Still trying to make the Switch: Network question!

[inkster218]

Hey all,

If I bought a Mac laptop and had a PC laptop and wanted to network them together, could I use my Linksys router and exchange files back and forth?

Curt

[gekko513]

Yes. Very easily.

[ChrisFromCanada]

Yes

[edesignuk]

GUIDE: Networking Windows with OS X. (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=54704)

[Nspace]

In addition, a great feature I found out about yesturday (I learn new things every day here :) ) is that you can share your itunes library over the network. So you can log onto the Apple and stream your PC's music library over the network. I tried it last night and it worked great without any flaws.

[dejaentendu]

Okay, then here's another question for you guys. I'm about to switch too and was reading about Virtual PC yesterday a bit and one of the features listed was that it allows your Mac to work with PC networks. How is that a feature if it's supposed to already work anyway?

[gekko513]

Okay, then here's another question for you guys. I'm about to switch too and was reading about Virtual PC yesterday a bit and one of the features listed was that it allows your Mac to work with PC networks. How is that a feature if it's supposed to already work anyway?
That's a good question.

One small benefit I can see with Virtual PC for networking is that you can use the same step-by-step procedure on both computers to make it work. As opposed to doing two different procedures to make a Mac to PC network work.

Also, I guess some advanced Windows only networking features are only possible between two Windows computers. (Spreading a Windows virus for instance :p )

[crazzyeddie]

Some networks block out access from anything but a Windows PC, or a specific version of Windows (2000, XP, etc...). Some networks also use weird specialized encryption/authentication protocols that don't exists on Mac. However, these are the exception, not the rule.