OS X is an outstanding, upstanding network citizen, flexible enough to share its contents with other Macs, Windows PCs, people dialing in from the road, and so on. On this panel, you’ll find on/off switches for each of these sharing channels.
In this book, many of these features are covered in other chapters. For example, Screen Sharing and File Sharing are in Chapter 14, Printer Sharing and Scanner Sharing are Chapter 15, Internet Sharing is in Chapter 17, and Web Sharing, Screen Sharing, and Remote Login are in Chapter 21.
Here’s a quick rundown on the other items:
DVD or CD Sharing. This feature was added to accommodate Mac models that don’t have CD/DVD drives—which, these days, is all of them. When you sit at a Mac that does have a drive and turn on this option, those driveless computers on the network can “see,” and borrow, your Mac’s DVD drive for the purposes of installing new software or running Mac disk-repair software. (Your drive shows up under the Remote Disc heading in the driveless Mac’s Finder Sidebar.)
Remote Management. Lets someone else control your Mac using Apple Remote Desktop, a popular add-on program for teachers and system administrators.
Remote Apple Events. Lets AppleScript gurus send commands to Macs across the network.
Bluetooth Sharing. This pane lets you set up Bluetooth file sharing, a way for other people near you to shoot files over to (or receive files from) your laptop—without hassle, or passwords. Bluetooth has the details.