Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Mac to Windows Domain

Mac to Windows Domain


Try this:

1. In the "Utilities" directory (which is a sub-directory of "Applications") there is a program called "Directory Access.app". Run that program.

2. Click the lock icon in the lower left corner of the app window. It will prompt you for your Administrator password. The lock should now be unlocked and you can make changes to the settings in this panel.

To Join a Workgroup:

3. Make sure the "Services" tab is highlighted. There should be a list of directory services; the last one on the list should be SMB/CIFS.

4. Highlight SMB/CIFS and click the "Configure" button. This will bring up a dialog containing two fields: Workgroup Name and WINS server. Type the name of your workgroup and WINS server.

To Join a Domain:

5. In the same way, hightlight Active Directory (should be near the top of the Directory Access panel) and click Configure.

6. Enter your settings for Active Directory Forest, Active Directory Domain, and Computer ID.

7. For more settings you can click the arrow next to Advanced Options in this panel and you'll have more configuration options. (note: the advanced settings should probably only be used by system administrators)

You may also need to adjust your TCP/IP settings to find your local domain:

8. Open the System Preferences control panel (either from the Apple menu or from the Dock) and choose Network.

9. Next to the word "Show" is a drop-down menu from which you can select the network port you want to configure (usually this will be either Airport or Built-in Ethernet)

10. Once you've selected your network port, the panel will change to show you a series of tabs. Choose the TCP/IP tab.

11. In the text field marked "DNS Servers", add an IP address for your local domain name server.

12. In the text field marked "search domains" add the name of your local domain.

You should, by this point, have full access to your company domain. Your system administrator should be able to make sense out of these control panels also and can help tweak them to meet the needs of your local domain.

Note that you can also do all of this through the Command Line from a Terminal window if you're more comfortable with the UNIX end of things - SMB and Active Directory settings are all the same as they would be from any Linux/Unix configuration - the mac GUI Directory Access and Network control panel just make things more visual.

And lastly, a very good description (with screenshots) of how to join a Windows domain can be found at:

http://weblog.bignerdranch.com/?p=6&page=3

More good information on how to integrate your mac into a Windows server environment can be found at:

http://www.macwindows.com

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