Migrating from XP server to OSX server

[pratt733]

As the title states, that's what I intend to do. The last time I tried, I was unable to get my XP clients to read the recording directories the same way as the server was, so all video was streamed through the server. I cannot do that because the server is a P4 3.4 and I have no intentions of upgrading it right now.

Short of upgrading my clients to Vista (only one out the two would run it anyway), could I install some flavor of Linux on those machines and use symlinks, by any chance?

Maybe this is in the wrong forum, I dunno.

[pratt733]

Does anyone have XP clients with a Mac server?

[flavius]

Just curious - what do you use for the server?

[pratt733]

It's actually a Hackintosh - an AMD X2 4400 Emachines, running Leopard 10.5.2.

[karljayne]

Yes, I'm running 2 Mac servers with both Mac and PC clients. The plan is to eliminate the PC servers once the Mac servers are stable.

[pratt733]

Are your PC clients connecting to the Mac servers or PC servers and if they're connecting to the Mac server, are you using XP or Vista? If you are, how are you achieving the same path to TV recordings on the PC and Mac?

[flavius]

Those can't be the same, for obvious reasons, but why is that relevant? It is not for a client.

[pratt733]

They can be, according to a thread posted here a while back, using Vista's symlink functionality. Problem is, when they're different, it's streaming through the server unnecessarily. Fine for SD, but pretty taxing for HD (think trying to play HD on an MVP) and I'd like to avoid that.

[karljayne]

Currently the PC clients are connecting to both. The PC client(s) are XP. If I want to playback directly from the client without streaming thru the server, I would set up a share and point the client to it, though if I wanted only to playback from a share I would be more inclined to use VLC for that.

[pratt733]

Looks like my worries were unfounded. WHen I tried this in the past, it was with an older P4 machine. Now that I'm using a much more current machine, there were no problems (even HD to a client AND HD to an MVP). Looks like the only reason to use a common path is for comskip and DVD playback....