Is a zone bad?

[Chris Haas]

We've got an NT4 domain with Win2K and OS 9 file servers and about 25 OS X
clients and 25 Win2K/XP clients. All printers are shared from either a Win2K
server or our Solaris RIP (only because of a weird issue with one printer on
the Macs.) Anyway, years ago someone created a zone here and it's been here
ever since, even after replacing the original DC. Is it bad to have a zone?
If we don't have a zone, how are AFP shares listed in the "chooser" on OS X?
Right now we've got Domain, Zone, Local and Workgroup.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[William M. Smith]

We've got an NT4 domain with Win2K and OS 9 file servers and about 25 OS X
clients and 25 Win2K/XP clients. All printers are shared from either a Win2K
server or our Solaris RIP (only because of a weird issue with one printer on
the Macs.) Anyway, years ago someone created a zone here and it's been here
ever since, even after replacing the original DC. Is it bad to have a zone?
If we don't have a zone, how are AFP shares listed in the "chooser" on OS X?
Right now we've got Domain, Zone, Local and Workgroup.

Hi Chris!

The purpose of zones is to either connect two physically separate Appletalk
networks, such as two networks of Macs and their printers in two different
buildings across town, or to break a very large number of Appletalk devices
into more manageable subnets to reduce traffic.

In your case, for 25 Macs, you don't need zones. Zones are an extra
administrative overhead and should be removed if you don't need them.

Microsoft's instructions for Windows NT and installing Services For
Macintosh includes the setup of zones during the installation, but doesn't
go far enough to say when you want to do this and when you don't need to do
this.

When you remove the zone, which is being controlled by either a local router
or your NT Server, you'll need to make sure that you do so when your users
are not active on the network and you can reboot your servers and
workstations and printers. Be sure to identify hardware, such as printers
and servers, that have been hard-coded with the zone name. These will all
need to have the zone name removed before you'll be able to see them again.

Hope this helps! bill

 

[Martin]

Hi William,

I'm in the same situation. Do you know where and how i remove a zone
from a printer?

We've recently moved from a NT4 to win2000-server environment.

Thanks

/ Martin

 

[William M. Smith]

Hi William,

I'm in the same situation. Do you know where and how i remove a zone
from a printer?

We've recently moved from a NT4 to win2000-server environment.

Hi Martin!

This would depend on the model of printer, but if you have a newer printer,
it probably has some sort of HTML interface that you can access via a web
browser (http://printerIPAddress). This would be the easiest way to remove a
zone.

Or you'll have to rely on the printer's control panel and punch through all
the buttons to locate and remove the zone setting. If you have the manual or
can print a menu map, this will help.

As a last resort, if you know the buttons to reset your printer to factory
defaults, you can use this to wipe out the zone. Of course, this will wipe
out any other items such as static IP address, etc.

Hope this helps! bill

 

[Chris Haas]

Thanks William. Before I drop the zone can you tell me how servers
broadcasting AFP will show up on the Mac OS X side? Right now there's the
Domain, Zone and Local. I'd hate to have all of the AFP servers show up in
the root.

Thanks!

 

[William M. Smith]

Thanks William. Before I drop the zone can you tell me how servers
broadcasting AFP will show up on the Mac OS X side? Right now there's the
Domain, Zone and Local. I'd hate to have all of the AFP servers show up in
the root.

Hi Chris!

Where you have the zone name now appearing, you'll probalby see an asterisk,
which means "no zone". It will appear here and also in Local and also in
Domain.

If locating a server in a long list is too cumbersome for some users, they
can locate the server the first time and then add it to their Favorites for
faster access the rest of the time.

Hope this helps! bill

 

[Chris Haas]

Thanks a lot William. That gives me everything I need to know!