Title: Cannot Connect From Either End - OS X (10.3.9) and XP Pro (SP2)

[goofyfish]

I am trying to start file sharing between the two systems on a home network, but get some odd results. The mac has File Sharing and Window Sharing turned on. Both machines have identical logins: "rick" and passwords: "xyz123", and the mac's Server Message Block has been set to the same workgroup as the windows machine. The shared directory on the windows machine, eight characters, is called "MacShare". Simple File Sharing is disabled on the windows machine.

The windows machine shows up under the network, but when I hit "connect" I receive the following message:
-- The alias "OFFICE" could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found. --

On the windows machine, the mac shows up under View Workgroup Computers and I get a window to enter my login name and password. When I enter it, however, the login window refreshes and shows the login name changed from "rick" to "OFFICE/rick" and I cannot connect.

I tried enabling the guest account (totally undesiresble, but...) and that did not change the symptom. Permissions have been rebuilt, nothing odd in the console log. I have no third-party firewall, and disabling XP's firewall made no difference.

I have seen many references to this problem on various foums without hitting on a solution.

Rick

 

[PCMacUser]

On the windows machine, the mac shows up under View Workgroup Computers and I get a window to enter my login name and password. When I enter it, however, the login window refreshes and shows the login name changed from "rick" to "OFFICE/rick" and I cannot connect.

I tried enabling the guest account (totally undesiresble, but...) and that did not change the symptom. Permissions have been rebuilt, nothing odd in the console log. I have no third-party firewall, and disabling XP's firewall made no difference.

I have seen many references to this problem on various foums without hitting on a solution.

Rick

I don't know as much about OS X networking as I do about Windows networking, but haven't had any troubles connecting my PC to my Apple. The main thing to remember to do is to enable your account to be logged onto by a Windows computer. I'm not sure where the setting is on 10.3.9, but on 10.4 it's in System Preferences>Sharing> then you highlight Windows Sharing, and an 'Accounts' button becomes available, with which you can specify which local accounts can be used by a remote Windows machine to log on. It then shows the remote username, eg. \\192.168.0.3\rick

Sorry if this is no use at all...