How to share files over a network in OS X

Sharing files between computers used to be something of a dark art, and this has perhaps permeated the collective consciousness of Mac users.

Seemingly few realise how simple it is to enable file sharing across networked Macs.

In fact, with each revision of Mac OS X, Apple has made it easier to share files over a network, and to access networked Macs if you have relevant clearance.

This walkthrough takes you through the process of sharing files with other Mac users, and also details settings that will enable Windows users to access your Mac (although those settings should only be active for as long as they need to be).

We also briefly mention how to share your photos and music using iPhoto and iTunes, rather than attempting to do the same using standard file sharing. When it comes to file sharing, it's worth noting that you should only share what you're comfortable for anyone on the network to access.

The Sharing System Preferences pane, iTunes and iPhoto all avoid defaulting to sharing all of your content, instead letting you decide what you want to share. However, do note that guest accounts cannot do anything destructive with your files.

For example, if someone uses a guest account to access a shared folder via Finder, they can view the folder and open files, but they cannot delete anything, nor can they edit files 'live'. Only when you provide someone with login details (a username and password) can they edit documents on the shared computer – so only give out those details when you're absolutely certain they won't be misused.

Finally, shared files can only be accessed when the host Mac is awake, so be mindful of network users when shutting your Mac down.

How to share files over a network in OS X:

01. Unlock sharing settings

 

n System Preferences, click the Sharing icon under Internet & Wireless. In the Sharing pane, click the lock icon. In the subsequent dialog box, type your admin password (and username, if relevant) and then click OK to continue and return to the pane.

02. Enable file sharing

Check File Sharing and you'll see the LED graphic next to File Sharing go green. Under Shared Folders, you can determine which folders are shared by default. Click + to add to the 'Public' folder(s). To removed a folder, select it and click the minus (–) button.

03. Access the files  

Other Macs on the network should show your shared machine's name (the one stated in the Computer Name field in the Sharing pane) in the Shared section of Finder sidebars. Select a machine to connect to it as a guest and browse the folders enabled in the previous step.

04. Connect as a user

If you own multiple Macs and need fuller access to one that's been set to share files, click Connect As… underneath the Finder window's search field. Type in your username and password for access to the same content you can usually access on the shared machine.

05. Share with Windows

If you need to share folders with Windows users, return to the Sharing pane and click Options. In the sheet, check Share files and folders using SMB. They should then be accessible via the Windows sidebar (My Network places in XP; Network in Windows 7).

06. Share photos

If you want to share photos, avoid file sharing and use iPhoto. Open the Sharing section of iPhoto's preferences and check Share my photos; either check Share entire library or select albums to share. Other users can access shared content via the sidebar's Shares section.

07. Share music

If you want to share your music, you could share /Music in step 2, but it's simpler to use iTunes. Again, use the Sharing section within preferences, and share your library or selected playlists. Connected users will be able to navigate shared content in List view only.

  

08. Use Home Sharing 

iTunes offers a second way to share content across computers. Advanced > Turn On Home Sharing activates Home Sharing, which enables purchased content to be automatically transferred to authorised computers. But for occasional sharing, stick to the previous step.

  

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Getting Ready With 200 x 100 x 100

Ned Denison, a candidate for the 2010 World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year, relentlessly pushing athletes to succeed in their marathon swimming goals, whether it is in his notorious open water training camps in Ireland or in the controlled confirms of a pool.

"Today we had core group of five in the pool for a long swim set," Coach Ned explained. "The set was 200 100 100 - or 200 x 100 meters on 100 seconds for a 20K swim. It was simple, non-nonsense and brutal."

"[In order to help prepare the athletes,] I announced that there was the strongest adverse tide ever for the first mile of the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim and that the organizers expected 70% of the swimmers to be unable to make the corner. We would all sprint for 2,500 meters at the start."

Gotta love Ned (shown in the Santa Barbara Channel), especially since he was right there with everyone slogging out those 200 100's one after another after another after another.

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Two Bodies Hung From Bridge, man beheaded in Tijuana

TIJUANA, Mexico - Two men were slain and hung from a bridge, another was decapitated and a fourth was shot to death over 24 hours in Tijuana, the latest gruesome killings in a Mexican border city where hopes had risen that cartel violence was decreasing.

The bodies of two men were found hanging from the Los Alamos bridge early Friday, said Fermin Gomez, Baja California state's deputy attorney general for organized crime.

Both victims had their hands and feet bound and one had his head covered with a black plastic bag. One of the bodies fell into traffic when the rope broke.

A day earlier, a human head was found underneath another bridge in Tijuana, which sits across from San Diego, California. The body of the 24-year-old man was found 12 hours later alongside the highway from Tijuana to the beach town of Ensenada.

Gomez said the victim, Victor Ramirez, had recently been deported from the United States, though he had no information on the circumstances.

Also Thursday, a man was shot to death while leaving his house in the exclusive Tijuana neighborhood of Chapultepec, and two other people were wounded in a shootout on one of the city's main avenues.

Gomez blamed the killings on feuding between drug-dealing gangs, but declined to give details.

Beheadings, massacres and body hangings had initially declined in Tijuana since the January arrest of Teodoro "El Teo" Garcia Simental, one of two crime bosses who had been waging a bloody turf war in the city.

President Felipe Calderon even visited Tijuana last month and touted it as a success story in his nearly four-year-old drug war, noting during a festival to promote the city's industries that homicides are down from a peak in 2008.

Days after his visit, drug gangs started beheading rivals and hanging bodies from bridges again. On Oct. 24, armed men burst into a Tijuana drug rehab center and killed 13 recovering addicts.

Prosecutors say they are investigating whether the rehab massacre was related to a record seizure of nearly 135 tons of marijuana the previous week.

The latest killings come two weeks after U.S. authorities made one of the largest marijuana seizures in San Diego, confiscating more than 20 tons of pot that was smuggled in through a tunnel connecting warehouses on either side of the border. Mexican authorities seized more than four tons of pot from the warehouse on their side of the border.

Meanwhile, the lawyer for alleged drug kingpin Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez Villareal said Friday that the Mexican government will not deport the U.S. citizen for prosecution in the United States.

The government considers Valdez, son of Mexican-born parents, a Mexican national who must go through the more complicated extradition process to be sent out of the country, attorney Kent Schaffer said.

Mexico has increasingly extradited high-profile drug kingpins to the U.S. under Calderon, a way to prevent them from running cartels from corrupt Mexican prisons.

Mexican officials in October extended a 40-day limit for holding Valdez without charge and that expires after this weekend, so they must decide whether to try him in Mexico.

Schaffer said both he and the U.S. Justice Department want Valdez to be prosecuted in the United States, where he is wanted on cocaine smuggling charges in three states. Schaffer said an extradition request had yet to be filed. U.S. Department of Justice officials could not be reached late Friday.

The Mexican attorney general's office would say only that Valdez was still being held and the investigation continued.

Valdez, a former Texas high school football player, was arrested Aug. 30 by federal police on his ranch outside Mexico City.

Described by authorities as a former ally of Mexico's most-wanted kingpin, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Valdez allegedly had been fighting for control of the notorious Beltran Leyva gang after Mexican marines killed its leader in late 2009. The warring factions were responsible for brutality and bloodshed from Cuernavaca south of Mexico City to the state of Guerrero and the resort city of Acapulco on the Pacific coast.

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California grandmother made dummy bomb that led to international terror alert

A dummy bomb that sparked an international terror alert was made by an 80-year-old woman in California and ended up discarded in a Namibia airport because of "a boo-boo," NBC News reported Friday.

The device — part of a "modular bomb set" or MBS, which is used for X-ray and physical/bag search training — was manufactured by a "mom and pop" machine shop in Sonora called Larry Copello Inc. four to five years ago.

The owner, Larry Copello, told NBC News that his then-80-year-old grandmother had completed it, doing the wiring and fitting Velcro attachments. 

The device was found at Windhoek airport by Namibian police in routine security checks during loading ahead of an Air Berlin tourist flight to Munich, Namibian and German authorities said Thursday.

Germany has been in a heightened state of alert this week with warning of a possible terrorist attack.

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