Networking my mac and pc.

[Mman]

Ok, I consider myself fairly computer savy. However, when it comes to networking I am pretty useless. Combine this with the fact that we just got a new iMac which I am not too well versed with, and I have a problem.

I want to be able to share info on our hardrives. I have firewire on my PC, so I was hoping that would make it easy, but it doesnt. Anybody have a step by step way for me to get this done?

[Lhadatt]

This is assuming you have Mac OS 10.3 (which you should if it's a brand new machine). Make sure you use Software Update to grab 10.3.3 and the latest patches. Wouldn't hurt to run Windows Update too.

If they're hooked up to the same network (i.e. going through your router via ethernet or wireless or whatever), you can start by sharing the folder on your Windows machine that contains the documents. Find the folder, right-click on it and select Properties. Click on the Sharing tab. You can configure the folder to be shared from here. Post the version of Windows you have and any difficulties you encounter in this step, and we should be able to walk you through it.

On the Mac side, all you should have to do is click on the Go menu in Finder, then select Connect to Server. You'll be using Samba here, so type in smb://windowsmachinename or smb://<Windows machine IP>, then click Connect. It will ask you to authenticate, so make sure your workgroup, Windows machine login and password are correct, then click OK. It will then pop up a "SMB Mount" window asking you what share you wish to access. Select the share from the drop-down box, then click OK. You should then see the share pop up in a Finder window, and also establish an icon on the desktop. To disconnect, close the share window and drag the desktop icon to the Trash.

Sharing from a Mac is a bit different. If you were talking to another Mac, you would use Appletalk and be done with it. Since we're dealing with a Windows machine here, you need to enable Windows Sharing. Open System Preferences, select Sharing, then select the Services tab. Make sure your computer name is what you want it to appear as. Go down to the list of services and place a check in the box for Windows Sharing. If the text over to the right says Windows Sharing Off, click the Start button. Hit Apple-Q to close System Preferences.

The easiest storage location for your files to be transfered is your Public folder. To get to it, open your hard drive. Click on your home directory -- the one listed with your Mac's login name on the left Finder panel. You will see the Public folder listed here. Put your files here, but don't mess with the Drop Box folder yet.

To access the Mac in Windows, open My Network Places. Click on View Workgroup Computers. You should see your Mac here or within one of the workgroups. If not, click on the Address bar above the network list and type in \\<Mac computer name>, then press enter. It should try to access the Macintosh. It may ask you for login credentials -- just like before on the Mac, fill in the username and password for it. It should take you to a listing of users you have access to, so click on folder with your login name. Now you should see all of your folders in your profile, so open up Public. You should now have access to your files. If you want to place files onto the Mac, put them in the Drop Box folder. You may be able to place them in Public from the Windows machine, but I'm not sure if your permissions are configured correctly to allow that.

If this doesn't work, please post what's going on.

[Mman]

Thanks a whole bunch Lhaddat. I actually managed how to get acces to my window files from apple before you posted that, but I am still having troubles doing the opposite. When I click on my workgroup in windows it says that I dont have permission to access the workgroup.