newbie simple mac/windows questions

[TechSupp]

Just thinking about the new teacher mac books and how they are going to print, how do i connect a mac to our printer shared out on our windows server? Do i have to sort out mac drivers? And how do i connect them to use our network shared drives on our windows server? Only ever used a mac once many many years ago and still managed to have more exprience than the head as i managed to eject the cd he had inserted. Main reason he has bought macs?...so at conferences he wont look out of place as he will have a nice looking computer making notes instead of writing it on paper! Good reason that...not!

[pooley]

Mac's can be tied into ad, they will map home folders and you can connect to other windows shares. You will have to install the printer driver manually (unless you have OSX server). I see no real problems with adding a Mac to your network, but as you say, is it being added for the right reason?

[TechSupp]

Bought for the right reason...no, not in my opinion but hey who am i, i only have to sort it. They wont be added to ad or the domain, they will just connect to shares or printers manually so will need to set it up on each mac book. Thanks for the info. Teachers dont picbk them up from apple shop till early may, so a while to look in to things. Head already has his for some reason.

[speckytecky]

Thanks TechSupp for asking the question and pooley for your very useful answer.

 

I to am a newbie on Macs to AD; I have just bound an iMac to my domain (unfortunately it doesn't seem to have been very successful - domain access is intermittent) but hadn't realised that I'd need to manually install the printer drivers - I presume they drivers are specific to the Mac that I'd need to download from the printer manufactures websites?

 

/

Mac's can be tied into ad, they will map home folders and you can connect to other windows shares. You will have to install the printer driver manually (unless you have OSX server). I see no real problems with adding a Mac to your network, but as you say, is it being added for the right reason?

[TechSupp]

Yes, interesting fact that about print drivers, as I bet thats the first thing they will complain about and I'm not going searching for all their home printer drivers for them! Aint my problem! He should have asked for some input in the decision oin the first place instead of asking the people at the apple store for unbiased info....not! Can you tell I'm annoyed?

Anyway may be a problem at work as the main printer is a Ricoh photocopier/scanner/printer so not sure what driver availability will be like?

 

Edit: Just had a look, seems they will be in luck, I will be out of luck as I will have to install them all manually!

Edited April 3, 2011 by TechSupp

[somabc]

You would be better off printing directly to the printer via IP in most cases.

 

You can use CUPS to manage the printers

Edited April 3, 2011 by somabc

[pooley]

Thanks TechSupp for asking the question and pooley for your very useful answer.

 

I to am a newbie on Macs to AD; I have just bound an iMac to my domain (unfortunately it doesn't seem to have been very successful - domain access is intermittent) but hadn't realised that I'd need to manually install the printer drivers - I presume they drivers are specific to the Mac that I'd need to download from the printer manufactures websites?

 

/

 

I find that my AD login issues were down to time sync between Mac and Domain controller, under date&time preference (on the mac) tick "set date&time automatically and put in the name of your DC.

[SYNACK]

You would be better off printing directly to the printer via IP in most cases.

 

You can use CUPS to manage the printers

 

This does rule out the intervention of print managment and tracking software along with meaning that any change to IPs will need to be replicated manually to each individual Mac. It also prevents segmenting the printers into their own secure IP range to prevent other users going nuts on them untrackably unless you want to enforce fixed IPs on the Macs.

[somabc]

This does rule out the intervention of print managment and tracking software along with meaning that any change to IPs will need to be replicated manually to each individual Mac. It also prevents segmenting the printers into their own secure IP range to prevent other users going nuts on them untrackably unless you want to enforce fixed IPs on the Macs.

 

Well you can use the DNS name for the printer to mitigate some of this instead of course. When I deploy printers to Macs they are generally to a small number of laptop users where these things are not an issue.

[Pete10141748]

Main reason he has bought macs?...so at conferences he wont look out of place as he will have a nice looking computer making notes instead of writing it on paper! Good reason that...not!

 

This is what's wrong with education at the moment, management have NO idea when it comes to these things. Schools waste so much money on stuff that just doesn't matter, yet when we ask for things that do matter suddenly there are no funds available. Really gets my goat

 

If it is for note-taking at a conference, why could he not get a netbook? Is smaller and weighs less to carry around, comes with Windows so it's easy to integrate to your network, does everything he/she is (hopefully) already familiar with, therefore will take less of your time to learn/train/problem-solve the staff who have them, and for probably at least 1/3rd the cost of a Macbook.

 

The Governors / LEA should clamp down on this sort of moronic spending imo.

[speckytecky]

Well said Pete. I'm thinking the same thing