Hello and welcome to Chesapeake Digital Technology´s blog. We’re an information technology firm in Finksburg, MD. We provide several services, like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Technical Support to small and medium businesses.

These days, many offices are mixed environments of operating systems. While this isn’t necessarily a problem, it can lead to difficulties if not properly anticipated. The first thing I think of when looking at a network is file sharing. Now, sharing among Windows machines is usually pretty easy. A couple of clicks here and there will get you ready to go in no time. What if some of your users are on a Mac? The solution is not instantly obvious, especially if you aren’t using a domain structure. If your office has 5 to 10 computers, you’re probably just hooking them up to a router. Here is the process for enabling sharing from a computer running Mac OS X to machines running Windows.

First, you’ll need root access to the Mac. Odds are, in a small office, that the user of the Mac has admin rights to their system. Again, this is something that can be more effectively managed via a server, etc, but that’s beside the point. If your account has administrative rights to the Mac, then you are set here. Open up the System Preferences.

Apple setup this portion of the OS rather well, in my opinion. In fact, if you look at Windows 7, they emulate the style. In essence, System Preferences acts as its own program. All the links inside allow you to edit various aspects of your system, but you can always use a “Back” arrow to get back a step or return to the main page. I’m a fan. Anyway, now that you’re here, click on the “Sharing” icon located under “Internet & Wireless”.

Once here, you’ll notice a very simple layout for managing various aspects of your computer’s sharing abilities, as well as the name of the computer. The name you see here will be what others see on the network when browsing for computers with which to share. Don’t be overwhelmed by all the options here. You only want one. Select “File Sharing” on the list.

On the File Sharing screen, you will see a list of shared folders. Odds are that you’ll see a folder with your User Name in front of the word “Public Folder”. For example, I see “Josh’s Public Folder”. It should be automatically selected for you. If you noticed the box on the right hand side of the window, labeled “Users:”, you’ll see the people allowed to access the folder. Under these options you should see an item called “Everyone” and they should have “Read Only” access. This means that anyone who accesses this folder can read what you put in there, but not delete or modify the contents in any way. Determine what works best for your situation here.

Lastly, you need to make sure that everyone can see the folder. Above the “Users” window, there is a button called “Options…”. Click it. Here, you will see the various ways to share the folder. You want to make sure that AFP (Apple File Sharing) and Windows Sharing are enabled. FTP is optional, again, depending on what works best for you. Click “Done” and then close this program. As far as your Mac is concerned, you will now be able to share this folder on your network.

This is a great way to make documents available around the office, but for better availability, reliability, etc, pick up an external hard drive that can plug into a network. This ensures that all users can access the data since the device will never leave the network.

-Josh
Chesapeake Digital Technologies