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Take Control of Sharing Files in Leopard
Don't buy this book!
Even if you are using Leopard, you should instead buy Take Control of Sharing Files in Snow Leopard. This Leopard book was great when it was released, covering all the latest Leopard details with a 2007 outlook. 2007 was about a century ago in Internet years, so when we created the Snow Leopard edition in 2009, we created it with an eye to including Leopard users. The changes in Mac OS X between Leopard and Snow Leopard are not that large, but the changes in the world overall make the Leopard ebook somewhat obsolete.
More Info
Contents & Intro
FAQ
Blog
Book Info
89 pages
Version 1.0
Published 26-Nov-07
2.7 MB download
ISBN: 1933671335
Free sample with Table of Contents, Introduction, Quick Start, and section starts.
About the Author
Glenn Fleishman is a technology journalist based in Seattle, where he lives with his wife and two sons, both of whom are adept at accidentally pressing the Power button on his laptop.
He’s a contributing editor at TidBITS, responsible for much of their Web and publishing infrastructure; a columnist for the Seattle Times on all things Mac related; and a regular contributor to the Economist, Macworld, and Ars Technica. He appears regularly on his local public radio station, KUOW.
This book helps you share documents among computers and over the Internet safely, using the file-sharing options available in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. This book was written by Glenn Fleishman, edited by Tonya Engst, and published by TidBITS Publishing Inc.
Introduction
In the late 1980s, when only a few million academics and governmental types had easy access to a very slow Internet and even most business users couldn't afford pricey Ethernet gear, we hoi polloi had two ways to share files: sneakernet and snail mail. The algorithm for sneakernet was to insert a floppy disk, copy files to the floppy, eject the floppy, walk (in sneakers) across the room, insert the floppy, and copy files from the floppy. A little tedious, but it got the job done.
For distances beyond the reach of sneakernet, the algorithm changed. Instead of walking across the room, you inserted the floppy in a padded envelope and walked it to the post office or called FedEx.
Even today, sneakernet and snail mail are useful for transferring huge quantities of data—imagine the gigabits you can "transmit" when you send a bunch of hard drives by overnight mail or walk a DVD-R across a room—but most people share files through multiple accounts on the same computer, over local area networks comprised of wired Ethernet and wireless Wi-Fi links, or over the Internet using dial-up modems, broadband connections, and high-speed dedicated lines.
In Take Control of Sharing Files in Leopard, I help you identify the right computer setup for exchanging files among users in your situation, with a particular emphasis on users working on networked computers. I focus on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard as the hub of these activities, but the principles are the same on all platforms, and many specifics are identical or quite similar in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
I also explain how to connect to a Mac running Leopard from Windows XP and Vista and from Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.4.
Note: To keep this book focused on file sharing, we broke out two related topics into full-length titles of their own:
Quick Start to Sharing Files in Leopard
This book contains many details, not all of which may be relevant to your situation. You do not need to read every word before sharing files, but you should be familiar with the overall process first.
Prepare to share files:
Before you think about the big world of sharing files on a network, you may wish to review techniques for sharing files among users on a single Macintosh. See Share Files on the Same Mac.
Learn how file sharing is different from using disks to copy files from computer to computer or using email attachments to move files around. See What Is File Sharing?.
Review reasons to share files, and see which match your situation. See Reasons for File Sharing.
Decide on the hardware or online service that you'll use as your file sharing server; see What You Need to Serve Files .
Determine which file sharing method makes sense for your goals, budget, and expertise. Learn about Apple Filing Protocol, FTP, Pando, and others. See Decide on a File-Sharing Method .
Take steps to manage security risks by becoming informed about what you expose when you share files over the Internet. See Avoid File-Sharing Risks.
Start sharing files:
Decide which folders and volumes to share, set up accounts for users, and choose their access privileges for viewing, storing, and modifying items. Learn about Apple Filing Protocol, Samba, FTP, and Web particulars for sharing files. See Share Files.
Start sharing photos and music from iTunes and iPhoto; see Share Digital Media Files.
Access shared files:
Access shared files from Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. See Access Shared Files.
Ask a Question
Feel free to ask us if you have a question about this book!
Send Us Your Comments!
How could we not publish such kind words? If you'd like to send us your comments (good or bad, though we hope they're all good), just click the Feedback link on the cover of your copy of the ebook. Be sure to let us know if we can publish your comment. Thanks!
Update Plans
October 2009 -- We have no plans to update the Leopard edition of this book, but the Snow Leopard edition is now available.
Apple has publicly acknowledged a rare but nasty data-destroying bug related to using the Guest account in Snow Leopard. The bug appears to be associated with having a Guest account already set up before you upgrade to Snow Leopard. While there is currently no fix available, we hope to see one in 10.6.2. To learn more, check out my TidBITS article, Apple Acknowledges Guest Account Data Loss Bug. [This bug was fixed in 10.6.2.]
Home Sharing, a new feature in iTunes 9, makes it possible to easily
share media among family members (or any group where everyone is authorized on the same iTunes Store account). While the feature is a clear win for sharing iPhone apps, several Take Control authors have been perplexed by
Home Sharing, either because the feature didn't perform as they'd expected, or because it's difficult to concisely explain the differences between it and the old iTunes Sharing feature. Thankfully, Take Control author Ted Landau's recent Mac Observer article tackles the subject. If you're interested in gaining a deeper understanding of how to share media in iTunes, check it out!
Earlier this month, Apple announced a new iDisk sharing feature. Working on the www.me.com Web site, a user can select a file stored on their iDisk, and then just fill in a few simple options to send an email message containing a download link for that file and a custom message. All the recipient need do is click the link in the received email message. You can read more about it, and get directions, in Joe Kissell's TidBITS article Apple Adds iDisk Sharing Feature to MobileMe.
Dropbox is a new option that
might appeal for sharing files among multiple computers you own and
among work groups of varying people. It's an Internet-hosted offering
that provides 2 GB of storage for free, and 50 GB for $9.99 per month
or $99 per year.
To use Dropbox, you install a small program under Mac OS X or
Windows, as well as several flavors of Linux. The program creates a
folder where you tell it to that looks just like a regular folder or
directory. However, any items placed into, removed from, or modified
within that directory are immediately and automatically securely
synchronized with all other copies.
For an individual trying to keep certain files up to date among
multiple computers, Dropbox is a simple way to avoid having to set up
archives. While iDisk within MobileMe ($99 per year for all MobileMe
services) can achieve this, it's not a good option for non-Mac users,
and it has delays in synchronizing. It's also, frankly, not very
clever about how it performs updates.
Dropbox also shines for workgroups. You can, via the service's Web
interface, take any folder and share it to a group of people you
select. On accepting an invitation to share the folder (via email
notification and then the Web site), the folder appears in their
Dropbox folder and, again, works like any other folder.
Dropbox also archives files as you modify them, allowing you to
download older revisions via their Web site. It also hosts simple
photo galleries, and more. You can read more about Dropbox at
TidBITS in Dropbox: A Collaborator's Dream.
Apple made a minor change to how the File Sharing service displays
shared volumes, along with the accompanying explanation, in its Mac OS
X 10.5.5 update that incorporated Security Update 2008-006 on
15-Sep-2008. Before this update, the list of Shared Folders excluded
Public Folders in other user's home directories. Those now appear.
Apple also improved the text that explains what's shared. An user
account with administrative access enabled can access any mounted
volume, including the hard drive from which Mac OS X started up. This
wasn't indicated prior to 10.5.5, and is a minor security flaw by
omission.
I'm embarrassed to say that I just now
noticed that PureFTPd
Manager, a Mac OS X package that allows you to install and work
with a great FTP server, was updated last fall to work with Leopard.
The software, which is donationware, lets you use PureFTPd, a
high-quality FTP server with an enormous number of configuration
options. PureFTPd Manager gives you a control-panel-like interface to
set each of these many options. If you're planning on setting up any
Mac as an FTP server, I cannot recommend Leopard's built-in FTP server
due to its limitations. PureFTPd I recommend
wholeheartedly.
I just learned a few facts which might
aid readers of this book regarding a few semi-related areas. These are
noted below.
Sharing Only Users Limited to AFP
In the current edition of the book, I don't made it clear that
Sharing Only users can only access volumes over a network via AFP
(Apple Filing Protocol). Only full account users can access volumes
via FTP and Samba, as well as AFP.
FTP Doesn't Restrict Access to Shared Folders
While this might be obvious, I never stated in the book that
Leopard's FTP server doesn't limit access to those users connecting
via FTP to just the volumes and folders specific in the Shared Folders
list. FTP doesn't have a mechanism that allows a selection from among
multiple volumes. Thus FTP users who connect can traverse all hard
drives and mounted volumes on a system through paths that they have at
least read-only access to.
This is another reason to not use Apple's FTP server - or to use
FTP at all, in my book (figuratively and literally).
Guest Users Have No FTP Access
While mentioned in the book in passing, I have confirmed with Apple
that the lack of access to a computer via FTP using the password-free
Guest account is not a bug; it's intentional.
Glenn Fleishman is a technology journalist based in Seattle, where he lives with his wife and two sons, both of whom are adept at accidentally pressing the Power button on his laptop.
He’s a contributing editor at 
