The need for a Macintosh workstation to view files on a Windows server is quite common in the printing and publishing industry. Macs quite frequently rule on the desktop at a newspaper or printer, running applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, while Windows NT and Windows 2000 servers handle the file sharing needs. When protected memory is in use, an NT/2000 server can handle the vast majority of application crashes without taking down the entire server, which has not been true of the Macintosh before OS X. Due to that fact, Wintel severs have made significant inroads into traditional Mac shops.

This often means the use of the built-in file sharing capability of NT/2000 as well as using AppleTalk to communicate Mac to Mac. This is a less than optimal arrangement, due to the network-intensive nature of the AppleTalk protocol and the historically poor implementation of TCP/IP in the Mac environment.

A product from GroupLogic, a 53-person company based in Arlington, Va., attempts to solve these issues by providing a method of using only TCP/IP to connect Mac workstations to a NT/2000 Server or workstation. Many information technology departments would use such a product to work towards the eventual objective of taking Appleshare off of the network entirely, or at least restricting it to very specific zones, with the goal being greatly enhanced performance due to reduced network chatter.

ExtremeZ-IP is a compact application that runs on Windows NT or 2000, both Server and Workstation/Professional. I started by running the installer on a Windows NT server with 256 megabytes of RAM and Service Pack 6 installed, as GroupLogic recommends at least 128 megabytes and the very latest service packs from Microsoft. Installation was very fast, under thirty seconds, as the application is very light. After the installer was finished running, it offered to launch the ExtremeZ-IP Administrator, which is used both the first time during setup and on an ongoing basis for changes that are most likely quite infrequent. At this time, I assigned a name that the Macs would use to identify the box in their chooser, and it adds the designation “IP” to the end of whatever you assign, which does not show up in the Macintosh chooser, just the machine name. Next I picked an NT File System volume on the server to share, noting that it is completely necessary for the volume to be NTFS for the application to function.

Security is inherited from the volume being shared, and the question of how exactly the multi-tiered permissions inherent to the NT/2000 platform translate to the much simpler Mac system is complex. In fact, Group Logic devotes a considerable amount of space on their Web site, at www.grouplogic.com/products/extreme/extreme_faq.html explaining exactly how the permissions from one system map to the permissions of another system. I’ll leave it to say that it’s a rather complicated process, but less complicated going from NT to Mac, where the company has figured out a definite system of logic. Trying to assign permissions to NT from the Mac side is more problematic, and Group Logic provides a short way of hacking the Windows registry so that Mac users cannot change the NT security settings no matter what they do. If the user doesn’t anticipate letting users change permissions at all, then these issues are largely immaterial and all the administrator has to know is the relational scheme as it staggers “downward” from the server to the client.

At this time, IP Print Support is installed if the user has purchased that option. It allows the ExtremeZ-IP sever to share print queues for Macintosh computers. The installer creates a directory called ExtremeZ-IP Print Support, which includes the installer program called Choose IP Printer Installer that Mac clients can use for printing. It’s not required, but due to the interface it provides an easier user experience as well as higher performance. The installer will place these files on an NTFS directory that you specify, allowing you to automatically share them with the Mac users, where they can then mount the volume based on the directory and then install the software.

So, after double-checking the security permissions I assigned to my shared volume, I was ready to turn on ExtremeZ-IP. The application runs as a service, and it’s necessary to turn off Macintosh File Serving if you have it running on the Workstation or Server, as that service ends up using the “:APF_ApfInfo” stream of files and directories on the NTFS disk, and there are situations in which Services for Macintosh would not pick up on changes made by ExtremeZ-IP, such as type and creator information. The service started promptly, and the volume showed up in the chooser on my Macintosh exactly as would a Mac volume, only with different icon symbology to identify it as an ExtremeZ-IP enabled volume. File transfers were noticeably brisk: a 35-mb file transferred 19 percent faster than using Services for Macintosh, taking the average of five transfers. That may not sound like much, but spread out that speed increase over potentially hundreds of users over a number of days and the amount of time saved can quickly become significant.

Scott Hopper is the technology manager for Studio Image, an electronic prepress company located in Burbank, Calif., that has been in business since 1987, specializing in computer-to-plate, large-format film up to 80 inches and digital image databasing.

“The www.simageinc.com Web site is our customers’ link to a database of their images available 24/7 to help their designers fulfill all advertising needs,” Hopper commented. “With one Web server, one Windows NT server and a Mac server, ExtremeZ-IP software has made a vast improvement in the time it takes to do even the easiest task … we’ve seen a 50 percent to 60 percent increase in network speed.” The software was recommended to Studio Image by another vendor, Rampage.

“The Rampage RIPping System is a PostScript-3 compatible software [raster image processor] running under the Windows NT operating system. Although Rampage runs on a PC, it’s controlled from an unlimited number of Macintosh workstations where functions such as interactive trapping, soft proofing and job management occur. This is where ExtremeZ-IP really performs, saving us production time,” Hopper said.