Got Macs? Apple Macintosh computers often seem to be the forgotten stepchildren in an enterprise network. Sometimes they're forgotten because they just aren't attached to the network, running stand-alone with their own applications stored locally. But perhaps they're attached to your Ethernet wire and simply bypass your network management to go directly to the Internet. That isn't something your chief security officer would like to hear.

Macs have had some sort of connectivity to NetWare servers since the days of NetWare 2.12, almost 20 years ago. But that connectivity has been spotty and often lagging behind, with NetWare servers that are one or two releases old supporting Macs running an older version of the Mac OS.

Some years ago, Novell turned over development of Mac client software to Prosoft Engineering, which seemed to continue Novell's spotty record for timeliness with Mac clients. But that may no longer be the case, as Prosoft recently released a new version of its client software to support Mac OSX 10.2 and higher, including Panther (10.3x) and Tiger (10.4x).

This is a pure IP client - no AppleSoft needed (which all Novell-developed clients required). Nothing needs to be installed on the server - just load the new client on your Mac, and you can immediately connect to a NetWare 5.1 or higher server.

Among the features in this version of the client are:

* Support for files larger than 4G bytes on servers that are running NetWare 6 SP3 or later (NSS volumes only).

* NetWare Core Protocol packet signing for enhanced security.

* Directory mount-root support (allows a sub-directory on a volume to be mounted as if it were the root of the volume on the client), and the support of billions of volumes and directories.

* File system access control list support (for viewing trustee rights).

NetWare does ship with Native File Access for the Macintosh, but that uses Apple File Protocol for authentication not native NetWare authentication services, which have much stronger security.

You can get a 30-day evaluation version of the Macintosh client from Prosoft. While you're doing that, download and read the white paper (PDF) "How Prosoft NetWare for Mac OS X Client - IP Edition Compares to Novell Native File Access (NFA)" and see if you could use the better services of the Prosoft client.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. Cisco warns holes in IOS, WLAN and IPS gear

2. Sprint, cable companies go for quadruple play

3. Where's MIMO?

4. AT&T: Fall of an icon

5. FCC okays telecom mergers with conditions

To contact Dave Kearns:

Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks." His musings can be found here.