Using AppleShare IP with Northwest Nexus

Northwest Nexus Frequently Asked Questions

Using AppleShare IP with Northwest Nexus

Important

Northwest Nexus is running an AppleShare IP server on a trial basis. The unix-based server software is not yet mature, and we don't know how it will stand up to stress under heavy usage. We cannot guarantee performance or reliability yet, and may decide to disable this service at any time.

Connecting to the Northwest Nexus Apple Filesharing Protocol (AFP) Server

These are basic instructions for using AppleShare IP to connect to your directories on the halcyon systems. In order to use AppleShare IP, you must be running:

OpenTransport 1.1.2 or higher
AppleShare Client 3.7 or higher

MacOS 8 comes with OpenTransport 1.2 and AppleShare Client 3.7.1, so if you're running MacOS 8, you're all set. Otherwise, OpenTransport and AppleShare Client updates are available from www.info.apple.com.

To connect to the halcyon server:

Connect to Northwest Nexus using PPP, as you normally would.
Pull down your Apple Menu and select "Chooser".
Click on the AppleShare icon.
Click on the "Server IP address..." button.
Enter "afp.halcyon.com" (no quotes) and click the "Connect" button.
A dialog box should appear asking for your login name and password. Enter your standard halcyon login name and password, and hit "OK".
A list of volumes available for you to mount will appear. Select the one you want to use and hit "OK". Note: It is not recommended that you select any of these volumes to mount on startup.

The volume you selected should now be mounted on your desktop. You should be able to open it and copy files back and forth to it as you would any Mac volume.

To add directories to your list of available volumes:

You'll note that you're not offered many options at first -- just your home directory, and the halcyon FTP directories that any halcyon user can access. Adding additional volumes that represent directories you own is a bit tricky, and requires a bit of unix operation, but you should only have to do it once.

You need to create a file in your home directory named ".AppleVolumes" (no quotes, case-sensitive). You cannot create this file on the Mac, because the Mac filesystem uses filenames beginning with periods for special purposes -- it won't let you write one to the unix directory. So you need to login to the unix host to do it. Let's say you want to add access to your web directory, and pretend your username is "vespa". The directory you want to add is therefore /www/vespa, and you would follow this procedure:

Run your favorite telnet program -- NiftyTelnet or NCSA Telnet work fine.
Open a connection to king.halcyon.com
Login with your own login name and password.
If you are presented with a menu at this point, hit return to drop out of it.
Type the following command:
On the first line of the file, type (without any leading spaces):
Hit control-x to exit, and "y" to confirm that you want to save the changes.
Type "exit" to logout.

The next time you use your chooser to connect, you should have the new volume available for mounting. (Note -- you must unmount any mounted volumes and reconnect for the change to take effect.)

Some Tips and Cautions:

Try creating an alias of a mounted directory. You should be able to connect to the server and remount the directory by double-clicking the alias, bypassing the Chooser procedure. This doesn't seem to work for everyone, but it's worth trying.
With a program called "AFPEngage!" by OpenDoor Networks, you can create URL's of AppleShare IP volumes and link to them on web pages, or email them to users. Anybody with AFPEngage! can then connect to the server and mount the directory in question by clicking the link or the URL. See www.opendoor.com for details.
At modem speeds, Finder performance isn't very impressive, to say the least. This isn't such a big deal with MacOS 8 and its multithreaded Finder, but under older systems, you're in for a wait if you open a folder with many entries. The Halcyon/FTP pub/users directory is a prime example.

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