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Al, I can speak to a few of your points and perhaps share a little knowledge with you. I've been a Mac user since 2006 and for most of that time I've worked on almost all Windows networks, including the HealthTeam network that I'm on now. I do not have my Mac joined to their Active Directory domain, meaning it doesn't show up in their AD or group policy, etc. I do however use their network drives by just mounting the volumes using the Finder > Go > Connect to Folder (or ⌘ + K) and entering the address prefixed by "smb://" for the protocol to use (e.g smb://file-server-fqdn-here/volume-name-here). I can't speak to the folder redirection, I've never used it. I remember someone on this list talking about that 3 or 4 years ago and there was a 3rd party product to help with that, along with allowing you to configure group policy settings for Macs using your AD. I'm not sure of the name, but if you search the listserv archive for Mac you should find it, it was between 2007 - 2009. You should also be able to contact whoever the Apple representative is for MSU and ask him this question about folder redirection and he should be able to put you in contact with an Apple engineer if you want specifics. I'm using an Exchange 2010 mail system now. Mac OS X, for the past two major releases, has Exchange 2007 & 2010 support baked in, meaning you can use the native Mac Mail, Address Book and iCal with your Exchange server. This includes being able to search the GAL, send meeting invitations with required or optional attendees and resource reservations. If this person has been using a Mac in the past, they may prefer those apps instead of Outlook. That said, you can still use Outlook 2011 with Exchange 2007 or 2010 and have that installed and configured along with the native Mac apps and they can use either or (native apps provide more of a Mac like experience). I don't personally use Outlook 2011, but it works fine albeit a little slow but I feel the Windows version is slow too. I've used the iWork package since it was released and the compatibility is good with Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. It can import and export to those file formats with only a few issues (and informs the user of anything that doesn't translate). Because of school I need to have Mac Office 2011, so I'm using that as well. I've never had anyone tell me that they had a problem with the files I'm sharing, and I do that a lot with the group projects we have. -- Troy Murray Michigan State University College of Medicine Life Science 1355 Bogue St, B-136D East Lansing, MI 48824 E: [log in to unmask] P: 517-432-2760 F: 517-355-7254 RedHat 5 Certified Technician RedHat 5 Certified Systems Administrator HL7 V2.6/2.5 Certified Control Specialist On May 23, 2012, at 8:11 AM, Al Puzzuoli wrote: > Hi everyone, > One of my users needs a new computer, and she has asked that it be a Macbook. We have a few Macs in our office, but nobody is using one as their primary machine. A few questions: > We are using folder redirection on our Windows clients, and user data is therefore backed up automatically with our servers. Is it possible to set up redirection on a Macbook running OS X? I’ve been doing some reading on this topic, and the answer I’ve come up with is “sort of”. It seems that you can change a user’s home folder to point to a server location; However, files would not be available offline if the user were to disconnect the laptop from the office LAN. Am I understanding the situation correctly? If so, are there any workarounds? > > Are there any issues in terms of Microsoft Office? Can I assume that the latest version of Outlook for Mac will play nicely with Exchange 2010, and that our Mac user would have access to all the same functions our Windows users do? What about document compatibility between PC and Mac versions of MS office? I assume there are no issues as long as we’re talking about MS Office and not iWork? > Thanks, > > Al Puzzuoli > Michigan State University > Information Technologist http://www.rcpd.msu.edu > Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities 517-884-1915 120 Bessey Hall East Lansing, MI 48824-1033 > > > > > > > > > > > > > >