this 1st part was not working for me.
Before you Begin...
Since Panther, Mac OS X comes with a pretty sophisticated network discovery tool that allows other computers and printers to become accessible with virtually no configuration whatsoever, particularly in an existing home or office environment where shares and printers have already been set up. Before following the rest of this guide, which may be quite technical for the novice, see if it's even necessary.
Remote Computers
In the Finder, click on the Network icon in the upper left of a finder window
Wait a few moments.
You should see Workgroups or Computers begin to appear.
Click on one of these, and it should ask for a username and password.
If successful, the remote computer's share will be visible as a mounted volume
the workgroups folder never appeared.
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however i did do all of this...
System Configuration
It is important that the account you log in with on your XP system has a password set, if it does not you will not be able to login to your Windows share from OS X.
You need to put your Mac in the same workgroup as your Windows PC. To do this open “Directory Access” (Applications > Utilities > Directory Access). Click on the padlock in the bottom left corner to make changes; you will be prompted for your password. If “SMB” is not ticked off, then tick it off. Select “SMB” and hit the “Configure…” button. Now enter the name of your Windows workgroup. In my case the name is “AD”.
Setting up the PC to share files
You need to create and share a folder on your PC that you will then access from your Mac. To do this create a folder (or select and existing one) right click on it from Windows Explorer and select “Properties”. Select the “Sharing” tab and share out the folder. I’d recommend you use a one word name for the share. For example “mac”, not “Apple Mac Share”, it just narrows the risk of complications.
Setting up the Mac to share files
Open “System Preferences” (Applications > System Preferences). Go to “Sharing” under “Internet & Network”, and tick off “Windows Sharing”, and if it doesn’t start by itself, click “Start”. This will share out your entire home folder.
so after that i tried connecting the two comps...
Accessing your PC from your Mac
To mount a Windows share on your Mac, click on your desktop so that Finder is the active application, from the Finder menu go to “Go > Connect to Server”. In the “Server Address” field enter “smb://192.168.1.3/mac”, replacing the IP address with the IP address of your PC, and “mac” with the name of the Windows share you created earlier.
i got the ip address of the pc and had the correct folder name. wouldnt connect. i'm stumped
ps - yes i have a router