Topic: How is e-smith's Mac support working?

[Wei]

We've been asked to add an e-smith server & gateway to a small (about 3 or 4 workstations) all-Macintosh network... 3 x G4's + 1 x iMac (somehow they use an 8-port USB-hub, hopefully, -not- for their Ethernet hub...

Anyway, I haven't seen enough posts to convince me that this is the way to go (if only because of some reports of problems in the printing areas...)

But, as this installation would -not- be primarily to share printers, we may decide to do the job for them...

I'd like to know how well a box running e-smith 4.0 has worked for people on Macintosh networks, i.e. for getting the e-mail directly to/from each workstation.

(That's the client's goal: make it easier for people at the G4 workstations to send e-mails with fairly large attachments out to their clients, and receive similar (as well as some shorter) e-mails from clients & prospects, alike... there would need to be at least one user-name/e-mail address for each person at a workstation, and one extra "generic" e-mail address, that would be checked regularly, whose incoming messages would need to be forwarded to people on the LAN, as they are allocated new/incoming tasks).

I don't anticipate any problems, but would like to know if any have come up for others, in past.

Also, although the prospect told us he thinks they use a modem to connect to the Internet today, I would imagine that (depending on the size of the attachments) a cable connection might be in the cards, further down the road.

Have any problems arisen on an e-smith box gatewaying to/from a Mac LAN when cable is the connection to the Internet? (however unlikely...)

TIA

[SR]

Our 12 city weekly publication business has moved all Mac servers off Mac hardware/software because the Linux software e-smith uses is far more reliable and performs faster.  It has been used with G3, iMac and G4 workstations as the client and a robust PC server.  Each city produces 20gb or more weekly without problems.  Email attachments and ftp are over 80mb.  The e-smith product is using software that has been proven and refined for several years.  You may not have the ability to route email to several people like you described, email is sent to a single users inbox, not to a list of users (not that I have seen).
If they use USB however, do not expect any type of USB to ethernet support for a while.
A nice feature gained by using Linux or e-smith is the ability for Macs and PCs to access the same file storage area or file server over the network.

E-smith with modem works good, e-smith with ethernet connecting to a cable or dsl router works very good.

[Paul]

SR wrote:
> A nice feature gained by using Linux or e-smith is the
> ability for Macs and PCs to access the same file storage area
> or file server over the network.

Access to files (read and write) on the intranet is great from both Mac and PC!

However, the Mac has a few permission limitations not found on the PC as shown in the manual. I haven't been able to write files across the Internet using modems at both ends and dynamic IP with dynamic IP services.    I can upload files to i-bays by using the admin account using a PC but not with a Mac.  The Mac complains that a PORT command not issued first. YMMV.  

Check out this forum post.
 http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=561.msg1987#msg1987

Although the DHCP bug described here was reported fixed after version 3, the work around allowed me to see files that I could not see before from a Mac on the Internet.  But I still cannot write files from the Mac to e-smith across the Internet.

So if you are a Mac and Linux bigot like me, be careful you don't get carried away with enthusiasm for the products ease of use.  Although this product is reliable, easy to use and quite stable, the user interface permission assumptions on the Mac side are not in the same realm and were confusing to me because I haven't been able to get all that is written to work from a Mac.  For this reason I am testing the use of each collaboration feature fully and carefully to be sure I understand the permission limitations on the Mac side before making a commitment that a feature described in the manual works to a client.

I have found that e-smith provides first rate support on this forum and provides excellent information when questions are focused and reasonably defined.  There just don't seem to be very many Mac questions.

Best Regards
Paul

[Tim]

I recently set up an e-smith server to take over the work of an NT4 server that is being used by PCs and Macs. So far so good. But, there are a couple of gotchas to watch for and to warn your Mac users about.

The first is file and folder names. I've had a habit of naming some folders with a client name followed by an "option f" on the Mac. This produces a flourished "f" character that for me at least, makes it instantly identifiable as a folder. This has caused some problems on file sharing via the NT, but on the e-smith server the problems can get very serious. The lesson here is to make sure Mac users do not use "any" special characters in naming files and folders when placing files on the Linux server. We can get away with a lot on Macs that other platforms just don't like.

The second problem is regarding mixed environments. When trying to move Mac files stored in Mac directories on the NT4 server to an e-smith server, it is very important that files be moved while viewing them and moving them from a Mac machine. If you try to move the files while viewing and moving them from the NT, it appears that all the Mac resource and data forks are lost on each and every file. Thus all the files are now text files, rather then the, say, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. files they once were. If all action takes place from a Mac, it works just fine.

Tim

[Ed Jackson]

I installed an E-Smith server in an all-Mac office recently to replace their Mac mail server which kept falling over when large emails were sent out.

Integration is easy, (I have no Mac knowledge) the only problem I had was their network used DHCP with the IP addresses allocated by their G4. For some reason certain workstations from time to time would failed to connect with the e-smith box. Resolved the problem by using static ip's throughout.

Regards

Ed

.Wei wrote:
>
> We've been asked to add an e-smith server & gateway to a
> small (about 3 or 4 workstations) all-Macintosh network... 3
> x G4's + 1 x iMac (somehow they use an 8-port USB-hub,
> hopefully, -not- for their Ethernet hub...
>
> Anyway, I haven't seen enough posts to convince me that this
> is the way to go (if only because of some reports of problems
> in the printing areas...)
>
> But, as this installation would -not- be primarily to share
> printers, we may decide to do the job for them...
>
> I'd like to know how well a box running e-smith 4.0 has
> worked for people on Macintosh networks, i.e. for getting the
> e-mail directly to/from each workstation.
>
> (That's the client's goal: make it easier for people at the
> G4 workstations to send e-mails with fairly large attachments
> out to their clients, and receive similar (as well as some
> shorter) e-mails from clients & prospects, alike... there
> would need to be at least one user-name/e-mail address for
> each person at a workstation, and one extra "generic" e-mail
> address, that would be checked regularly, whose incoming
> messages would need to be forwarded to people on the LAN, as
> they are allocated new/incoming tasks).
>
> I don't anticipate any problems, but would like to know if
> any have come up for others, in past.
>
> Also, although the prospect told us he thinks they use a
> modem to connect to the Internet today, I would imagine that
> (depending on the size of the attachments) a cable connection
> might be in the cards, further down the road.
>
> Have any problems arisen on an e-smith box gatewaying to/from
> a Mac LAN when cable is the connection to the Internet?
> (however unlikely...)
>
> TIA

[Gordon Rowell]

Ed Jackson wrote:
>
>
> I installed an E-Smith server in an all-Mac office recently
> to replace their Mac mail server which kept falling over when
> large emails were sent out.
>
> Integration is easy, (I have no Mac knowledge) the only
> problem I had was their network used DHCP with the IP
> addresses allocated by their G4. For some reason certain
> workstations from time to time would failed to connect with
> the e-smith box. Resolved the problem by using static ip's
> throughout.

I believe a better solution would be to turn off DHCP on
the G4 and enable it on e-smith. 4.1 (to be released soon)
has some nice integration of DNS and DHCP, allowing static
allocation of DHCP addresses in a friendly way.

Gordon