Lesson 10. Providing Network Services
In the previous two lessons, you've seen how you can configure networking and access network services in Mac OS X. To complete the network picture, this lesson discusses providing services to other clients on the network. For example, you can share a file or folder with a group of people you're working with, or host a website on your computer. You make items on your computer available to other users by enabling network services. A network service is a protocol, or set of rules, for communication. Examples of protocols for network services include Apple Filing Protocol (AFP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and Secure Shell (SSH). When you activate a network service, your computer responds to requests that use that protocol. With Mac OS X, you can provide several network services. You can choose a network service based on the items you're sharing and the types of computers and users to which you want to provide access. While every service shared is available to other Mac users on the network, many services are also available to Windows and UNIX users. This lesson explores services to be shared and the network clients that can access these services. We also discuss the built-in firewall in Mac OS X and how it can be used to safeguard your computer while providing network services to others. To make the most of this lesson, you should have access to at least two Mac OS X 10.4 computers on the same network. Ideally, they should be physically close so you can make changes on one computer and see the effect on the other. The computer that is sharing services is called the server. The computer that is accessing the services on the server is called the client. This section explains how to set up these computers, but it's not imperative that you actually do so. You should be able to follow along by reading the step-by-step instructions and examining the screen shots. |