I want to see if the Fantom hard drive will work connected to the Dell through the eStata port.  When connected to the eSata port I see the drive from both systems, right click, share the drive and give myself full control in permission an security tab.  That seems to work, but only after restarting the Dell.  As advertised the eSata connetion is fast!

Finally, I open a Microsoft word file on the Dell Windows 7 computer.  I am able to save it on the HFS+ formatted iMAc drive that is shared and has appropriate permissions.

FAT32 - More Universal but...

After all the fuss with NTFS and HFS+ formats, it was easy to use my Fat32 formatted flash drive.  I insert it, give everyone permission to read/wirte to it, and voila!  Although I know Fat32 is inefficient and has security issues, it sure is nice to have an easy to use cross platform format.

As a last check, I create a document in Word on the iMAc and, without any further fussing, it saves the document in an Exchange Server NTFS folder.

Printer Connection

Next I connect my old, but very reliable HP LaserJet 4MV printer to iMac.  This is straight-forward.  I have the IP address for the printer from my old Dell, and the iMac’s OS X links to it immediately without asking for the HP driver.  However, it linked through the “generic postscript printer” driver and I have to go to “select printer software” where I select the HP LaserJet MV driver from the drop down list.

The biggest difference I can see between the old Dell driver and the iMac is that the tool bar for the printer is always on the top in the iMac, while it stays with the open application on the Dell.  There is a different test page from XP and OS X and the test page on XP is more detailed. 

I install the HP 4MV on Dell, and WIndows 7 had to search for extra printers but it did find it and installed it with the correct ip easily.

I  plug in the HP2600 series printer and OS X found it right away and scanner worked!  An exceptionally easy setup!  Same for the Dell.

Then went to configuring the Epson R300, an old ink jet printer. For OS X using the friver options required some searching.  I finally found that if you press print it takes you to a printer option page that is quite flexible.  I couldn't however, set up the options from Picasa! 

The quality of the prints were not the same from the Dell Window 7 and iMac OS X printer drivers.  I haven't worked with them long enough to figure out the best setting for each, but what I do know is that for these printers, configuring them for good color reproduction will take some work.

Networking summary

In summary, networking the iMac OS X and Dell Windows 7 is possible, but not easy.   Having OS X HFS+ read and write to NTFS and visa vera is a hassle but, possible with NTFS-G and McFuse.  At this point I have the two systems networked, but it is still quite quirky.  I am sure I am missing something so if anyone has a checklist of what to do to have NTFS and HFS+ drives easily show up and share on OS X and Windows 7 computers, please let me know.