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windows can't see mac, even the localhost...

Starhorsepax

Starhorsepax

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 6, 2010
75
4
There are 2 variations on this issue.

The oddest part is the localhost. I didn't install xampp but used what was already on my mac. Notable detail: I can see the mac website (for testing purposes) on the nearest Windows xp. But at work the Windows 7 gives it a time out message. However, I have xampp on that Windows 7 and the mac can see it's temporary website just fine. Firewall or router issue? Any ideas?

The second, not at all odd, is getting the PC to see the mac on the network. I have sporadically gotten it to work on the XP, but it tends to break. This is inconvenient, since I can't afford a file sharing service and free ones like google drive aren't really giving enough space (scan and such can be big). As for the work PC, I've never gotten that to work at all.

The Mac can usually get in through the 'go to server' on finder, but it would be nice if it was a 2 way street.

Also of note: The work PC is using Windows Home Premium, (which had some ridiculous limitations compared to actual business version.) I believe it may have started live as an actual 'home' computer.
 
jared_kipe

jared_kipe

macrumors 68030
Dec 8, 2003
2,967
1
Seattle
This question is incredibly hard to understand or pinpoint.

That said, I'm almost certain that this is basically a lacking understanding on how TCP/IP networks work (specifically HTTP).

To communicate several layers of name resolution need to take place.

#1. If you're trying to use 'http://somedomain.com/', 'http://somedomain.local' or even 'http://localhost/' to connect to another computer, a process of domain name resolution needs to take place (DNS). In the case of localhost, this occurs transparently, and usually resolves to 127.0.0.1 This is a special IP address, and cannot be typed into the bar of some other computer to bring up the page.

In the case of 'somedomain.local' this usually occurs through Bonjour or mDNS (on port 5353) and cannot be relied upon (especially with Mac -> Windows). You can either hardcode in 'somedomain.local' into your local DNS files or server if you wish to use it though.

The same is basically true for 'somedomain.com' with the notable exception that it usually takes place on some non-local DNS server, but can certainly be hardcoded/overridden locally.

All of this basically means that eventually your computer should come away with an actual IP address from the name. That brings us to #2.

#2. if you're trying 'http://192.168.1.100' or something like it, and not able to connect. Either that IP address does not exist. Port 80 (HTTP) is not open. Whatever HTTP server is not listening to your specific IP address. Or more likely, there is no route to that host which brings up number 3

#3 The IP address needs to resolve to a hardware address or MAC address to communicate. Usually you can open up terminal and type in 'ping 192.168.1.100' (your ip address of course) and see the pings coming through. You may see 'no route to host' show up. This would happen if effectively no computer on your network is responding on that IP address. This could also happen because the computer you are tying to get to is in a different network ,or subnet, and no routers have been configured to route traffic between those subnets.
 
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