Need help setting up Mac-Mac-PC network

[drgrafix]

I have three (3) computers that I'd like to be able to "talk" to each other and its driving me bonkers because I get to a point where it says ask your network administrator to do this or do that. LOL... I don't have a knowledgeable network administrator on the payroll. Anyway, being as I'm shuttered in these days, I figured rather than walking from one computer to another with a USB stick to transfer files, maybe its time to get these three (there is a 4th, my wife's) computers talking to each other. Here's a brief summary of equipment, and yes, all are connected to my home network either via WiFi or hard-wired ethernet.

#1 - iMac27 (Purch 03/2019) - Currently running Catalina but I intend to downgrade to Mojave ASAP so I can continue to use Adobe CS6.

#2 - iMac24 (late 2007) - Currently running El Capitan, has my working older Photoshop CS4.

#3 - ShuttlePC - Currently running Windows 7 Home Edition, kept around to run CorelDrawXV and Visio 10.

I'm a retired Designer and do various design projects for our church, senior center, and a few specialty clients. So the big deal here is creating, editing, and saving graphic-oriented files ranging from PSD to PDF to JPG to TIF to VSD to DWG to DXF. As noted above, each computer has its uses, and if at all possible, I'd like to consolidate and maybe dump the PC someday, and run Windows 10 on the older Mac. I have plenty of room (75% free) on the internal drives of the old Mac and the PC. The new Mac has a 250 SSD with 155 GB free, I store all my graphics files on remote USB HDDs. Things weren't too bad until I auto-updated the new Mac to Catalina. I had zero problems running CS6 Photoshop in Mojave. Now it just crashes... there was a workaround, very kludgie but for a few months it worked with a few limitations. Thats all gone now, can't use CS6 and friends at work who have CC/Catalina are also complaining about glitches/bugs with Catalina.

So OK... that's the lay of the land, I'd like to learn how to get these three to be able to transfer files back and forth by using keystrokes/mouse on the screen. I have looked at both Macs thru finder/preferences and "Connected Servers" is checked in General and Sidebar, so is "Bonjour Computers". I do have a WD MyCloud network drive, but that's a PITA to use as anything more than a place to archive a ton of family photos & videos as well as a lot of my older design projects.

I'm sitting at #1 New iMac, I click on Network, I see "Shuttle PC", I double click and it says "Not Connected" in the left top area of the Finder window. So I click on "Connect As" , and click "Connect" on the pop-up. I get a pop-up asking me to select Guest or Registered User, and my name is in the name slot, and the password slot is empty. Should any name be in the name slot? And what specific password is required to login? I tried the password for the PC and all I get is a shaking pop-up. If I try to access the PC as a "Guest", another popup appears saying Access is Denied, contact your administrator. I look at the dog, and she just rolls her eyes LOL.

Next I try to connect to #2 iMac, and here when I click the "Network" in the left column, I get a series of Icons showing up in the window. So I click on the #2 iMac and the window goes blank.

So I go over to #2 the older iMac... and yes, I can "see" the new iMac, but not the Shuttle PC, and I go through the same scenario as above if I try to hook up with the new iMac, actual passwords don't seem to work, access denied.

Over on the PC... I don't see anything other than "Shuttle PC" so its not seeing either of the iMacs. I'd also like to be able to print from any of these three, I have a Brother Color Laser network-connected printer.

Don't know if anyone has the time to help me out, but while I'm not a super tech, I follow orders pretty well LOL. Thanks in advance for any/all help.-Mike

 

[casperes1996]

That was actually quite a fun read. The bit about looking over at the dog made me chuckle...

Anyways, I'm not very knowledgable about Windows, but as for the Macs, go to System Preferences -> Sharing and make sure File Sharing is enabled and set up how you want. After that all you should need to do is enter the username and password in the Finder's Connect As dialog box and you should be good to go for the Macs.
For Windows you can google how to enable smb as well as how to connect to smb. The Mac should use the smb protocol for file sharing by default I believe. If not you may need to set it to use smb instead of AFP FTP. This can be done with the "Options" button in the System Preferences bit I mentioned before. Here you can also enable "Windows File Sharing", but for the same reasons mentioned in that bog, check if it works with your Windows PC without enabling this first. If not it's not that big a deal to enable it.

Hope this helped. If there are any points of confusion just ask; If immediate response is required, PM me, I'll get email notifications and be right back

 

[satcomer]

Did you follow the Apple Support Document Connect to a Windows computer from a Mac at all?

Also take a look at this tutorial:

 

[drgrafix]

Did you follow the Apple Support Document Connect to a Windows computer from a Mac at all?

Also take a look at this tutorial:

Thanks... nothing but time on my hands. I will give it a look.

That was actually quite a fun read. The bit about looking over at the dog made me chuckle...

Anyways, I'm not very knowledgable about Windows, but as for the Macs, go to System Preferences -> Sharing and make sure File Sharing is enabled and set up how you want. After that all you should need to do is enter the username and password in the Finder's Connect As dialog box and you should be good to go for the Macs.
For Windows you can google how to enable smb as well as how to connect to smb. The Mac should use the smb protocol for file sharing by default I believe. If not you may need to set it to use smb instead of AFP FTP. This can be done with the "Options" button in the System Preferences bit I mentioned before. Here you can also enable "Windows File Sharing", but for the same reasons mentioned in that bog, check if it works with your Windows PC without enabling this first. If not it's not that big a deal to enable it.

Hope this helped. If there are any points of confusion just ask; If immediate response is required, PM me, I'll get email notifications and be right back

Thanks a lot... I will immediately dig into this. And will post success I hope! You guys are great.

Mike

 

[drgrafix]

I think we have to solve this problem one computer type at a time. Maybe we should try to figure out what I'm missing on the iMac27 to iMac24 hookup. I'm at the iMac24 right now, in Finder I can see the iMac27. When I click on it, I get the popup seen in here:

So it seems that its asking for the logon password for the iMac27 and I type it in and all I still get is the shaky box. If I type in the password for the iMac24, and hit return, it goes grey for a second or two like thats it... but then it starts shaking. So those are the only two passwords I know LOL... what's it looking for? If I try logging on as a Guest, I get the "Access Denied" popup.

On the Sharing Window at the top it has the computer name, with a note below the name saying Computers on my local network can access your computer at the computer name with a .local after it? So for kicks, I added ".local" to the computer's name and again tried both my logon passwords, got the shaky box both times.

As far as "Sharing" goes, in the iMac24 System Preferences I have File Sharing, Printer Sharing, Remote Login, Remote Management checked... and the box on the right shows Shared Folders as; Desktop, Downloads, Mackintosh HD, and my Public Folder. To the right of that in the Users List my name is listed first, followed by System Group and Everyone. There's a green light next to Windows Sharing On with a note that other users can access shared folders and administrators with a SMB address.

This sequence is pretty much repeated verbatim if I'm in the other room trying to go from the iMac27 to logon to the iMac24. I'm gonna reboot the iMac24 to see if that helps. Please advise what I should try next... and thanks.

 

[casperes1996]

I think we have to solve this problem one computer type at a time. Maybe we should try to figure out what I'm missing on the iMac27 to iMac24 hookup. I'm at the iMac24 right now, in Finder I can see the iMac27. When I click on it, I get the popup seen in here:

So it seems that its asking for the logon password for the iMac27 and I type it in and all I still get is the shaky box. If I type in the password for the iMac24, and hit return, it goes grey for a second or two like thats it... but then it starts shaking. So those are the only two passwords I know LOL... what's it looking for? If I try logging on as a Guest, I get the "Access Denied" popup.

On the Sharing Window at the top it has the computer name, with a note below the name saying Computers on my local network can access your computer at the computer name with a .local after it? So for kicks, I added ".local" to the computer's name and again tried both my logon passwords, got the shaky box both times.

As far as "Sharing" goes, in the iMac24 System Preferences I have File Sharing, Printer Sharing, Remote Login, Remote Management checked... and the box on the right shows Shared Folders as; Desktop, Downloads, Mackintosh HD, and my Public Folder. To the right of that in the Users List my name is listed first, followed by System Group and Everyone. There's a green light next to Windows Sharing On with a note that other users can access shared folders and administrators with a SMB address.

This sequence is pretty much repeated verbatim if I'm in the other room trying to go from the iMac27 to logon to the iMac24. I'm gonna reboot the iMac24 to see if that helps. Please advise what I should try next... and thanks.

Is “Mike’s iMac 27” the name of your user account on that device?
You should be able to enter both the full user name as well as the short form username in that field. Try entering the username as shown in /Users/ on the system you’re connecting to.

The line you see in the Sharing settings:
”Connect with smb://<IP address or host name>”
refers to when using the “Connect to server” menu bar item in Finder or when using Terminal, not when using the Network GUI element.

 

[drgrafix]

OK... I have some success to report! Was on the old iMac24 and when I got to the above window, I typed in my full name and the PW for the iMac27 and it connected! Was able to browse the shared selections I had made and select various files. So that's good.

I'm back over at the iMac27 now typing this. Gonna try something similar and see if I can connect to the iMac24. Hmmm... ok, so I see the list, but also noted that in the Finder window its showing icons (that's fine) and this Mac is showing up as "mikes-imac-492_" which is new to me.

OK... no dice on the connection. I click "Network" in finder and in the adjacent column three sections appear, to the left is "Not connected" followed by "Share Screen" and "Connect As", so I select "Connect As" and nothing happens, no popup the column remains empty.

So on the Mac to Mac side I've gone from zero connection to at least 50%?

Had time to kill so I upgraded the Shuttle from Windows 7 to Windows 10. So perhaps when we figure out the Mac connection we can have more success with Windows 10.

Mike

 

[casperes1996]

OK... no dice on the connection. I click "Network" in finder and in the adjacent column three sections appear, to the left is "Not connected" followed by "Share Screen" and "Connect As", so I select "Connect As" and nothing happens, no popup the column remains empty.

Bit hard to help more without better understanding how things currently are; but try using the Finder's Connect to Server option from the Go Menu Bar menu, and enter what it says in the other Mac's File Sharing preference pane.

 

[drgrafix]

Not quite 100% sure about what you mean by "what it says in the other Mac's File Sharing preference pane" because when I look at it/them, its a list of certain folders that I wanted to share with the newer iMac. I have the feeling there should be maybe an IP address or something like that? If I'm back at the iMac27 and try to connect I get these windows:



I'll post this then walk over to the other machine and capture what I can, then edit this post.

OK, more success, but I don't know if this is the right way to do things LOL. I was trying to "Connect" and nothing happened, so just for kicks I clicked on Share the screen and it connected. So now I have the old iMac24 screen fully operation on my iMac27! Is that good?

 

[casperes1996]

OK, more success, but I don't know if this is the right way to do things LOL. I was trying to "Connect" and nothing happened, so just for kicks I clicked on Share the screen and it connected. So now I have the old iMac24 screen fully operation on my iMac27! Is that good?

Well it’s not bad, but the screen sharing function uses VNC which is a completely different protocol to what you want for file share which would be either SMB, FTP, or AFP.

Could you post a screenshot of the File Sharing menu on the Mac you want remote access to?

 

[hobowankenobi]

Just a quick note after scanning the thread:

When connecting to a Mac remotely, the connection window typically has a user name filled in. The problem is...the name filled in is the user name on the computer you are on, when it needs to be the user name on the computer you are trying to connect to. So the name is wrong (unless both computers have the exact same user name).

Just fill in both user name and password in the connection window for the computer you are connecting to...like you were sitting in front of it.

It would actually be easier if Apple left the user name blank!

TIP: If you use exactly the same user name and password on every computer....then you will always fill in the same info no matter what you are doing. Easiest way on a home network.

 

[drgrafix]

OK... Casperes... there's a picture below of the File Sharing window on the old iMac.


[automerge]1585944686[/automerge]

Just a quick note after scanning the thread:

When connecting to a Mac remotely, the connection window typically has a user name filled in. The problem is...the name filled in is the user name on the computer you are on, when it needs to be the user name on the computer you are trying to connect to. So the name is wrong (unless both computers have the exact same user name).

Just fill in both user name and password in the connection window for the computer you are connecting to...like you were sitting in front of it.

It would actually be easier if Apple left the user name blank!

TIP: If you use exactly the same user name and password on every computer....then you will always fill in the same info no matter what you are doing. Easiest way on a home network.

Hobo... While I have different passwords for both of the iMacs, I started with the old Mac 10+ years ago, also have MBPro and I normally would use my name as the user. Is that bad or OK?

 

[casperes1996]

OK... Casperes... there's a picture below of the File Sharing window on the old iMac.


[automerge]1585944686[/automerge]


Hobo... While I have different passwords for both of the iMacs, I started with the old Mac 10+ years ago, also have MBPro and I normally would use my name as the user. Is that bad or OK?

In your older post when you tried to connect to this machine, you wrote something like "Mike's iMac27" in the name field. That field should be the username, which I can see in this sharing panel is "Michael Langleri". That's what you should put in the name field, not the computer name.

Also, when I earlier mentioned using the Finder's "Connect to Server" function, I meant to write
smb://10.0.0.214
like you can see it says in the sharing panel. This should not be necessary though, just use the Finder's Network option to "Connect As" like you've been doing so far, and enter the correct username

 

[drgrafix]

Casperis

In your older post when you tried to connect to this machine, you wrote something like "Mike's iMac27" in the name field. That field should be the username, which I can see in this sharing panel is "Michael Langleri". That's what you should put in the name field, not the computer name.

Also, when I earlier mentioned using the Finder's "Connect to Server" function, I meant to write
smb://10.0.0.214
like you can see it says in the sharing panel. This should not be necessary though, just use the Finder's Network option to "Connect As" like you've been doing so far, and enter the correct username

Casperis... It Worked! Wow, I feel so dumb, but my excuse is my age LOL. OK, so now I know the basics of connecting the two Macs, and if I run into problems... I can fish out this thread and refresh my memory.

Thank you so much for sticking with me on this. If you're willing to help a little more, I can outline what I'd really like to accomplish with these two Macs now talking to each other. I don't want to press my luck LOL... and take advantage of your expertise. So, just let me know, OK? And thank you again. Stay safe and healthy.

 

[casperes1996]

Casperis... It Worked! Wow, I feel so dumb, but my excuse is my age LOL. OK, so now I know the basics of connecting the two Macs, and if I run into problems... I can fish out this thread and refresh my memory.

Just Casper is fine; ES are the initials of my middle- and surname. Casper is my first name
And you're welcome. You also don't need an excuse, my friend. Want and willingness to learn is what matters; Not how much you already know. Not knowing something isn't bad at all.

Thank you so much for sticking with me on this. If you're willing to help a little more, I can outline what I'd really like to accomplish with these two Macs now talking to each other. I don't want to press my luck LOL... and take advantage of your expertise. So, just let me know, OK? And thank you again. Stay safe and healthy.

As my footnote on all my posts indicate, I'm always happy to help with anything anyone might need, so feel free to ask anything, either continuing this thread, PM'ing me personally, or starting a new one and giving me a mention so I'll see it. Whatever you prefer I'm always happy to lend a hand.

 

[drgrafix]

Hey Casper...

Thanks for straightening me out on the name LOL... I'm just Mike. Since I started the thread, and its basically about my machines, I'll give you a quick overview. I'm a retired Industrial Designer, was involved in the Toy & Game business all of my life in the R & D area where I oversaw everything from market research to product and package design and more. Now I'm a hobbyist graphic designer and I do mostly charity graphic design work for our Senior Center and our church... plus every now and then some minor "commercial" design work like a letterhead or business card. I use Photoshop, CorelDraw, and Visio for various things. I am not CAD-savvy but wish I was. Have been using VISIO 10 on my ancient PC to do room layouts and block diagrams.

I treated myself to a new iMac27 Retina last March, and I loved it until Catalina came along. It killed my Adobe CS6 apps and since I'm no longer part of a big corporation, I just can't justify spending even $15/month forever for Photoshop CC when CS6 was more than I needed. So... and I think I'm not alone here... I think I want to revert to a previous Mac OS that will allow me to run CS6. Heck... I've talked to friends who are using Catalina/CC and they say its very buggy. As noted above, I have an old Shuttle compact PC running Windows 10 specifically for Corel XV and VISIO 10 apps.

So the two things I'd like to do are:

1. Take my iMac27 back to Mojave and then I'll reinstall whatever apps I need. All my graphics work is stored on external drives, so nothing is really lost on the new Mac's 250 GB SSD. CS6 ran just fine on Mojave last spring when I installed it until Catalina came along. And if I need to go back to High Sierra... that's OK too. I figure in 5-10 years I won't be doing any serious graphics work at my age LOL.

2. I'd like to repartition my old iMac's 500 GB HDD so that I can boot it as a Windows 10 or Mac OS machine. Once I have a dual boot setup, I'll re-install Corel and Visio on the PC side and be able to share files across the two Macs (thanks to you!). Then I'd like to purge the old PC and probably bring it to the senior center where it might get some use. My wife will be very happy that I got rid of the PC and helped reduce clutter in my little home studio.

So if your willing to coach me through these changes... I'd be very happy to follow your instructions.

Mike

 

[hobowankenobi]

Hey -

There is a minimum OS that your new iMac can use, and I would guess it might be 10.15, but is likely 10.14. Beyond issues running ancient software, are there other specific issues you have with 10.15?

Instead of going backward on the OS—which is a temporary fix—have you considered using something other than Photoshop?

Affinity Photo is a strong contender that is not subscription-based. Last I checked, they have a free demo that you can run to check out. I know several photographers that have switched, and all are happy with it. Pixelmator Pro is another well-loved option.

 

[casperes1996]

I treated myself to a new iMac27 Retina last March, and I loved it until Catalina came along. It killed my Adobe CS6 apps and since I'm no longer part of a big corporation, I just can't justify spending even $15/month forever for Photoshop CC when CS6 was more than I needed. So... and I think I'm not alone here... I think I want to revert to a previous Mac OS that will allow me to run CS6. Heck... I've talked to friends who are using Catalina/CC and they say its very buggy. As noted above, I have an old Shuttle compact PC running Windows 10 specifically for Corel XV and VISIO 10 apps.

Right. So the issue with going back to Mojave or earlier in the long run, is that you'll run into the opposite issue with newer software, even websites eventually not working on older operating systems, and there will be un-fixed security holes. - As of now Mojave is still well supported, so it's not a worry now, and I myself am still running Mojave for 32-bit support. It's just worth noting the future downsides to not upgrading eventually.

I can also recommend what hobowankenobi says; I jumped to Affinity Photo myself and love it. There's also Affinity Design which is for vector graphics like Illustrator. They are really quite good. Pixelmator Pro is also a nice app, though Affinity is more directly competing with Photoshop. And it's a one time buy with future updates free through the App Store. Doesn't take too much to adapt to coming from Photoshop either. They are different of course but there's lots of help resources and they are still rather similar programs.

That out of the way, let's get to your questions.

1. Take my iMac27 back to Mojave and then I'll reinstall whatever apps I need. All my graphics work is stored on external drives, so nothing is really lost on the new Mac's 250 GB SSD. CS6 ran just fine on Mojave last spring when I installed it until Catalina came along. And if I need to go back to High Sierra... that's OK too. I figure in 5-10 years I won't be doing any serious graphics work at my age LOL.

To do this, you'll need to make a bootable installer of Mojave. You'll need a flash drive or something like that we can erase and overwrite with the bootable installer.

Then you will need to download the macOS Mojave installer. It can be found here:

https://apps.apple.com/app/macos-mojave/id1398502828?ls=1&mt=12

If it complains that you're already on a newer version and won't let you download it, write me and we'll find a way around it.

In addition to the steps I outline below, you can also look at Apple's official guide

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Atbalsts (LV)

Use an external drive or secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install macOS.

support.apple.com

After it's downloaded, put your USB drive that you are willing to erase into the Mac.
Now open Terminal and run the following command:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/[VolumeName]

replace [VolumeName] with the name of the USB drive volume you want to erase with the installer. As an example, for me it would be:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USBDrive

If there are spaces in the name of the drive you'll need to put the entire path in quotes "", or escape the spaces with \. Alternatively, you can drag in the volume from Finder and it'll write the path for you.
This command will ask for your password in the Terminal. It won't show anything as you write your password, but don't worry, it's still registering your key presses.

After it's done creating the installer, reboot holding the Option/Alt key. Select the external installer and you should be booted into the macOS Mojave Installer.

From here, open Disk Utility and erase your internal drive. Then go back (Quit Disk Utility) and run the "Install macOS Mojave". After that, it should be like a brand new macOS Mojave computer.

2. I'd like to repartition my old iMac's 500 GB HDD so that I can boot it as a Windows 10 or Mac OS machine. Once I have a dual boot setup, I'll re-install Corel and Visio on the PC side and be able to share files across the two Macs (thanks to you!). Then I'd like to purge the old PC and probably bring it to the senior center where it might get some use. My wife will be very happy that I got rid of the PC and helped reduce clutter in my little home studio.

For this I think you'd be much better served with looking on YouTube for "Install Windows on a Mac with Bootcamp".
Here's a video by 9To5Mac

You can also look for video tutorials on what I outlined earlier for your question 1, though I think this question in particular is more suited to a video walkthrough. - If you run into issues though feel free to ask

 

[drgrafix]

Im really struggling with this LOL... do I go backwards or just ignore my Adobe CS6 and get on with learning Affinity, maybe customizing the toolbar to make it more Me-Friendly? The only "new" software I might invest in would be CorelDraw for Mac and CorelCAD for Mac. Affinity Photo should work with pre-Catalina software right? I have to look into CorelDraw/CAD and see if they work with Mojave. Gonna take a little research with users. I'll be back to let you know what happens. Thanks again Casper you'd make a great teacher.

 

[casperes1996]

Im really struggling with this LOL... do I go backwards or just ignore my Adobe CS6 and get on with learning Affinity, maybe customizing the toolbar to make it more Me-Friendly? The only "new" software I might invest in would be CorelDraw for Mac and CorelCAD for Mac. Affinity Photo should work with pre-Catalina software right? I have to look into CorelDraw/CAD and see if they work with Mojave. Gonna take a little research with users. I'll be back to let you know what happens. Thanks again Casper you'd make a great teacher.

I recommend a bit of both. Get your system set up with CS6 accessible on Mojave for now, but also play around with Affinity. On days where you have a bit of extra energy, do your tasks in Affinity. On days where you just want your **** done, stick to what you're used to. A gradual transition to keep frustration levels low. Affinity have worked on having good inter-compatibility anyway. And yes, Affinity works on Mojave as well as Catalina, and probably earlier than Mojave too, but I only have the two operating systems and some Linux at hand.
and thank you but I actually don't think I would. Not for technology anyway. Happy to help anyone but also don't always have the most patience. I'm fine with people who don't know things - we all have things we don't know. But as a teacher you'd also have to deal with people who don't listen and who don't care. People who don't want to learn and feel it's a chore and whom you have to tell the same thing 7 billion times, not because they can't understand it, but because they won't. That'd infuriate me to hell and back. I'll stick with programming. If the computer doesn't do what I expect it's because my instructions were wrong/unclear, not because it didn't follow them

 

[drgrafix]

Casper... I'm gonna let this slide for a little bit, I don't know, maybe I'm going stir crazy with all this shut-in stuff. But I respect it and I respect other people who are doing their best to save lives and provide services. I've got a bunch of things my wife would like me to do around the house, so I may take a little break... although the one thing I haven't figured out yet is passing files back and forth to the PC from the Mac and vice-versa. Might plug at that a little now that I have the Macs conversing.

BTW, I hear you on the teaching thing, it can be tough when your "student" doesn't grasp the subject. My DIL is a teacher and we've talked about stuff like that. Learning is a process, and usually it involves a lot repetition, especially when you are not repeating the "process" regularly. But its great when someone has that "Eureka" moment and gets it. Its harder as you get older, honest. LOL

 

[casperes1996]

Casper... I'm gonna let this slide for a little bit, I don't know, maybe I'm going stir crazy with all this shut-in stuff. But I respect it and I respect other people who are doing their best to save lives and provide services. I've got a bunch of things my wife would like me to do around the house, so I may take a little break... although the one thing I haven't figured out yet is passing files back and forth to the PC from the Mac and vice-versa. Might plug at that a little now that I have the Macs conversing.

No problem. If you need help with anything, related to this or not, I'll happily help no matter when that will be

BTW, I hear you on the teaching thing, it can be tough when your "student" doesn't grasp the subject. My DIL is a teacher and we've talked about stuff like that. Learning is a process, and usually it involves a lot repetition, especially when you are not repeating the "process" regularly. But its great when someone has that "Eureka" moment and gets it. Its harder as you get older, honest. LOL

I don't really mind people who don't get things though. Not grasping the subject is perfectly fine - There are things all of us don't understand and if things don't fall within your flow it's understandably hard. Despite being a computer scientist, I'm **** at a lot of the math we do at uni, so I can't blame people for not understanding things.
What I hate is when people have an attitude or mentality of not bothering to even try. The people where you say "What's 2+2" and they just go "I don't know just do it for me". Even with something as simple as 2+2 - and I mean adults here, who shouldn't find that challenging. - An example from technology I've experienced on more than one occasion is where someone will come to me and we'd have an exchange like this:
Them: "You're good at computers, can you figure out why my mail isn't working?"
Me: "No problem, what have you tried so far?"
Them: "Well it just shows this message"
Me: "Let's see it then"
*looks at their phone. Message reads "Please enter password for the account <account>"
Me: "Have you tried entering the password?"
Them: "No, I didn't know I was supposed to do that"
Me: "Well it literally says to do that right there in front of you"
Them: "Well not everyone is good with computers you know"

Exchanges like that are infuriating, when they make it sound like the ability to read is somehow magical computer skills, when in reality it's defeatism. They see a pop-up and before they've even read it they resign to the thought "can't do it, don't want to try".
Hope it makes sense what I'm getting at - if the issue is genuinely understanding I wouldn't mind explaining something a hundred times. I just can't stand an attitude of not even bothering in the slightest

 

[drgrafix]

Thats a funny analogy, but I know it's not really funny... its more like, driving through a red light and wondering why you got T-Boned?

 

[satcomer]

Thats a funny analogy, but I know it's not really funny... its more like, driving through a red light and wondering why you got T-Boned?

I’m starting to think when using the Connect to Server function seems to work best if using the smb method just using the IP of machine your trying to connect, unless you roll your own DNS server!

 

[OLDTMR]

I recommend a bit of both. Get your system set up with CS6 accessible on Mojave for now, but also play around with Affinity. On days where you have a bit of extra energy, do your tasks in Affinity. On days where you just want your **** done, stick to what you're used to. A gradual transition to keep frustration levels low. Affinity have worked on having good inter-compatibility anyway. And yes, Affinity works on Mojave as well as Catalina, and probably earlier than Mojave too, but I only have the two operating systems and some Linux at hand.
and thank you but I actually don't think I would. Not for technology anyway. Happy to help anyone but also don't always have the most patience. I'm fine with people who don't know things - we all have things we don't know. But as a teacher you'd also have to deal with people who don't listen and who don't care. People who don't want to learn and feel it's a chore and whom you have to tell the same thing 7 billion times, not because they can't understand it, but because they won't. That'd infuriate me to hell and back. I'll stick with programming. If the computer doesn't do what I expect it's because my instructions were wrong/unclear, not because it didn't follow them

Casper... I tried sending you a PM but since I re-registered I don't seem to have PM privileges yet? Anyway, I left a message on your profile page. Old Mike