mc_03

UPDATE: 26/02/06
I've found a much easier, more reliable way to share files using the Personal Web Sharing feature of OS X. This method will allow you to access files on your Mac from a Pocket PC on the same network.

How to share files on a Mac with a Pocket PC using OS X Personal Web Sharing

Important: Make sure that your mac and axim are behind a firewall or router, or else the files you share will be open to the entire Internet. (Probably not a good thing!)

1. Set up your Mac to use a static IP address, if it isn't already. If you don't know how, follow this tutorial or consult your friendly neighbourhood techie/sys-admin.
2. Go to System Preferences > Internet and Network > Sharing and enable Personal Web Sharing by checking the box to the left of its entry on the list of services.
3. After a few seconds, the text to the right of the list should say "Personal Web Sharing On." Underneath the list, the text should provide you with an address for your personal webspace. It will be in the form of "http://my.ip.address/~username/". Remember this address or copy it down.
4. Try accessing the address in Safari or on your PPC, and you will be provided with an auto-generated welcome page. We don't want this page to show up, so get rid of it by deleting or renaming the index.html file in the Sites folder of your user's Home directory.
5. To share a file, stick it in the Sites folder and then go to the address you copied down in Pocket IE on your Axim. You should be brought to a listing of all the files in the directory, and you can tap any of them to download them to your device. Keep in mind that you need to have the ending "/" in the URL, or else PIE will look for the non-existent index file and give you an error. 6. Add the site to your PIE favourites for easier access, and now you have single-tap access to files on your Mac!

I hope that's clear enough. Here are the older Samba instructions if anyone wants them, but I don't reccommend this method because it's very unreliable.


How to share files over SAMBA (Not recommended, try the websharing method first)

If you have your Axim connected to your home network, you can share files through Samba! (Enable samba by checking "Windows Sharing" under System Preferences > Sharing.)

However, unlike a Windows PC, your PPC won't be able to connect to your mac with Samba's default settings. You need to add an option to the Samba configuration file, and this requries you to take a peek into the UNIX base of OS X. But it's not as hard as it sounds:

1. Open Terminal.app in Applications/Utilities/
2. Type 'sudo pico /etc/smb.conf' (without the quotes) and press ENTER.
3. You will be prompted for a password; this is the administrator password you use to install applications. Type it in, and press ENTER.
4. The pico editor will load. Scroll down the file with the arrow keys to the section entitled
'[global]' and add this new line underneath: 'use spnego = no'.
5. Press Ctrl-O and save your changes to the file, then press Ctrl-X to quit pico.
6. Type 'killall smbd && smbd' to restart the samba server with your changes.
7. Now you should be able to connect to your mac from your Axim. Make sure your Ax is connected to your home network, open File Explorer and tap 'Open.' Enter \\computername\username into the path. So if my mac's name is 'koopa' and my user account is 'mitchell', I enter \\koopa\mitchell.
8. You will be prompted for your username and password. (This is your user name and password on the mac.)
9. The contents of your home directory on the mac should load in File Explorer. You can copy and paste files in this directory onto your Axim, as well as move files from your Axim on to your computer by putting them in this folder. When you want to transfer files to your Axim in the future, just put them into your account's home directory and then repeat steps 7 and 8.

It's a bit messy, but it works fine for me on a Mac Mini running OS 10.4.1 with an Axim x50v, both connected to a wireless network. Hope this helps! :approve:

Slugger

i gave this a try but to no avail. My network is a little odd i'm told so its no surprise.

Cable internet > hub > mac & airport express

So I try to go back through the hub to the mac and for whatever reason it doesn't see it.

Thank You for the step by step though.

bhagiratha

I also tried this example, but my pocket pc came up with this error:
"the network path was not found". the pocket pc is accessing via my wireless router, shouldn't there be an extra setting in the routers configuration?

your response will be appreciated.

rtmd

bhagiratha and Slugger --

I can't try this yet, my Axim is on the way :) , but I would first try the "Create Network" on your Mac and create a peer network so that you are going directly between mac and axim without dealing with router issues. If you can get that to work, then you can begin to deal with the settings in the router, whether it be an Apple (AirPort Express or Extreme base station). If the problem is then with router settings, I'd go to the Apple Airport Support page http://www.apple.com/support/airport/ and snoop a bit there. If that doesn't work, try the Apple AirPort Discussions page at http://discussions.info.apple.com/we...SBf.0@.ee6cd90 . Hope you get it up and running ... I'll be watching. :)

Randy

mc_03

Hi

I don't think router settings should be a problem if your axim connects to your wireless network properly, since this file sharing connection is over your local network and does not require any sort of port forwarding or other strange router settings. As long as the axim and mac are connceted to the same wireless router, it should work.

Can you guys post the contents of your smb.conf files? I can see if there are some other settings in mine that would help. All I know is it took a few days of tweaking and testing my PPC and Mac to get them to connect, and I got a lot errors before I started getting results, so don't give up. Maybe try using the IP addresses of the computers instead of their names to connect? Or try using GSFinder instead of File Explorer as I often find it more reliable for network share connections. (Better file browser too!)

dpb23

Can all file- and application-types be installed on the PocketPC with Samba? Are there any exceptions?

untuxable

Originally Posted by dpb23

Can all file- and application-types be installed on the PocketPC with Samba? Are there any exceptions?

I'm not sure if this answers your question, but programs like TextMaker which have no cab file available need to be installed from a Windows computer.

If you can get a cab file (xscale or arm for an axim) then you just need to copy it onto your pocket pc and run it from there to install it (but use the CabInstall program to specify where it installs, or follow Menneisyys's directions here: http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=91821 )

So lately, thanks to MarcoMillions pointing out that you can transfer files over bluetooth, I've been using file juicer to get the cab files out of .exe files, then transferring them over to my pda using bluetooth, then installing them.

The method of file transfer doesn't, as far as I know, change what can be installed without a windows pc.

Lumsdoni

This worked for me - thanks! Excellent tip.

Two questions, can you browse the axim from the mac as well via this method?

I can only access my user directory on the mac, but all my music is stored on an external firewire drive which doesn't show up on my desktop on the axim.

Is there anyway to access external drives?

smallfry

Originally Posted by Lumsdoni

This worked for me - thanks! Excellent tip. Two questions, can you browse the axim from the mac as well via this method? I can only access my user directory on the mac, but all my music is stored on an external firewire drive which doesn't show up on my desktop on the axim. Is there anyway to access external drives?

is there a missing step. on step 5? after pressing Ctl O, do you have to press Ctl T after that before exiting? do you "write to file" or "Backup"?

mc_03

Hi all

After testing the samba sharing method on a number of different Macs, I have to conclude it's very hit-and-miss and not worth relying on. I've come up with a much better solution, which I've added to the first post. It's more reliable and doesn't require any nasty Terminal editing. Post your results! :)