User accounts and file sharing in Leopard: What's new

The "add user" dialog lists existing users and groups and all contacts contained in Mac OS X's Address Book. It also offers a "New Person" button. If you select an Address Book contact, you can create a password, and Leopard will automatically create a sharing-only account for that person, with the person's contact name as his username. If you choose "New Person," you can create a sharing-only account with a new username and password on the fly.

Add user dialog. (Click for larger view.)

As in Tiger, you can also decide whether you want to share items for other Mac users via Apple Filing Protocol, the default file- and printer-sharing protocol for Macs, and/or Windows users via the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. As in Tiger, you must enable SMB log-in for each user account that will connect from Windows because SMB requires storing a user's password in a less-secure form than Mac OS X normally uses.

In Leopard, you can also share folders using File Transfer Protcol. This allows remote users to connect to your computer and FTP client. FTP does not provide secure transmission of either passwords or data. To enable or disable file-sharing protocols, click the "Options" button.

Configuring file-sharing protocols. (Click for larger view.)

Control who can remotely manage your Mac

You can now control who can remotely access your Mac by using Leopard's new screen-sharing feature. This is available directly from the Finder via the new sidebar that lists shared resources or by manually launching the Screen Sharing application (located in /System/Library/Core Services) and from the command line using Secure Shell (SSH).

You can choose to allow all users access or to limit access to specific users and groups. Adding and removing users and groups functions the same as it does for configuring access to shared folders. Limiting remote access, particularly via SSH, can improve security for your Mac.

Note: The "Computer Settings" button available when screen sharing is selected lets people who do not have user accounts on your computer request permission to share the screen. You can also enter a password for screen sharing by virtual network computing clients running on earlier versions of Mac OS X or Windows.

Limiting screen-sharing access. (Click for larger view.)

You can also configure which users are allowed to access your Mac using Apple Remote Desktop and which users are allowed to send remote Apple events to your computer. The Apple Remote Desktop client options, though, display slightly differently in Leopard in comparison with previous Mac OS X versions.

NetInfo is no more

The final change that affects user accounts in Leopard is perhaps the most dramatic, at least to power users and technicians. Since it was first released, Mac OS X relied on an account management database known as NetInfo.

Originally developed by NeXT, NetInfo provided a mechanism for consolidating a range of account and computer identification and management functions that were typically stored in a diverse series of Unix configuration directories. It also allowed for shared accounts hosted on a server.

In this story...
Groups and other new account types Adding users Share anything you want		Control who can remotely manage your Mac NetInfo is no more Summing up