There are many issues about MacOS X networking that users, developers, and Apple are just becoming aware of. You should review pertinent Read Mes, technical notes, etc while troubleshooting LAN problems related to OS X.

Note: The beta version of Internet Explorer included with MacOS 10.0 is not stable and is not a good application to use for troubleshooting OS X networking problems. OS X includes a "Networking Utility" application that may be more helpful in comparing behaviour in the OS X environment with that in Classic 9.x.

Please review the pertinent Apple TILs thoroughly before contacting us about problems with our products related to OS X. Boot the same machine under MacOS 9.x. If the problem does not occur in 9.x but only when running OS X then the problem is not with our software per se but with Mac OS X. If the issue is not covered in Apple's TILs then it may be a bug and should be reported to Apple.

Apple Technical Notes for Mac OS 10.0.x

106170 Network hardware may be unaccessible from the classic environment.

106199 Many 3rd party ethernet cards will not work on Mac OS X

106249 The OS X compatibility libraries are required in classic (9.1 shipped with OT 2.7.4; OS 10.0's classic 9.1 environment uses OT 2.7.5 and other new libraries, compatibility unknown with classic networking apps)

106228 How to report Mac OS X kernal panic screens to Apple

The technotes above provide a brief glimpse of the problems you may experience upgrading to OS X and attempting to use the classic environment with non-OS X native networking applications and drivers. See ilenesmachine.com and macfixit.com for indexes of recent Apple TIL for MacOS X 10.0. Check with Apple support site to search for the very latest information.

OS X Beta TILs

TCP/IP prefs in the beta release (Sept 2000) may become damaged preventing correct DNS resolution (Apple's TIL#106022). The computer must be restarted after TCP/IP is reconfigured for a change to take effect (see Apple TIL #31245). Another, no Passive FTP mode is available in OS X (TIL #60735). OS X may not recognize any NICs if you attempt to configure or have more than one installed (TIL#106038). There are more TILs in a similar vane.

For OS X development status at Sustainable Softworks, visit our Mac OS X Status page.