Networking woes...

[stephanie]

I have a question, hence why I am here.

I have got my new Mac to network to my WinXP machine and pull files from its hard drive (XP), but I have not been able to send any files from my Mac over to my XP machine. it keeps saying I have insufficient rights to do that action.

Has anyone encountered this as well and could give me some ways to overcome this?

Also, is networking Mac to Linux machines difficult?

[Rower_CPU]

Have you checked to make sure that you have write permissions for the XP machine?

Just because you can connect to it doesn't mean you can put files wherever you want.

[big]

Microsoft

[peterjhill]

Rower_CPU is probably correct.

Things to check:

Are all the devices on the same physical network? Are they all connected to the same hub or switch, or wireless access point?

Are all the devices using the same subnet for their network configuration? If you are using one DHCP server somewhere, such as an airport base station or a dsl/cable router, it is likely.

Try pinging all the devices from every device you are trying to communicate with.

So if all that works, it is not a network problem, it is an OS issue.

Whatever you do, do not use file shares without passwords. You would be just asking for trouble. You will need to have accounts on all the machines and have that account have read/write/change permissions on the folder you are sharing.

To access the Mac remotely, you can use the administrator username and password.

On the windows machine, right click on your shared folder and check the permissions. XP might have changed that, in which case, use the help feature, you might get lucky (google might make you luckier).

With linux, your best bet would be to install samba and use that to access to and from the macs and pcs. You could use netatalk to run appletalk on it, but why, don't do it. You could use nfs, but it is a pain. Personally, I use secure copy (scp). It is like ftp but uses ssh to encypt the session. Its syntax is like this:

scp username@hostnameorip:/full/path/to/file /local/file/path

or to copy from your local machine to a remote machine

scp /local/file/path username@hostnameorip:/full/path/on/remote/server/to/file

Is any of this helpful? Do you have anymore questions? please let us know.

[stephanie]

peterjhill,

Just so we are on the same page... all I need is simple networking and file share capabilties. These 3 PC's are all ont he same network hidden behind a firewall that connects them to the high speed internet. Security is not an issue, as these computers are mine.

Now I am going to need alittle help with XP. 2K was easy to establish permissions... ie. right click to properties and select security. XP however does not seem to have this feature, so I do not know how to change permissions through the properties menu.

Anyone got an idea?

[szark]

I've never used XP, but here is a Microsoft article (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/itpro/managing/filesharing.asp) which seems to cover it.

It seems to indicate the Security tab which you say isn't there, but maybe I'm not understanding you correctly.

Also note there is a Permissions button on the Sharing tab.



As for Linux, I don't think nfs would be that much of a pain, but using Samba would allow both your PC and Mac to connect to the Linux box.

[stephanie]

OK, I think the help on this can stop. It would seem as though I am missing the security tab on my properties dialog box.

I am not sure how, but this is just one more reason I have Linux and a Mac.

[vincentmeanie]

sounds like you have XP home edition.

ouch

[stephanie]

Nope, it is Xp Pro.

But now I can copy and paste stuff back and forth, and I made no other changes.

I will just rack this up to a windoze thing. I forgot that logic just goes out when running Redmond software.

I so need to delete it. Maybe a project I could do this weekend? Hmmmm.

[szark]

Actually, if you aren't using an NTFS filesystem, you wouldn't have the security tab for those files/folders.

Or, as you said, it's probably just a Redmond issue... :D

[peterjhill]

ahh, yes, i had this same issue.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;307874

here is where your answer may lie

[szark]

Hmmm...Microsoft Simplified Sharing.

Isn't that an oxymoron? :D

Seriously, that's an interesting tip that I'll have to remember for all of my PC friends.