Mac : Creating Links To Networked Resources?
Discussion
Rather than keep going through the "Connect To Server" process everytime I want to connect to a network resource, I thought I'd make a folder on my desktop that had links to commonly accessed drives & folder on the various Macs in the house.
In turn I connected to the resource, made an alias of that on the desktop, renamed the alias to something useful and then moved the alias into my newly created "Network Folders" folder.
Everything seemed to work fine. I could double click the links and the computer would connect to the necessary machine (and authenticate the connection through adding the passwords to my keychain etc.). I could even drag-and-drop files onto the link and, despite displaying a "no entry" sign, after a little delay it would copy the file to the intended destination. Awesome!
However, after some playing around I noticed something a little strange.
If I want to create a "shortcut" to the desktop on two different machines, both of them seem to resolve to the same machine. i.e. I have "Desktop TvMacMini" as one link and "Desktop MacServer" as another, each supposedly linked to the desktop on the respective machines but double clicking either of them opens the desktop on the TvMacMini, even though both have different (and fixed) IP addresses on the network.
I guess it's something to do with what info is (or is not it seems) stored in the alias link. The question is, where is the "afp://...." path stored for these links? Or, even better, am I going about it the wrong way and what would be a cleverer way to do the same task?
In turn I connected to the resource, made an alias of that on the desktop, renamed the alias to something useful and then moved the alias into my newly created "Network Folders" folder.
Everything seemed to work fine. I could double click the links and the computer would connect to the necessary machine (and authenticate the connection through adding the passwords to my keychain etc.). I could even drag-and-drop files onto the link and, despite displaying a "no entry" sign, after a little delay it would copy the file to the intended destination. Awesome!
However, after some playing around I noticed something a little strange.
If I want to create a "shortcut" to the desktop on two different machines, both of them seem to resolve to the same machine. i.e. I have "Desktop TvMacMini" as one link and "Desktop MacServer" as another, each supposedly linked to the desktop on the respective machines but double clicking either of them opens the desktop on the TvMacMini, even though both have different (and fixed) IP addresses on the network.
I guess it's something to do with what info is (or is not it seems) stored in the alias link. The question is, where is the "afp://...." path stored for these links? Or, even better, am I going about it the wrong way and what would be a cleverer way to do the same task?
Tiger restricts the number of preset sharepoints available and doesn't allow you to create new ones.
HornWare Sharepoints however adds this functionality - even better, it's free!
Fire it up, create a new name for your sharepoint, browse to it, select AFP sharing, create new share.
On another machine, browse to the original computer in Finder, show available shares and your new sharepoint should be visible.
To automount, drag into login items in System Preferences > Accounts
Hope that helps.
HornWare Sharepoints however adds this functionality - even better, it's free!
Fire it up, create a new name for your sharepoint, browse to it, select AFP sharing, create new share.
On another machine, browse to the original computer in Finder, show available shares and your new sharepoint should be visible.
To automount, drag into login items in System Preferences > Accounts
Hope that helps.
Thanks for the reply.
I installed Sharepoints and followed the instructions but no matter what folders/drives I set to be shared in Sharepoints, when browsing to that computer over the network only the hard drive (system) and my home folder appear as shared resources. Do you think there's a clash between Sharepoints and the Personal File Sharing settings in the Sharing pref pane? (I currently have that switched on)
I installed Sharepoints and followed the instructions but no matter what folders/drives I set to be shared in Sharepoints, when browsing to that computer over the network only the hard drive (system) and my home folder appear as shared resources. Do you think there's a clash between Sharepoints and the Personal File Sharing settings in the Sharing pref pane? (I currently have that switched on)
Hmmmm, Here's how I did it with a Powerbook G4 and a Macbook connected wired via a switch.
On the G4, fired up Sharepoints, created a new share of a folder within documents as an example - gave the share a name, browsed to the folder in question and importantly selected "Shared" from the drop down "AppleFileServer (AFS) Sharing".
Then went to the Macbook, opened Finder>Network>PowerbookG4>Connect , connected as a registered user, and bingo, my new share was listed as a volume to mount , click on it and it appears as a volume on the Desktop.
In System Preferences>Sharing , I have Personal File Sharing "on" on both machines.
The only other thing that I'm unsure about is whether you can share within an already mounted share - I suspect not.
On the G4, fired up Sharepoints, created a new share of a folder within documents as an example - gave the share a name, browsed to the folder in question and importantly selected "Shared" from the drop down "AppleFileServer (AFS) Sharing".
Then went to the Macbook, opened Finder>Network>PowerbookG4>Connect , connected as a registered user, and bingo, my new share was listed as a volume to mount , click on it and it appears as a volume on the Desktop.
In System Preferences>Sharing , I have Personal File Sharing "on" on both machines.
The only other thing that I'm unsure about is whether you can share within an already mounted share - I suspect not.
Might have answered my own question here.
With Sharepoints, it seems that to access the newly created shared reources you have to connect as a non-admin user. To do that, create a new share-only user and then use these credentials when connecting to the shared folder. Then it works perfectly.
With Sharepoints, it seems that to access the newly created shared reources you have to connect as a non-admin user. To do that, create a new share-only user and then use these credentials when connecting to the shared folder. Then it works perfectly.
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