Networking Help MAC/PC/LTSP(FED5)

[pwalt2]

hi,

i am a trainee network administrator at a public school.

we are having a few problems with our macs connecting to our network and permissions and passwords problems...

we also run a LTSP server for our thin client network...

the idea is that all networks talk to each other. our macs are currenterly connecting straight to the windows network which seems to be the problem that we think (before they were only connected to the mac g4 and we had no problems there) is there anyway that the MAC network can connect to the windows network via a Linux Network... this may not make any sense but i am just trying to get rid of the direct connection from the macs to the windows network.

if you have any ideas i am more then open ears to listen to.



thanks for taking the time to read this post.


Paul

[likwid]

I am a bit confused. Is this strictly for authentication and resources? Or do you mean physically connecting AppleTalk (whatever physical connections that uses) to standard 10/100 Ethernet?

[pwalt2]

ok, sorry i didn't make it clearer but i will try and attempt it...

we are using gigabyte connections so 10/1000 if that helps...

and yes it is so that they can access their documents that were created on say a computer in science block down on the computer in film and television. mainly just word documents and so forth...

the problem that we are having is that the teachers won't to log on and be able to see the students work but are unable to...

so yeah any more questions just post

[pavlo_7]

is there anyway that the MAC network can connect to the windows network via a Linux Network... this may not make any sense but i am just trying to get rid of the direct connection from the macs to the windows network.

I don't know what exactly you mean by "connect to the windows network via a Linux Network.", but I think it wont make any difference. I'm am having problems with Mac connecting to any network (Windows or Linux) !!! It fails randomly without any recognizable patern. Right now, for example, I came home and swithched connection to wired, and cannot even ping the router. But virtual Linux running on this same Mac connects, no problem (going through the same wire, using different IP), and yesterday both were working fine.
I know one thing for sure, that if I reset my router, Mac will start working again. But why is this so? Don't know. All I know is that I never had these networking problems with my other laptop running Linux or Windows.

I guess Macs have some serious issues with networking, and I really doubt that it can easily be fixed. Just looking at threads like these:

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...05093011343164

makes me think even more so.

[likwid]

This problem is easily solved by using home directories. Students should not be saving their work locally. This makes back ups a nightmare, as well as running into issues like you are right now.