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Unable to connect iMac to PC on wireless network

D

daddy

macrumors member
Original poster
I mistakenly posted this on another thread so I will try here.
I am trying to connect my new iMac (Leopard OS) to a PC running Windows XP Home Edition using the wireless router.
I have the PC connected to the internet via modem/router (supplied by Aliant, the SpeedStream 6520).
I have been able to "get on" the internet with iMac using the wireless router.

However, I can't get the PC and iMac to connect together over the wireless router inorder to share files etc.

On the PC side:
1) I disabled the Windows firewall
2) have set up and named a sharing folder
3) have set up a "work group" name
4) believe I have the correct user name and password
5) not sure about the "network" name, (?SSID) information.
6) have a # with several periods in it that I don't know if this is the computer ID, IP address, or one of the above items, or if they are all one and the same.

On the iMac side:
1) have the IP address of the iMac
2) I have tried "connect to server" but am unable
3) I have never been able to see a "shared" section on the left side of the finder screen.

I have read the thread by "edesignuk". However I did not "put your mac in the same workgroup as your windows PC" as I couldn't find the correct screens on the iMac, and also in phone discussion with Apple help they said they had never done that and advised against it!

I know this can be done but I am confused and frustrated now. So any help would be apprecitated.
 
Thanks for the references, however basically I am getting nowhere fast!! The problems are so many I am chasing my tail and going crazy. I have asked Aliant (the phone company that supplied the modem/router) if there is anything about Speedstream 6520 that would prevent a wireless connection between the PC and iMac and they say "nothing about the modem/router would prevent this".
I have been in touch with many people at Apple and today the "product specialist" says the Mac is set up properly.
So I guess the problem is with the PC setup and will try to work on that end now. If there is any other help that you can suggest I would appreciate it.
Thanks, for any help.
 
Do you know the IP number of your PC? If so, click on the desktop and press cmd+k then type the IP into the box that comes up. It's not optimal, but it works for me. (That's the internal IP of the PC I'm talking about, btw. Should only be a digit or so different to the iMac one.)
 
I finally was able to do it!! Interestingly it signs me on as a "guest", so I will have a little more work to do. However, I can share folders from the PC and also figured out the "Unix executable file" problem. So, many thanks for all the help.

Now any suggestions about how to do the following:
1)I need to set up the same workgroup (name) on the mac as on the PC

2)iChat appears to have stopped working. I see it on the doc but clicking on it does nothing. What am I missing?
 
What was your solution?

I am having a similar problem after upgrading my PC from winXP to Vista...suddenly I can't see my PC anymore from my Mac. So I'm curious to know if your solution was mapping to the IP address of your PC from your Mac, or if you found some other solution. I used ipconfig on my PC to discover the IP addressed assigned to it by my wireless router, and then I attempted to get to it from my Mac...no go!😕
 
I found that I was unable to use the IP address of my Windows machine. I had to use the computer name:

"smb://computername/sharename"

Lets say you had shared out a folder and named the share "Videos". Your computer is named "MYPC".

smb://MYPC/Videos

If your not sure about what the share name is then just Google that. Pretty easy to find. To view all the available shares on the Windows PC (at least in Vista) go to Network, then double click your local computer and you will see all the shares.

I think XP was My Network places or something like that.
 
I've done this before by turning on file sharing on the mac and then selecting "new network" or something like that on xp and entering the mac's address.
 
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