Using a new Mac on a Windows Domain

[stevenriz]

Hi everyone. The last thing I want to do is support new hardware but I have a CFO and CEO that would love to get themselves a Mac Book Pro with all the fixins because they have once caught the Security Tool (malware) and are turned off by Windows. Do any of you successfully support Mac PCs on a Windows Domain? Exchange connectivity? Network printing? Local printing for that matter? Are device drivers harder to come by for the Mac? Obviously we are looking at new computers so from what I understand the new MAC OS supports Exchange natively. I need more feedback before I can commit to this. What about remote access? We currently use Cisco and the Cisco VPN client. What about mobile broadband capabilities?

thanks all!!
Steve

 

[imeldesign]

Is it Leopard or snow leopard? (10.5.X or 10.6.X) I have a white paper I have made up on all this for leopard. I don't know how different snow leopard is.
But yes, I have 17 macs running panther, tiger, and leopard and they all work with exchange and network shares, and network printers and copiers.

 

[stevenriz]

Any issues with calendaring between the platforms? These guys are high in the company and if scheduling is off just once there will be hell to pay. Worst case is we run a windows VM but that defeats the purpose if you ask me...

 

[imeldesign]

No, I don't have a problem. The best way is to use Entourage instead of iCal as it is built to work with exchange. You can get iCal to do it in a round about way. I run the church calendar using both iCal, Entourage, and Outlook. We use a resource calendar program that emails each room reservation to me. I can open it on my mac with either ical or entourage and it will sync between the two (a preference in entourage) or I can open it on my pc in outlook and it will sync with entourage and then to ical. I share all three with all the other employees so everyone has access to an up to date calendar whether they use iCal, Entourage, or Outlook. I even sync the Outlook with google calendar for our website.

 

[stevenriz]

ok so it is sounding promising. One feature with Outlook and Exchange is sending an appointment to a fellow Outlook Exchange user. within the email the recipient had the ability to accept or decline the appointment with comments. Is this possible as well with Entourage? I am trying to thing of other automated functions on having an all Windows network and as I do, I will post the question. thanks again!
steve

 

[imeldesign]

Yes it is...I would recommend using Entourage instead of Mail/iCal. This will give the features of Outlook.

 

[stevenriz]

thanks guys. After some research and inhouse testing, it seems this functionality does not work with Exchange 2003, we think we've tried everything. I see it all works nicely with the new Exchange but we haven't upgraded yet. Working on a plan to do that now. Am I correct or am I missing something?

 

[IshmaelDS]

Don't want to hijack this thread. But What about backups? I have recently been tasked at my job to be "the Guy" in charage of backing up 4 macs to our windows backup servers and offsite backup locations. I was thinking of Using SuperDuper(heard it's good) to backup to sparse file images on the windows servers and then archive those to our offsite storage. Any advice?

 

[IshmaelDS]

ignore my question i'm just going to post a new thread.