Apple Mac networking challenge

[Chris Bedford]

Ha ha - yes, Apple Mac.

I have an established MS Small Business Server (running on a ProLiant) network with a DSL Internet connection and incoming VPN that works very well - all Windows clients that connect to it can do *everything* over VPN that they can do in the office.

The challenge is with the one user who has a Macbook. I have set up a VPN connection and it works - the user can send & receive e-mail (Exchange server on the same SBS). But the problem comes when trying to browse network neighbourhood (works just fine in the office but doesn't see any computers when connected via VPN).

So evidently the Mac doesn't "get" netBIOS over TCP/IP when using VPN. Does anyone have any experience of getting it to work? I'm tearing my little remaining hair out here - don't like the Apple's user interface at the best of times, and trying to find any place that I can configure stuff or do troubleshooting in it is a "little" frustrating. For instance, how do I go direct to a network resource by typing in "\\servername\sharename"? Doesn't look like you can.

I'd really appreciate some input on this one! Thanks!

[Dan Robinson_4]

I have never had good results when using NetBIOS names over DNS, so I doubt I can be much help here.

One thing I wanted to mention is in Windows you can substitude IP for NetBIOS name to avoid some of these issues.

\\192.168.0.1\Share

Good luck.

[Chris Bedford]

Thanks Dan

My problem was actually how to get to the point where you actually enter "\\ip-address\sharename" because I was so un-savvy about the Mac GUI that I couldn't find it. I guess many years of Windows way of thinking has put me in a bit of rut...

Anyhow I found out elsewhere how to open a command prompt and how to manually connect to a host - turned out I don't need the IP address, when you use Finder to map a network share you can use the server name, but browsing is still a no-go. So I guess a partial solution is better than none! And I still discourage users from getting Macs...