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Take Control of Sharing Files in Snow Leopard
Friday, 13 November 2009
Starting in the usual fashion for these eminently useful Take Control eBooks (in the widely readable PDF form) with a description of conventions used in the book,Take Control of Sharing Files in Snow Leopard explains that Snow Leopard is a minor interface update with a major behind-the-scenes overhaul of the preceding system from Apple, OS 10.5x ‘Leopard’.
The Mac OS X-related changes in this book from the previous edition (Take Control of Sharing Files in Leopard) are small, but significant. This edition includes changes relating to iTunes 9 and iPhoto ’09, since they too now have considerable file sharing abilities.
Third-party file-sharing services like DropBox are mentioned, too. It covers changes to MobileMe and even mentions sharing in relation to the iPhone, for example using Air Sharing.
The built-in OS X firewall has also been modified in Snow Leopard, and this is also detailed in TC of SF in SL, as is how to connect to a Mac running Snow Leopard from Windows XP and Vista, and from another Mac running OS X 10.2 through 10.6.
As hard drives grow, so do file sizes – or is that the other way round? Either way, massive files are now transmitted all over the place. You may even need to transfer files between user accounts on the same Mac.
Like Snow Leopard itself, network protocols look relatively simple on the outside, but behind that there’s Samba, Apple Filing Protocol, FTP, Web, iPhone/iPod touch, and AirPort base station, all with their own idiosyncrasies for sharing files. Now, I’m no mechanic, but I like to have a basic knowledge or petrol explosions driving pistons up and down which are coupled to a drive shaft that makes wheels turn – so this suits me to the ground.
There are three ways to share files directly on Macs – the Shared Folder at the top level of the Users’ folder, the Public folder within each users’ folders and the ability to share a volume, whether it’s an internal or external hard drive, a removable cartridge, or a disk partition on the boot drive. These are described and an overview of file sharing in Leopard and Snow Leopard really helps grasp the concepts, and what File Serving is: “… a server is just a program running on a computer, like a file-sharing server. A software server allows other computers to connect to it for a particular task.”
Permissions – which can either allow or disallow access to individual files or entire folders – are also explained, along with password protection, and the ramifications of ‘guest access’.
From Leopard, you can actually set up an entire Guest Account designed as a repository for anyone to log into for file retrieval.
Using this guide, you can learn how to coordinate group projects, create a central archive of work files and to avoid relying on email. I’ve found this too – some people use email as a database and organiser. But the main point is that most ISPs stop emails if attachments exceed a paltry 6MB, so how do you exchange large multimedia files? And some organisations are so wary of PC worms and trojans etc, they automatically filter out certain (or even all) attachments.
Hardware isn’t ignored either, with notes on file serving requirements. The book mentions a Mac mini as an ideal file server, and this was before Apple introduced a specifically fitted-out Mac mini complete with 1TB storage and Mac OS 10.6 Server installed. But other systems through Gigabit Ethernet switches to dedicated NAS drives are all explained, as are the NAS functions of the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule.
Do you have MobileMe? You can file-share with that too – all explained here, as is the free (up to 2GB) DropBox service and the monthly-subscription Jungle Disk service on Amazon. Tables – for example, Table 1: Pros and Cons of Common File-Sharing Methods for Snow Leopard Users, with pros and cons – help the job of explanation easier still to understand.
AFP, Samba, FTP … all possible methods are explored and explained, along with their various security issues and solutions.
In ‘Share Files on an iPhone or iPod touch with Air Sharing’ on page 68, author Fleishman also discusses how you can use WebDAV or Bonjour to view files stored on a local network with you handheld Apple.
Amongst the vital information, lots of little gems are to be found. For example, if you’re a MobileMe subscriber, did you know you can hit Command-Shift-I to mount your iDisk? I didn’t.
Peer to peer considerations are also discussed, as is how to set up your firewall to allow the access you require for files.
An additional section covers Digital Media files – this means iTunes music and iPhoto images, including the new (and really cool) Home Sharing feature of the latest iTunes. All options are explained in detail. iPhoto libraries are shared by placing them in the right place – all explained.
The appendices include information on unmounting servers and the perils of sleep – not yours, though. Your Mac’s.
Conclusion a timely tome. The more you learn, the more you realise you need to learn, but this book is both an admirable introduction and a useful guide. Moving files between users has never been as easy as it should be, for me, even with OS X Leopard onwards, but it has certainly been demystified for me.
What’s great a surprisingly tricky ability clearly described and made truly useful.
What’s not nothing
Needs any Mac user who needs to exchange large, or many, files
Looks 7/10
Usability 10/10
Value for money 10/10
> Take Control of Sharing Files in Snow Leopard, US$10 (NZD $15.77 at time of writing)
Description electronic book in PDF form, readable/searchable on-screen, or user-printable
System Adobe Acrobat or Apple Preview to read the PDF
Contact Take Control Books (download only, 109 pages, 2.8MB)
