`In a Mac OS 10.4 managed client / networked home environment, burn folders, once created, cannot be removed by the user. The only way to remove them is to log into the server as root. Do a find (Command-F) for "fpbf," which is the file extension for burn folders. You can then select all and drag them to the trash from the find window.

[robg adds: I can't confirm this one, nor do I know anyone using such a setup. If you can confirm and/or deny, please post a comment and I'll modify the hint as necessary.]

Do you use Xsan and Photoshop? If so, you may have seen this error message:

Could not save as "image.tif" because an unexpected end-of-file was encountered.

To keep Xsan and Photoshop happy together, go to Photoshop's Preferences and choose File Handling. Under File Saving Options, select Image Previews and then choose Never Save.

I believe the error occurs because the Xsan filesystem just doesn't like all the resource fork data that Photoshop saves with images when the image preview is turned on. I was absolutely pulling my hair out until I figured this out.

[robg adds: I can't verify either the problem or the solution for this one...]

You can restrict access to a network service on a per-IP basis by configuring launchd to use TCP wrappers. First, install tcp_wrappers using Fink or DarwinPorts; see the tcp_wrappers page at DarwinPorts for more info.

Then set Program to /usr/libexec/tcpd in the plist for the daemon you want to wrap. You might also need to adjust ProgramArguments. Note that TCP wrappers only works for inetd-compatible jobs whose "Wait" setting is set to false.

[robg adds: I haven't tested this one...]

Have you ever wanted to run the Xserve Remote Diagnostics without setting up a NetBoot server? Well now you can. Full instructions can be found here, and they are reproduced below as well...

Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.3 or Mac OS X Server 10.3.3 or later
• Apple Developer Tools

Note that this hint was tested on version 1.0.4 of the Xserve Remote Diagnostics

Method One:

1. Download and mount the XserveRemoteDiag104.dmg disc image
   
   
2. Install the Xserve Remote Diagnostics
   
   
3. Use Disk Utility to create a "Disk Image from Folder" of the folder '/private/tftpboot/xrdiags' using the Image Format of "read/write"
   
   
4. Mount the disk image
   
   
5. Run the following Terminal commands, replacing with the absolute path with the path to the mounted disk image:

   $ /Developer/Tools/SetFile -t "tbxi" //diags
   $ sudo bless --folder /
   $ unmount and burn the disk image

I work at a school where we are rolling out a new, custom image of Tiger for our Mac clients, but I've found that creating an image of Tiger 10.4.1 isn't as easy as it was for Panther. One, Mike Bombich's Carbon Copy Cloner doesn't work quite right for Tiger yet, removing an easy approach, and two, Apple's Disk Utility creates images that make visible crucial system files like "etc" and "var", which absolutely can't be visible in the final image or else my users will certainly mess with them and kill the client system.

So, after a few days' work, I've come up with a procedure for creating the image that I thought I'd share. If you're working on other stuff, allow a day or two to complete this process -- it takes a while, but is worth it in the end when you can NetInstall multiple clients (or even better yet, use Multicast ASR to image many clients simultaneously - ooooh, geeky).

I set up my mail server on OS X 10.4 and enabled SquirrelMail to provide webmail functionality. In my Mail Preferences for authentication, I had disabled LOGIN and PLAIN, so passwords wouldn't be sent in the clear when people check their mail.

With these settings, I could not login to my webmail. Using the conf.pl script in the squirrelmail directory, I could not change the authentication method, so I had to change it manually like this:

Open Terminal and type pico /etc/squirrelmail/config/config.php. Change $imap_auth_mech = 'login'; to $imap_auth_mech = 'cram-md5'; (or whatever you set as your method for authentication). Save and close the document. Now you can login to SquirrelMail using your username and password....

I recently set up my Tiger Sever machine to serve (or share) its AirPort card as a base station, providing internet to anyone that connects to it. This was harder and more complicated than I originally thought, and I wish to share my experience.

First of all, there are two methods to share your AirPort connection. One is to manually set up (or use the new Gateway Setup Assistant) to configure NAT and DHCP and create a computer-to-computer network. The other is from the Internet Sharing (Sharing Preference Panel -> Sharing -> Internet) found in OS X Client (but hidden in Server). I will provide the benefits and disadvantages of both, as well as how to set them up from Tiger Server.

I'm not claiming to have thought of this, but I've implemented it at home and it's working well, so I thought I'd pass it on. I found instructions at www.afp548.com on how to set up my local DNS server to block ads.

The steps are fairly well laid out, and I didn't have any problems setting it up on OS X 10.2.8 Server.

[robg adds: As I usually do on such hints, I'll add a friendly reminder that ads are what help keep many free websites free. That said, many ads are amazingly annoying and distracting. That's why I prefer to block them at the local level, as I can then control exactly which ones I don't want to see...]

AFP 548 has written a detailed analysis of Apple's 10.4 Server.

While Ars has detailed the changes in 10.4 Client, AFP 548 goes into elaborate detail on the behind the scenes changes in 10.4 Server. Some of the subjects discussed include Open Directory (LDAP), new Client management, Apple's implementation of ACLs, implementation of the Jabber IM protocol and chat logging, as well as other details from someone who works with and implements OS X Server solutions professionally.

[robg adds: This is the most detailed look at Server that I've seen yet -- reviews of Server have been somewhat hard to find, which is why I chose to run this as a story instead of just a link. If you know of other Server reviews, please list them in the comments.]

Your Apple users love you for getting them an Xserve with a true AFP service for their file sharing, but your Windows users continually feel that their connections are sluggish. No, don't go migrating all of your Windows data off the Xserve, simply have your Windows users map the network drive that they are trying to access.

I've seen this work at many different sites to speed up Windows XP connections to Mac OS X Server's SMB shares.