Integrating Macs and PC's into a shared network?

[Pagus]

In the July 2001 issue of Keyboard, Jeffrey Rona (in his column"Reelworld") mentioned using a program called "Dave" for accessing sound files on his ethernet-linked PC's from "the comforts of the Mac". Can anyone offer some insight as to what "Dave" is, how it's used, or perhaps suggest other solutions for integrating Macs and PC's into one shared network?

[Sporter]

We used Dave four or five years ago when we decided to get rid of the Macs, and install PC's with NT 4.0 on everyone's desk. I'm jogging my memory here, but as I remember, it allowed a Mac to log into a windows domain. You had a icon on your desk which linked to the NT server, and dragging files to the icon copied them to the server...just drag and drop your files from the Mac to Windows. It proved invaluable in getting the needed Mac files on the NT server.

I remeber it taking a lot time getting it set up, but once it was up, it was extremely easy and simple to use.

Steve Porter

[TimOBrien]

Yes, Thursby Systems' DAVE uses TCP/IP to make the Mac appear as a standard member of a "Windows Workgroup" on the network. Once you get all the IP addresses sorted out, it's a snap.

You could just set up personal FTP servers on each machine and use FTP clients to move files around but for what DAVE costs it's not worth the hassle.