I have been working with Jon solving some file and print puzzles for the network that he manages. The network has Windows XP and Apple OS X clients and provides services from a Suse server running OpenLDAP for authentication and Samba for file and print.

The little puzzle we have been working on has been incorporating the Apple OS X machines into the authenticated file and print network. Connecting the eMacs to the wider network would provide more services to the users of the machines and give Jon less management and security headaches over the current local users / afp-island that the machines currently live in.

Here’s a link to the wikwikwah on Central home directories on a linux server

The instructions so far…

# Peel the otter…

Seriously though… getting the X clients to authenticate against the existing LDAP servers was easy. It is well documented and searchable thanks to the big G.

# Stew 6 hours in a server room / back office

NFS and automounts have eaten a day our time in research and testing. We don’t think that NFS is the best method of providing network home directories in this environment. If the SMB client on the OS X client wasn’t so mangled a connection via Samba would have been prefered as Samba is already serving up /home and /other/dirs to the network of Windows XP workstations.

# The pan is now ready. Discard contents and begin again with the prepared pan.

Looking again at a page from early in the day and now that we’ve been investigating LDAP, automount and NetInfo Manager the information on it makes more sense. I think we discarded the information earlier as we didn’t want to install AFP on the file server. Thinking about it now, using AFP makes the most sense: Samba is installed to speak SMB to Windows clients, why not AFP?

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I just wanted to say a quick hello to the frequent visitors out there (you know who you are). Thanks for popping by, reading this site and (hopefully) providing reciprocal links back here. leave a comment, say hello back.

I’m a big user of messaging applications. From my email addiction to my instant messaging accounts. I like IM’s. I like online status messages. My current online status reads: ‘that’s not a pig - it’s a shaved cat with its tail permed’. My friend Adoms’ status messages are usually a gem. Currently it reads

‘We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.’

Well said.

It’s not William Motley, it is Antony Dunn elected in Kilburn.

I think we are all voted out. When I say ‘we’ I mean the 37.26% that voted. And for the rest of you? election fatigue or political fatigue disconnected, not apathetic? we’ll see. so, wither bec?

much more to be done.

I write this weblog and others as I am practicing what I preach: web technologies really reach people. And for new web technologies that goes double. Static, maintenance heavy websites are no good, for the providers and the users. Many technologies are out of reach for individuals and organisations, by price or by size. Self-publishing tools such as wordpress (that powers this blog) and joomla (used by QPARA and BEST, two Brent resident associations) can empower people. Publish newsletters and write websites with a single effort. Mange mailing lists and distribute meeting minutes with information provided and updated by the user, not the valuable resource of a membership secretary or an administrator.
get internet tools.

comwifinet, the organisation I work for, has been working with residents associations and community groups around london, providing community groups and campaigners with internet based tools for communication. we provide training in a collaborative workshop environment to help with the adoption and growth of these tools.

need internet tools? get in touch rob@comwifinet.com