Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 Mac OS X Integration A Guide to Using FireBall with Mac OS X Panther 6640 Intech Blvd. Suite 250 Indianapolis, IN 46278 317.616.6789 phone 317.616.6790 fax www.escient.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 Table of Contents FireBall to Mac Networking Basics ........................................................................................ 3 Overview ................................................................................................................................ 3 Requirements......................................................................................................................... 3 Connecting to Your FireBall .......................
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 FireBall to Mac Networking Basics Overview With the Network File Sharing feature built into FireBall, you can access your FireBall from your Mac using your home network. Having access to your FireBall allows you to do things like backup your music files, import music files from your Mac to your FireBall, remotely control your FireBall from your Mac, and share your FireBall based music with iTunes and the Apple iPod.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 Connecting to Your FireBall FireBall uses a type of file server commonly called “Windows Networking” or “CIFS/SMB”. CIFS/SMB networking is found in most Microsoft operating systems and allows PCs to connect and then share files over a network. Mac OS X has a built-in Windows Networking client for CIFS/SMB and thus allows the Mac to connect to any CIFS/SMB server on the local network.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 1. By default network shares mounted under Mac OS X will not be automatically displayed on the desktop. Enable this by selecting Preferences from the Finder application menu and place a check mark in the box next to “Connected servers”. 2. Go to the Finder and select Connect to Server… from the Go Menu. 3. Enter “smb://” (without the quotes) and the IP address of FireBall server into the Server Address field in the Connect to Server dialog. Example: smb://192.168.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 4. Click the Connect button and wait for the Mac to locate your FireBall on the Network. When your FireBall is located, the SMB Mount dialog will appear. 5. Click OK to select the default volume titled “Content”. 6. Depending on your network configuration, you may be prompted for a username/password. If so, just leave it blank and click OK. There are no usernames or passwords to enter for connecting to your FireBall server. 7.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 The Content volume is mounted as a Read-Only volume in order to minimize the chances of accidentally deleting music from your FireBall. 6640 Intech Blvd. Suite 250 Indianapolis, IN 46278 317.616.6789 phone 317.616.6790 fax www.escient.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 Backing Up Your FireBall Once you have successfully mounted your FireBall’s Content volume on your Mac, you now have access to the music content contained on the FireBall’s internal hard drive. Having this access affords you the opportunity to backup your FireBall’s music collection. There are many ways to backup the music files including copying files to another drive mounted on your Mac or using third party backup software to perform automated backups each night.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 5. All of the items in the current selection will now be copied to the backup drive. Depending on the size of your music collection, this may take a while to complete. It will take approximately 3 days to backup an entire 300 GB drive over an Ethernet connection. Automated Backups If you are going to add new music or edit the contents of your FireBall frequently, it is recommended to setup an automated backup system.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 Installing & Configuring Restrospect Express Using the Retrospect Express to Backup your FireBall on a scheduled basis 1. Purchase/download the Retrospect Express backup software 2. Connect an external hard drive to your Mac using the included USB or FireWire cable. The external hard drive should appear on your Mac desktop. 3. Mount your FireBall’s CONTENT volume (see above for instructions) 4. Launch Retrospect Express 5.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 8. Select the external hard drive as the Destination and make sure that “Replace Entire Disk” is selected. Select the OK button 9. The following dialog is displayed. Note: If you want to turn off Verification, select Options and turn it off. Verification will verify that all files were backed up correctly, but will increase the overall backup time. 6640 Intech Blvd. Suite 250 Indianapolis, IN 46278 317.616.6789 phone 317.616.6790 fax www.escient.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 10. You can run the backup immediately by selecting the Duplicate button, or to schedule the backup to run every day, select Schedule from the Script menu. 11. Enter an appropriate name for your new backup Schedule and select the New button. 12. When the following dialog is displayed, select the Schedule button. 13. Select Add button to add a new schedule. 14. When the following dialog is displayed, select “Day of the week” then the OK button 6640 Intech Blvd.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 15. Select the start date (usually today), the start time (usually overnight when you are sleeping) and on which days to run the backup. Select 1 week to have the schedule run every week. Select OK when you are done. 16. You should see the following dialog with your scheduled options. If this is correct, select the OK button. 17.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 18. Close all windows and Save if asked to do so. To verify that the Schedule is set, select Automate and Scripts from the Main Retrospect Express screen. You should see at least one script listed and the title of your scheduled backup displayed. You backup is now scheduled to run. 6640 Intech Blvd. Suite 250 Indianapolis, IN 46278 317.616.6789 phone 317.616.6790 fax www.escient.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 IMPORTANT!!! Remember that your Mac must be on and your CONTENT directory must be mounted on your Mac Desktop in order for Retrospect to run automatically. Retrospect will launch automatically, you do not have to keep it running. For more detailed information on Retrospect Express, please visit the Retrospect web site at http://www.dantz.com. 6640 Intech Blvd. Suite 250 Indianapolis, IN 46278 317.616.6789 phone 317.616.6790 fax www.escient.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 Integrating with iTunes and iPod FireBall supports iTunes and iPod integration through the FireBall Network File Sharing feature described above. Once your Mac is connected to your FireBall over the network, you can access FireBall’s music and use it from iTunes and sync it with your iPod. Please read the section Connecting to your FireBall before proceeding to make sure that you can mount FireBall’s CONTENT volume on your Mac Desktop.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 3. Click the Advanced icon in the toolbar to display the Advanced Preferences panel. 4. Make sure that Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library is NOT checked. If it is checked, all music files imported into iTunes will be copied into your hard drive as they are imported. We don’t want to do this, because we simply want to access the music from FireBall, not duplicate it on the Mac. 5.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 6. Wait while iTunes scans the CONTENT volume for valid MP3 files and adds them to the iTunes Library. 7. When all your MP3 files have been imported, the iTunes browser window will display the music content from your FireBall, including cover art! 6640 Intech Blvd. Suite 250 Indianapolis, IN 46278 317.616.6789 phone 317.616.6790 fax www.escient.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 You can now access your FireBall music from iTunes just as if it were located on your Mac. Creating iTunes Playlists Now that your FireBall music has been added to the iTunes Library, you can create iTunes Playlists. Playlists can contain any combination of music available in the iTunes browser, no matter where it actually resides.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 remember is that FireBall’s CONTENT directory must be mounted on your Mac in order for iTunes to locate and burn CDs that contain music which is physically located on your FireBall music server. In iTunes, you burn a CD from a Playlist. Create a Playlist in iTunes with the songs you want on your CD, then click the Burn icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 Music Tagging and the Mac What is a Tag? Most digitally encoded file formats allow information particular to each file to be embedded within the file itself. This information is referred to as metadata and is included within what is known as a tag. A tag can include a multitude of information of which can contain but is not limited to artist, album, track, year, genre, and cover art.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 Media Rage Tag Editor Note: Because the CONTENT volume is a read-only volume, you cannot edit anything. You must first copy any files you want to edit onto your Mac and then import them back into your FireBall, replacing the originals. Please see the section Importing Music Into FireBall for instructions on how to get your music files into your FireBall using the IMPORT volume. 6640 Intech Blvd. Suite 250 Indianapolis, IN 46278 317.616.6789 phone 317.616.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 Importing Music into FireBall FireBall’s CONTENT volume is read-only, which means you can’t write to it or use it for importing music files from your Mac to your FireBall. There is a way! FireBall actually provides two server volumes, one for reading your music collection and one for importing your music collection. The difference is that the IMPORT volume is a writeable volume while the CONTENT volume is read only.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 3. Enter “smb://” (without the quotes) and the IP address of FireBall server into the Server Address field in the Connect to Server dialog. Example: smb://192.168.1.101 Note: The FireBall’s IP address is displayed under Setup>Utilities>System Information. 4. Select the Connect button and wait for the Mac to locate your FireBall on the Network. When your FireBall is located, the SMB Mount dialog will appear. 5. Select IMPORT from the share popup menu and click OK.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 7. The IMPORT volume will be mounted on your Mac’s Desktop. 6640 Intech Blvd. Suite 250 Indianapolis, IN 46278 317.616.6789 phone 317.616.6790 fax www.escient.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 Importing your Music Files Once the IMPORT volume is mounted on your Mac’s desktop, simply drag-and-drop any Fireball-compatible music files into the IMPORT volume and the files will be copied to FireBall and added to the FireBall Music Library. You can drag and drop whole collections, a folder of songs, or just a single song.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 Apple FairPlay DRM & iTunes Plus DRM, which stands for Digital Rights Management, is a technology used mainly in restricting the playback of most legally purchased music through online music stores. DRM was created on behalf of the music industry as a whole to allow content owners to determine and control who and how users can view content such as media files on the Internet. However, there are both advantages and disadvantages to DRM.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 Controlling FireBall from Safari The FireBall contains a built-in web server capable of serving web pages specifically designed to control almost every aspect of the FireBall from a standard web browser, including Apple’s Safari browser. Safari is the default browser included in Mac OS X 10.3.
Mac OS X Integration WD029-1-1 2/19/2010 Controlling Your FireBall The FireBall Web Client Interface is the graphics and control system web pages that appear in your Safari browser. From this web pages, you can control almost every aspect of your FireBall, just as you would from the original IR remote and TV. You will notice that unlike the TV user interface, there are buttons along the left and right edges of the web browser. These buttons duplicate the features found on your remote control.
