Coming from Windows to iMac2, now what?

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drudru
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Hi, there's an 512MB flatpanel iMac coming soon--ok, ok, so I obsessively check the Order Status just like the rest of you --I'm starting to ask, "Now what?"



1. Evidently, there's no anti-virus software included with the iMac so I'll put that on the list. What else is 'necessary' software? Software-based firewall? Is Norton good enough?



2. What's a cheap but good way to exchange data between PC & the iMac? Do I need Toast to read/write PC-readable CDs? What about open session CD's made with Roxio's PC-based DirectCD? Is Toast reliable and forgiving or should I expect many bad burns?



3. Any comments/recommendations on putting together a wireless Mac/Windows 2000 network (file-sharing purposes only)?



I'm not entirely new to Macintosh but the most 'modern' system I've used (about six years ago) was an 8500/120 running 7.5.x; things have changed.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    to me virus software on a mac is not a necessity. you go from 50,000+ viruses to 50, and you see why. i believe the mac platform gets 1 new virus every 6 months to a year. not exactly a huge problem.



    the cheapest way to exchange data, and following along with your third point is to get a win2k server OS, and install that on your PC.



    i have a wireless network set up between my iBook, an iMac and two PC's. my win2k pro. server allows me to connect to my iBook no problem. (although at this point in time it seems to like OS9 a lot more than OSX)



    just set up filesharing for macs on your win2k machine, and away you go. it's really quite easy. (the readme actually shows you how to do it right, go figure)



    hope this helps.



    -alcimedes
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  • Reply 2 of 10
    the milkmanthe milkman Posts: 94member
    Setting up Mac shares on a Win2K server box is easy, but if you don't have access to the OS I would suggest <a href="http://www.jgaa.com/software/warftpd/"; target="_blank">War FTP</a> it is free and very easy to use. You can set up multiple user accounts and give access o different drives/directories based off of the username.
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  • Reply 3 of 10
    gamringamrin Posts: 114member
    You also won't need any additional software to write PC readable CDs. Although you will need Toast if you want to write multisession CDs or VCDs, OS X's burning application works just fine for basic use and allows you to write "cross-platform" formatted CDs.



    Later,

    Gamrin
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  • Reply 4 of 10
    rhoqrhoq Posts: 190member
    [quote]Originally posted by dru:

    <strong>Do I need Toast to read/write PC-readable CDs? What about open session CD's made with Roxio's PC-based DirectCD? Is Toast reliable and forgiving or should I expect many bad burns?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Basically, Toast is the Mac version of EZ CD Creator. I have found that Toast works just fine for data CDs and I have not had any problems reading/writing CDs and using them on friends' PCs or my Mac.



    As far as Toast goes for Audio CDs - It works fine if you want to burn your MP3's onto a CD, make a compilation CD from other CDs, copy an entire CD, etc. It also includes "CD Spin Doctor" which allows you to record from vinyl, tapes and other analog sources and convert them to a CD. Toast is just fine for all of these basic audio applications...



    BUT...I use Adaptec's (Roxio) other, less-publicized Audio-Only CD burning software: Jam. It allows you to make porfessional sounding audio CDs and it compliments Toast's "CD Spin Doctor" utility perfectly.



    Jam allows you to do alot more with your music than Toast and is a great peice of software. (Jam allows you to fade tracks into each other, set start and stop times of tracks, boost/lower volume levels of the tracks, set pause between tracks to any length you prefer, etc)...



    I am not telling you that you will need to get yourfself a copy of Jam - if you only have basic audio burning needs, Toast should work just fine.



    [ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: Rhoq ]</p>
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  • Reply 5 of 10
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    To connect to a Windows file-share select Connect to Server... from the Finder's Go menu and type:



    smb://workgroup;username@netbiosname/share



    Substituting your specific file-sharing info for the generic placeholders above...



    [ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: Eugene ]</p>
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  • Reply 6 of 10
    neomacneomac Posts: 145member
    1)

    It's totally unnecessary. It's like buying snow for Eskimos.



    2)

    CD burning software is integrated into OSX. It burns & reads the ISO formats. No problem. Toast is only necessary for multi-session. Audio & MP3 CDs are done through iTunes, included in your iMac.



    3)

    You'll need an AirPort or Linksys wireless router and wireless cards for your iMac and PC. File sharing in OSX is handled through the 'Go' menu ('connect to server') using smb protocol - just like the other post details, so i won't repeat it.



    [ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: NeoMac ]</p>
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  • Reply 7 of 10
    koffedrnkrkoffedrnkr Posts: 170member
    [quote]Originally posted by dru:

    <strong>Hi, there's an 512MB flatpanel iMac coming soon--ok, ok, so I obsessively check the Order Status just like the rest of you --I'm starting to ask, "Now what?"



    1. Evidently, there's no anti-virus software included with the iMac so I'll put that on the list. What else is 'necessary' software? Software-based firewall? Is Norton good enough?



    2. What's a cheap but good way to exchange data between PC & the iMac? Do I need Toast to read/write PC-readable CDs? What about open session CD's made with Roxio's PC-based DirectCD? Is Toast reliable and forgiving or should I expect many bad burns?



    3. Any comments/recommendations on putting together a wireless Mac/Windows 2000 network (file-sharing purposes only)?



    I'm not entirely new to Macintosh but the most 'modern' system I've used (about six years ago) was an 8500/120 running 7.5.x; things have changed. </strong><hr></blockquote>



    regarding viruses...there is approx. one mac virus for every 1000 windows viruses, and 1 OSX virus for every 10 mac viruses. in 20 years of mac computing, i've only seen 2..and these were non-destructive in nature.



    regarding firewalls...OSX has a built-in one that you can access through any number of GUI applications. check out brickhouse or a new one called impasse from glucose software. both are easy to set up and work well.



    for swapping files, you can use burn CD's with apple's built-in disc burner software or you can use roxio's toast which is both easy to use and very versatile. makes easy cd creator look like a major pain in the ass by comparison. i have never burnt a coaster with toast and my external firewire burner. it's very reliable.



    as for building a wireless network, i can't be of much help. i think PC's can join a mac airport network if they have the right kind of wireless card...



    [ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: koffedrnkr ]</p>
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  • Reply 8 of 10
    havanashavanas Posts: 99member
    i finally tried using Os X's built in CD burning mechanism after my Toast beta expired(waiting for Photoshop to actually ship before I do my PS, Office, Toast upgrade.... thats gonna cost). Anyway, I burnt a standard closed session iso9660 for my PC friend. No problems there.... It did however take very long. It seems when I was dragging and dropping onto the cd(which seemed to be burning as it went so much slower than a hd-to-hd transfer) to really be adding to an discImage somewhere? I say this because when I tried to Eject/Finalize it seemed to take equally long as it took to drop the files on the cd.



    Toast on the otherhand is very fast, just drag your files to a burn list, then burn once. Rarely takes more than 6-7 minutes on this 12x burner(my last one was external scsi 4x speed and a few years old echhh)



    If your new to Toast just be sure not to burn Joliet format 9660s as their filenames are truncated(rather you cant read the Joliet DB) in Os9(without a shareware extension) and not necessary unless your target is using windows 3.1
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  • Reply 9 of 10
    the milkmanthe milkman Posts: 94member
    misread so response was moot



    [ 02-27-2002: Message edited by: The Milkman ]</p>
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  • Reply 10 of 10
    iks_iviks_iv Posts: 11member
    You dont need Win2000 server to exchange files from Macs to pc's With the current pricetag, thats an expensive solution for connecting macs and pc's!



    You could go with an appletalk client on the pc side or a smb client on the mac side. That way, you can connect the mac to the native windows file sharing or the pc to the native file sharing. An application that can connect to pc volumes is called 'DAVE'.



    Alternatively, you can use FTP. I've mainly used FTP-esque protocols for file transfer since they often have the advantage that file copies are resumable, and they provide more info on the file transfer progress themselves, and work on a queue basis instead of a simultanious copy basis. (I have used a hotline based solution successfully to share files between macs, pc's and linux boxes seamlessly, alternatives for it are hxd and KDX which are both free of charge)



    HAVANAS : about the disk image in the built in burning software : Thats exactly what happens. Theres a disk image somewhere in your preferences or system folder (forgot the exact location). After I found out, I trashed all that had to do with built in cd burning... Call me an old tart, but since toast got background burning I'll refuse to use anything else (untill something better comes up, offcourse)



    [ 02-27-2002: Message edited by: iks_iv ]</p>
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